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WE'VE got to teach morality by 'immersion'
It's not enough just to avoid immoral habits
WE'VE got to have people, things, and activities
that encourage morality
Entertainment, sports and social gatherings
are natural parts of human life
WE'VE got to use them as ways to teach
ethical and virtuous lifestyles
WE'VE got to teach it 'for good'
'For good' is an expression that means 'permanently'. Even though people may go to seminars or workshops with good intentions, often, they don't retain what they learned or they can't apply it to their lives. How can we create a system of morality education that helps people make permanent changes? Consider "immersion education." Immersion is a term used in language education, and it means that everything is taught and spoken in the language to be learned, so that language is the only one the student can hear or say. It works because it creates a social environment where the new language becomes necessary for the student to communicate.
Immersion can be an effective way to teach sexual ethics and virtues, but it would require the entire social environment of the learners to be sexually moral. These days, that would be a very difficult task. However, it would be a necessary and worthwhile effort. Often, people have moral beliefs but do immoral actions. They usually follow the influences of their social environment instead of their own consciences. Most people already know what is right and wrong. What they don't know is how to overcome real temptations of physical lust, emotions of romantic love, and social pressures from sexually immoral peers. The conscience says one thing and the body does another. Therefore, the emphasis of morality education should be on practicing what to say and how to act in those situations. With immersion, the social environment can encourage people to make the right choices, and they can begin to form good habits.
The key focal point should be heart. The heart, or emotion of love, is the most powerful force in human life. People follow social influences because they are seeking to be loved and accepted. The thought of being rejected or excluded causes feelings of fear and humiliation. When people don't do what is right, according to their consciences or beliefs, it is because their hearts are focused on the wrong emotions or the wrong social group. Altruism is sacrificing oneself for the sake of others. It is the ideal way for people to live in harmony, as opposed to being self-centered. However, altruism can be misdirected. For example, the loyalty of gang members to a gang is altruistic, but it would result in them doing immoral acts that the individual members might never do on their own. There is a natural tendency to sacrifice one's own identity in order to take on the identity of the group. This is because of the desire for love and acceptance.
Any social group establishes a unique identity by the things they do, what they wear, places they go, or how they talk. For example, wearing a silver ring became popular with abstinence education groups simply because it helped make the group identity special. Immersion education would create a sexually moral group identity. Then, individuals could develop altruism to the group. That would help them sacrifice the immorality that was part of their self-identities. For example, they could begin to sacrifice their personal habits, lifestyles, and ways of thinking that do not fit into the group identity. Then, the experience of gaining love and acceptance from a sexually moral group would help them make the right choices in other social situations.
Within immersion education, participants should learn about ideals of heart. In an individualistic society where everyone is competing to make the most money, young people are unlikely to develop altruistic ideals, such as sacrificing themselves for the sake of the world, their nation, or their family. Thus, they need a frame of reference; that is, something to base their choices on. They can begin to learn by comparing what kind of heart is better; for example, the loyalty for moral siblings can be compared to the loyalty for immoral classmates. Emphasis should be on choosing the ideals of heart that will develop human spirituality for the benefit of the world and the future. If there is no understanding of the eternal, spiritual part of human life, it is impossible to define what ideals of love are. So, religious education may be included, and it can be adapted to different faiths, according to the preferences of the educators and participants.
Immersion education should offer a vision of humanity as people who can love one another as brothers and sisters. All the suffering of humanity can be solved with moral and altruistic love. The ethics and virtues that humanity needs are best learned from a young age, through experiencing parental, fraternal, and filial love in a family. However, since so many families are broken or dysfunctional, they fail to teach ideals of love. So, immersion education needs to offer a social group that is like a 'surrogate' family. The core structure of a family and the wellspring of ideal love is the eternal conjugal love of a husband and wife. It is the connecting point that makes parental, fraternal, and filial love possible. Therefore, couples who have strong, faithful marriages should be educators. They should share about the beauty and joy that is possible when all of one's sexual energy and experience is devoted in genuine love. And, they should teach that exclusive sexuality is critically important to developing a depth of love that will bring two people into oneness that will last for eternity.
If possible, it would also be helpful to form a 'surrogate' community. Natural immersion, in any culture, can be observed in a closely knit community, extended family group, or tribe where the young generation grows up surrounded by people who live and teach the same values. Nowadays, it is difficult to find such cultures. The important point is that the majority of time and social contact of participants would be among people with exemplary moral lifestyles. People tend to copy the behavior those who are popular, famous or celebrities. It gives them some feeling that others will approve because they are acting like someone who is important, impressive, or exciting. Therefore, it is essential that the focus is on those who are morality mentors, while avoiding the influence of others, including through the media, such as TV, the internet, and music.
Immersion education should include a re-orientation about what should be 'applauded' by others. Most 'camp' experiences of young people include skits and songs emulating popular entertainers; this only encourages sexually suggestive behavior. Counseling and talk groups should help them distinguish between popularity based on money and fame or popularity based on sexually provocative song and dance. Reality training, or experience based group activities, can help them determine whether the performer is really the excitement, or the social setting is the excitement. For example, to young people, jumping up and down and screaming with their friends might be what makes a concert exciting; if they are alone at a concert, it is not so much fun. They should learn to make choices about entertainment so they can have just as much fun singing and dancing to songs that aren't about sexual love.
Immersion education should teach new ways to have fun, and new associations between the performing arts and fun activities. Song and dance that does not express sexual immorality or lustful emotions can be enjoyed at the same time that peer groups do something exciting together where they can express themselves and laugh. For example, classical music is great, but being in a stoic, silent audience is no fun; try playing classical music during a fun group activity or game, like a rope-walking competition where they make extra points for movements that are in time with the music. These kinds of activities can also teach new ways to have fun without drinking alcohol, smoking or drugs. They should learn to relax and laugh together naturally, without depending on substances that affect their state of mind.
Above all else, immersion education should help people make sexual altruism their new priority in life, so they can sacrifice their self-centered habits for the sake of creating a moral family, community, culture, and world - creating 'peace on earth, as it is in heaven'.
