Bok Speech

President Bok yesterday addressed a group of approximately 1000 educators at a national conference in Boston on the problems involved in teaching ethics-oriented courses in an increasingly less morality-conscious society.

In a speech before the annual meeting of the National Association of Independent Schools at the Sheraton Boston Hotel, Bok said, "We have a clear responsibility as educators to capitalize on the awareness of our students and contribute in any way we can to their moral development."

Bok said the ability of educational and community groups to set moral standards for youth is diminishing. He also cited statistics indicating a fall in public confidence in doctors, lawyers and elected officials.

Yet problem-oriented courses in ethics given at universities in the last century have not met with great popularity, Bok noted, due in part to their traditional lecture format and to the insufficiently developed social consciences of some of their professors.

"We will have to find ways of meeting this need by ... creating sustained, interdisciplinary programs for younger persons seeking careers of teaching and-scholarship in this field," Bok said.

Bok concluded that ethics courses in the future should give students a conceptual framework of ethics that will allow them to better recognize moral problems when they arise in personal and professional situations.