bedroom on a Formula One racing game at
a crucial point in the race when my
father told me to stop stop stop now
stop at this crucial point I decided to
reason with him to explain to him the
significance of where I was in the game
to explain to him how important it was
that I could finish what I’d started to
explain that pausing the game would risk
overheating the console and that would
be a danger that wouldn’t be able to get
back in the zone when I resumed at least
that’s what I wish I’d done instead I
decided to try out a new phrase a phrase
I’d heard from some of the older kids at
school some of the cooler kids a
two-word phrase that they expressed my
dissatisfaction with what it was that he
was suggesting that clearly described
the fact that I did not agree with what
he said I didn’t realize I didn’t quite
understand the emotional impact of those
two words that I was about to utter not
until I said them at least
and then the shouting started something
about getting out of the room and going
to my room immediately something about
how I would never use that kind of
language again perhaps words like
grounded were bandied about my father is
a calm rational fair reasonable man but
I was terrified it was something about
his reaction that was so shocking so
surprising I learned then that what I
had done was wrong I learned that it was
not ok and it was not good I like to
swear to you I never said the F word to
my father again I wonder how you learnt
it not that word not any words but I
wonder how
you learnt what was right and what was
wrong I wonder how you came to
understand what was good and what was
not maybe you can remember moments like
that one snapshots in time maybe you got
caught speeding
maybe you got told off by a teacher when
you were a student or recently maybe you
did something that you deeply regret
maybe you can’t pick out specific
moments and actually this stuff doesn’t
develop in an instant does it it
develops over time it is not a
collection of snapshots but how do we
develop moral reasoning how do we come
to understand what is right and what is
wrong
and what happens if we don’t I have a
confession to make today I am NOT
primarily an educator I am NOT a teacher
or a lecturer education is not my
primary vocation I’m a psychiatrist
that’s right I have one of those jobs
that makes people look at you a bit
funny but it’s okay don’t worry because
I am analyzing you I work in forensic
neurodevelopmental psychiatry which I
think sounds really exciting I think it
sounds like I run around chasing and
analyzing criminals and helping to catch
them does anyone remember waking the
dead it was a TV show it’s on Netflix of
summer but that’s not what I do
I work in an inpatient secure unit for
people with learning disabilities
autistic spectrum conditions or both and
most of our patients have had some
involvement with the criminal justice
system many of them are in our care
instead of being in prison so I’m
fascinated by this question of how we
develop moral reasoning how moral
decision-making develops in our lives
because what’s striking is that the
people that I work with are not bad
people they are war
friendly fun and yet they have done
things that are shockingly wrong in the
four and a half years that I’ve been
working in this area I have worked with
with people who when you spend time with
them are absolutely fine but under
stress or pressure have done things that
the rest of society would consider
completely unacceptable where does that
come from what happens I’ve also seen
though that when we intentionally teach
moral reasoning to the people that we
work with the effect the impact is
significant people go from having a pro
criminal antisocial attitude to having a
pro-social positive view of themselves
and the world and I wonder if we’re
leaving it too late if we wait until
people come into forensic services
before we teach them this stuff should
we teach moral reasoning sooner should
we teach it more widely it’s to answer
that question I want to look a little
bit where our understanding of morality
comes from there are many models that
might help us to do this but probably
one of the most well-known and most
established the foundational one for
this whole area was developed by a
person called Kohlberg who who put out
six stages of moral development who
explained that as we age as we go
through maturity we go from a moral
understanding that is very much based on
meeting our own needs to an
understanding of morality based in the
social consensus and then one stage
particularly is significant as we go
from stage 2 to stage 3 as we go from
stay a stage which is defined by a
what’s in it for me approach to a stage
that is more about the golden rule of
treating others as you would want to be
treated yourself but what’s interesting
is that progress does not always happen
and there are many reasons why it may
not occur for for some people it may be
that it doesn’t occur because of an
intellectual disability or problems with
perspective-taking or a Mis
understanding of social cues for others
it’s because the environment that they
grow up Hindu not provide the
circumstances for ongoing moral
development and and the Kohlberg himself
talked about the fact that the more
sociable the environment the faster we
develop morally others like John C Gibbs
have talked about the fact that if
people grow up in a in an environment
where there is neglect or abuse they are
primed to develop antisocial attitudes
they’re actually the circumstances that
