Michael Nill PhD

How did I come to write this new book on moral education, Nurturing Decent Human Beings? First off was my education in Classics. I will admit to falling in love with Greek literature.

It started in the Iliad, with those ferocious epic heroes seeking the only kind of immortality open to them: recognition and fame for their bravery and leadership that will live on after they die, and their implacable hate when they did not get the recognition they deserved. Centuries later a Greek tragedy portrays one such unfairly dishonored hero abandoning his hatred and rejoining society in recognition that the only immortality open to human beings is participating in the holiness, nobility, or moral goodness that outlives our individual lives.

From there I gravitated to the study of Greek philosophy, which focused on the moral domain and what constitutes the worthwhile life. Perfect preparation for being an educator: teachers strive to help students be the best they can be.

I came to think more systematically about the role of moral education in schools as I became an administrator and eventually the head of a school where there was a consistent, purposeful commitment on the part of the school community as a whole to ensure that values be woven into the fabric of the institution.

I then understood just how powerful moral education could be. Upon further research and reflection after retirement, I came to see why this kind of education should be part of the life of every school. Hence this book. My other publication, Morality and Self-Interest in Protagoras, Antiphon, and Democritus, is an academic monograph based on my dissertation for a PhD in Classics and Philosophy.