Developing Character and Moral Concepts

These are quotes from class this week:
(1)  But I don't want to get my video games taken away for a week!
(2)  You're going to get in trouble!
(3)  Is this good enough?

I once read that we need to have heroes, regardless of our age.  Two of my heroes are teachers Rafe Esquith and Ron Clark.  Rafe is a fifth grade teacher in Los Angeles, and he is the author of three books on his experiences with education.

I wanted to bring this up so you can understand my philosophy and underlying mindset throughout the school year in the context of working with your child.  The video I'm posting is a short clip of Rafe talking about the theory of moral development.  While it isn't completely reasonable to expect every fourth grader to get to "Stage 6" by the end of the year, I  continue my aspirations of getting students to realize this within their lifetimes.  Here's the video:

To summarize:
Level 1: [I don't want to get in trouble]
Level 2: [I want to get a reward]
Level 3: [I want to please other people]
Level 4: [I follow the rules]

Level 5: [I am considerate of others]
Level 6: [It's my moral code...That's just how I am]

This has spun around in my head for several years, and I am convinced that if we all strive towards level six, we can be more focused on working together and reaching our goals.