we grow up in have a key role in our
moral development we’ve seen that in my
own life how with the nurturing support
of my parents and their gentle guidance
when I went astray
I learned moral reasoning imagine if you
don’t have that input actually you
probably don’t have to imagine it you’ve
probably seen it you’ve probably seen it
in some of your students you’ve probably
rubbed shoulders with people who have
not had that background and that nurture
and developed I was talking to one of my
colleagues recently very recently about
how about one of our patients and about
how the pattern of abuse and neglect
that he suffered in his early life so
clearly shaped the offending behavior
that occurred later on so what we’ve
done where we work is that we run a
course that intentionally teachers moral
reasoning that doesn’t expect people to
catch it just by default but by design
we have a course that helps people to
catch it and to understand it that
provides the environment in which they
can learn it it’s a course called a quip
that runs in a twelve reprogramme four
days a week for about an hour a day and
it covers things like social skills like
moral judgment anger management all in
the context of mutual support and
encouragement that addresses some of the
key key problems that lead to antisocial
behavior it covers things like thinking
errors mistakes in the way that we
perceive ourselves or the world things
like thinking the worst which is when we
assume the worst possible outcome of
people or situations or blaming others
which is when we ascribe our negative
attitudes of them as things that we do
and we
say that they are someone else’s
responsibility or they are someone
else’s fault it also teaches things like
coping skills about the way to deal with
stressful situations about not becoming
the clown in the ring then there is a
picture here of someone taunting us like
a clown in a ring and we have a decision
as to whether we step into the ring with
them and become a clown ourselves or cut
the strings and step away because you
can hear there is a common language that
develops a language that endures through
people’s progress and I’ve seen the
impact as we’ve taught this I’ve seen
what happens as people have taken these
principals on board how they have moved
very quickly from the disordered
environment in our admissions wards on
into a rehab context and out into the
community I’ve seen how the lights of
come on as people have discovered a
different way of living I’ve seen people
for whom even in even in the midst of a
very severe relapse of their mental
illness have held on to these principles
I’ve seen how they have prevented much
harm in people’s lives but I wonder I
wonder about our approach if we only
teach it in forensic services I wonder
if we’re missing the boat I wonder what
would happen if we taught it earlier
because what we do is reactive it is
treatment could we take a prophylactic
approach could we be proactive could we
teach this stuff in schools or
everywhere else could we make it so that
a child regardless of their upbringing
regardless of whether they’re in an
environment where they but they they
catch this stuff will experience it for
certain but if it isn’t at home that
they will experience it at school can we
help those who have who have missed out
to catch up can we intentionally teach
it not just to say that I’ll well the
environment of our school is such that
they are going to pick up on it because
if they’re already heading in an
anti-social direction they’re not going
to engage with the environment of the
school what if we taught this stuff by
design what if we taught it by intention
what if we found a way to teach
a different way of living a different
way of thinking a different way to view
the world now I’m not naive I know that
we’ve heard about a lot of ideas today
hundreds of ideas
hundreds of brilliant ideas and many of
them are going to be much easier to
implement than this but the impact if we
could do it would be so significant how
could it be possible in your context is
there a way that you could teach moral
reasoning in your school or your
organization maybe it’s something that
can happen in form time maybe it could
be a set block maybe you could just take
some of the difficult disengaged
students and run a program like the one
we use with them maybe you want to try
it out with your staff team maybe there
are as an organization that you work in
that’s not in mainstream education but
where you could help people to move
forward in this area I know that it
would take a lot of energy and effort I
know that it would like a lot of thought
I know that exams are looming and we’ve
heard this afternoon about all the
different boxes that need to be ticked
but it strikes me that if we could do
this along with teaching certain
subjects that moral reasoning would set
each and every one of our students up to
win in life if we could teach moral
reasoning by design not by default if we
no longer left it to chance and
circumstance whether or not kids picked
up this stuff what difference could we
make in our world
I believe that moral reasoning is too
important to be left to chance and
circumstance I’ve seen the worst case
scenarios of the times when it goes
wrong and I believe that if we could
find a way to intentionally teach this
stuff in our context we would see
happier students more successful schools
a safer society and best case scenario
we can make our world
a better place thanks very much
[Applause] [Music]