A Moral Assignment

Human beings learn through imitation. Children learn to talk by mimicking their
parents and others around them. They learn to sing by reproducing pitches they
hear in music class or on the radio. They learn to think by observing how an older
and wiser person draws conclusions from difficult mental puzzles. In all walks of
life and in every career imitation is the gateway to mastery and, paradoxically, to
independence. The most successful professionals can attribute much of their
capacity in their jobs to "mentoring" by one or more teachers, trainers, or
supervisors. The same is true of sports and the performing arts. Inner-city boys
who play basketball for hours on end dream of being "like Mike." They copy his
dunks, his lay-ups, his jump-shots. But did not Mike grow up imitating the likes of
Dr. J? Similarly, the seven-time grammy nominee India Arie closely followed
Stevie Wonder and Aretha Franklin in her youth. Jackie Chan owes much of his
technique to a careful study of Bruce Lee. The question is whether imitation can
be applied to the realm of morals. For not all of us can be famous performers. Yet
each of us must perform morally from day to day in order to live responsibly in
society.
Perhaps the most successful and popular moralist in our history is Benjamin
Franklin. Many of the phrases he collected in his Poor Richards Almanac are still
with us. "A penny saved is a penny earned." "Early to bed, early to rise, makes a
man healthy, wealthy and wise." Franklin did not just preach morality to others.
He lived according to a strict moral code. In his Autobiography, written so that
others might imitate the means he employed to gain affluence, reputation, and
happiness, Franklin outlined his moral regime. Franklin did not just try to become
"a better person," as the phrase goes today. Rather, he tells us,
It was about this time [Franklin was in his mid-twenties] I conceivd the bold and
arduous project of arriving at moral perfection. I wishd to live without
committing any fault at any time; I would conquer all that either natural
inclination, custom, or company might lead me into. As I knew, or thought I
knew, what was right and wrong, I did not see why I might not always do the one
and avoid the other.
To arrive at moral perfection, Franklin created from his vast reading a list of
thirteen virtues: temperance, silence, order, resolution, frugality, industry,
sincerity, justice, moderation, cleanliness, tranquility, chastity, and humility. He
then created a chart on which he would mark his violations of these virtues on a
daily basis. Franklin figured that the nightly recollection of his faults would
enable him to amend them in the future. Further, he would especially
concentrate on one virtue per week in an attempt to master it completely. At the
end of thirteen weeks, he should have become pretty close to perfect.

Franklins example has led me to develop a similar moral assignment for

students. After discussing this part of the Autobiography in class, I have students
create their own table of virtues. They should choose no fewer than four distinct
virtues. They can draw from Franklins list, or from the classical virtues
(prudence, courage, temperance, justice), Bill Bennetts Book of Virtues, or the
Bible. Then they should define them in their own words and illustrate how those
virtues might be manifested. Adolescents may have few chances to display the
courage that we equate with military heroism, for instance, but might show
courage in resisting peer pressure.
Once students have created a table of virtues and defined them, they should
begin monitoring their behavior. Every evening the student should fill out a chart
that tracks his observance of the virtues by the day. It is not enough to mark the
chart. Rather, the chart should be annotated with numbers and letters. The
numbers could indicate faults; letters might show good deeds. On a separate
sheet of paper the student should explain in a phrase or two what was done in
violation or in support of each virtue. Thus, at the end of a few weeks of this
exercise, the student will be able to see the number of faults committed and the
number of good deeds performed. It was Aristotle who said that we become
virtuous by practicing the virtues. Franklin offers an excellent example of how we
might undertake the important self-evaluation that must attend moral practice.