"What is your conscience, and how does it work?" These are the first two questions of the Conscience Interview, the imaginative and sensitive device which guides twelve year old Cynthia and her middle school friends on their quest to understand their moral selves. The Conscience Celebration is the story of young people exploring both the uniquely personal and the shared experiences of conscience development in the context of their daily lives as students, friends, siblings, daughters and sons.

The Stilwell Conscience Interview (SCI) was developed by Dr. Barbara Stilwell several years ago as a tool to explore the development of conscience in children. Through the use of the SCI and related work, the authors identified discrete domains of conscience functioning and associated developmental stages. The first domain, Conceptualization of Conscience, encompasses five age-related stages: External Conscience (age 6 and under), Brain or Heart Conscience (ages 7-11), Heart/Mind or Personified Conscience (ages 12-13), Confused Conscience (ages 14-15), and Integrated Conscience (ages 16-17). The four other domains also undergo dynamic change with time and life experience. These domains include Moral Attachment, Moral-Emotional Responsiveness, Moral Valuation, and Moral Volition. Each domain is intimately associated with bedrock values and virtues, and resonates with the rich tradition of moral philosophy.

As interesting and useful as this information may be to parents, physicians, and educators, the group most intimately affected by these findings - children and young adults - would likely have little interest in learning about such scientific research, presented as such. Drs. Galvin and Stilwell know that and so, instead, they have crafted a very good story, with interesting plots and compelling characters. Young readers may recognize themselves in Cynthia who thinks she probably worries too much about being good but can’t seem to get along with her younger sister; or Aaron, who thinks maybe he doesn’t worry enough and seeks some external reassurance that he will not grow up to be a really bad guy; or Jamie, who regrets the resentment she felt toward her dying sister and continues to grieve for her. The students bring these and other concerns to the Conscience Club where they investigate the conscience domains, and identify their own stages of development. Together, they explore the moral crises and inner lives of the most interesting people they know - themselves.

Much has been written in the past several years about the so-called decline in personal and public virtue, and the need to explicitly teach morals and values to our children. Nearly two decades ago, Kohlberg and Gilligan described theories of moral reasoning. But until much more recently, little was known about how a child’s conscience actually develops, or why, or about the roles of emotional responsiveness or reparation. This is a book that will help young people, and the adults who care about them, explore the realm of conscience, and begin to understand the whys and oughts of (their own) human behavior.

Knowledge and information bestow power, and children whose moral inquiry is enlightened and supported will develop the power to choose morally and wisely.

Margaret Gaffney, M.D.
January, 1998