Can virtue be taught?

This question requires an answer and I am doing this for a project for my Christian homeschool community. So please answer first with a yes or a no, define what you mean by virtue, and then explain your answer! I have asked multiple Christians other questions such as-

- What is virtue?

-What is good citizenship?

Those are past questions and discussions. I thought I would provide explanations. If you need more info to answer, don't hesitate to let me know that you need more details in the replies! I've been asking people I know that I don't normally talk to because they live far away or something, that way I can use it to call them and catch up and we can converse about different matters. But now, it's been nearly 11 weeks of this and it's getting increasingly difficult to think of people to ask. So now I'm asking on this Christian forum; I would appreciate answers!

Pro_22:6 Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it.

Can virtue be taught? Absolutely. That's Bible. Children are like sponges; they are going to soak up something. If you - as their parent or teacher - are not teaching them TRUTH and VIRTUE (character) then they are going to soak up the world's truths and the world's image and the result will be ugly. Notice that the above verse does NOT say a child will never stray, only that you will give them a strong foundation that they will return to when they have considered life for themselves. The above is also a general principle, not a 100% blanket statement. Some children will stray and might not return to the path of virtue when they are grown. Parents still are responsible for teaching them.

What is virtue? (Summarized in the above verse as "the way he should go") I will give examples rather than a simple definition.

Gal 5:22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith,
Gal 5:23 Meekness, temperance: against such there is no law.
Gal 5:24 And they that are Christ's have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts.

Pro 31:10 Who can find a virtuous woman? for her price is far above rubies.
Pro 31:11 The heart of her husband doth safely trust in her, so that he shall have no need of spoil.
Pro 31:12 She will do him good and not evil all the days of her life.
Pro 31:13 She seeketh wool, and flax, and worketh willingly with her hands.
Pro 31:14 She is like the merchants' ships; she bringeth her food from afar.
Pro 31:15 She riseth also while it is yet night, and giveth meat to her household, and a portion to her maidens.
Pro 31:16 She considereth a field, and buyeth it: with the fruit of her hands she planteth a vineyard.
Pro 31:17 She girdeth her loins with strength, and strengtheneth her arms.
Pro 31:18 She perceiveth that her merchandise is good: her candle goeth not out by night.
Pro 31:19 She layeth her hands to the spindle, and her hands hold the distaff.
Pro 31:20 She stretcheth out her hand to the poor; yea, she reacheth forth her hands to the needy.
Pro 31:21 She is not afraid of the snow for her household: for all her household are clothed with scarlet.
Pro 31:22 She maketh herself coverings of tapestry; her clothing is silk and purple.
Pro 31:23 Her husband is known in the gates, when he sitteth among the elders of the land.
Pro 31:24 She maketh fine linen, and selleth it; and delivereth girdles unto the merchant.
Pro 31:25 Strength and honour are her clothing; and she shall rejoice in time to come.
Pro 31:26 She openeth her mouth with wisdom; and in her tongue is the law of kindness.
Pro 31:27 She looketh well to the ways of her household, and eateth not the bread of idleness.
Pro 31:28 Her children arise up, and call her blessed; her husband also, and he praiseth her.
Pro 31:29 Many daughters have done virtuously, but thou excellest them all.
Pro 31:30 Favour is deceitful, and beauty is vain: but a woman that feareth the LORD, she shall be praised.
Pro 31:31 Give her of the fruit of her hands; and let her own works praise her in the gates.

What is good citizenship?

Living peaceably as much as possible - Romans 12
Love thy neighbor as thyself
Do justly, love mercy
Be subject to the higher power (governmental authority) insomuch as conscience allows

Proverbs 1:8-9; Proverbs 22:6

Hi and welcome to CC...

I'm willing to provide a response to your questions, but I think it appropriate that, because you are doing the asking, that you define "virtue". What you have in mind may be different than what I have in mind, and I would be wasting my time if my concept is fundamentally different than yours.

Thank you so much! I really appreciate all this! I love the saying about sponges, that's very true. I also like how honest you were about the fact that the responsibility lies on both the child and the parent/adult. I feel like there's a lot of pressure on us young people, and there's a lot of pressure on all parents to be the right parents or to be perfect. Thank you for using so much scripture to define and explain your answer! And I really like the fact that you also replied to the "what is good citizenship" matter. I really like the way you phrased the last part about being subject to the higher power.

Thank you for your kind welcome! Of course! To me virtue is- following the government as far as we morally and Biblically can, doing good deeds, doing the right thing, being kind, studying and working hard, but also being balanced and allowing ourselves to breathe. I'm not 100% sure how to define virtue. I would encourage you to look up definitions of virtue and to help me balance out- I have never been able to fully settle on definitions of terms and such so I am very conflicted about this.

Thank you very much! I like the second scripture.

Without resorting to a dictionary, I would define 'virtue' in these ways:

- any quality of a person or thing deemed good or desirable for some purpose;
- a closely-held personal value;
- moral correctness in one's actions, by some moral standard, or adherence to commonly-held mores within some social group;
- any belief consistent with moral correctness or social propriety;
- sexual purity (virginity), especially as a metaphor or euphemism.

Hopefully that is helpful.

Welcome!

I am sure that you will receive several responses to your question. Glad to have you as part of our community. Welcome to CC.

Yes thank you! I appreciate all those values!

Thank you so much Magenta! I greatly appreciate that! And you're a good poet, I viewed your poem! I write poetry too I've just never really shared it.

Thank you tourist, that was kind of you to welcome me!

Thank you, Lily, and you are welcome! Thank you also for checking out my poetry It has been a long time since I wrote anything... well, most of my poems came out of extreme, life-crushing anguish, so thank God I am not living in that kind of pain any more. It was like digging for gold, though the treasure I found was the heart at the center of it all: mine! A lot of it was written following the dissolution of my marriage, at the beginning stages of my seriously seek capital "T" truth.

Have you written very much? Are you happy with what you have penned so far? Writing is such an interesting process. I tore the language apart and put it back together again with a dictionary and a thesaurus. How often the poem went in some direction I had not anticipated due to a simple word choice was kind of mysteriously inexplicable, and yet my truth was extracted in this way when no other means was available for me to express my distress. I would love to see some of your poems if ever you would like to share them

I was going to call my cat Lily, but those flowers are actually deadly to felines, so I called her Luna instead

Wait... this is a project for school? So if we answer, we're doing your homework for you? Hmm... It wouldn't be very virtuous to answer this question.

Kidding, kidding! Hi and welcome to the forum. Also congrats on being able to homeschool. I know from experience that homeschool beats public school to bits... Or it does where I live anyway.

Virtue is basically doing what is right, because you know it is right, even when it's harder than doing wrong (or harder than just not doing right, which is the lazy way to sin.)

It can be taught to others, but you'd better make sure you include WHY we do what we do and WHY it is right. (Protip: If there's nothing about loving your neighbor as yourself, and why we are supposed to love them, all the rest of our reasons why will fall apart.)

😆I am not the type to try to pawn my work on others- That's plain wrong 🤣 No the assignment is literally to ask that question! Thank you for the welcome! Thank you, I love homeschool, having done it all my life I don't think I'll ever fully understand how blessed I am but I try.

Yes I agree. Exactly!! Explanation is as important if not more, because it's one thing to say "yes I believe that" and another to say you believe something and have reasons and proof to back it up.

Of course Magenta! I use to write more, but school has taken over my life, as has music, and distractions, and events and stress. When I write things now, it's primarily school essays, or stories. I used to be happy, but as I look at it more again I realize how much I didn't know about how to write poetry. Exactly- you don't realize what you will write until you're writing, and then when you write and see what you've done, it's always an amazingly awesome surprise. Luna's very pretty! She seems very regal, just from the picture!

She fell.
Hard.
Enough to break
Her heart.
She tried
to fly.
But instead
She cried.
Her tears
They fell.
And they landed
And filled a well.
They blinded her
And she lost sight
Of the precious
Will to fight.
She lost her hope
And felt numb inside.
She curled up there,
And died.
But rose again
The next day,
With hope inside
To make a way.

This was a random one I wrote a long time ago, it's one I still like even now.