Lawrence Kohlberg - Early life, Death

Psychologist, born in Boston, Massachusetts, USA. He taught education and social psychology at the University of Chicago and at Harvard (1968–87). His research posited a series of stages in the formation of conscience from early childhood into adulthood, and he set forth his ideas in The Philosophy of Moral Development (1981).

Lawrence Kohlberg (October 25, 1927 – January 19, 1987) was born in Bronxville, New York. He is famous for his work in moral education, reasoning, and development. Being a close follower of Jean Piaget's theory of cognitive development, Kohlberg's work reflects and perhaps even extends his predecessor's work.

Early life

Lawrence Kohlberg grew up in a wealthy family and attended Phillips Academy, a private and renowned high school. During World War II, after finishing his high school education, he enlisted and became an engineer on a freighter.

Schooling & Kohlberg stayed in the University of Chicago for his graduate work, becoming fascinated with children's moral reasoning and the earlier works of Jean Piaget and others.

Kohlberg then taught in 1962 at the University of Chicago in the Committee on Human Development, further extending his time with academia. In 1968, 40 years old and married with two children, he became a professor of education and social psychology at Harvard University.

During a visit to Israel in 1969, Kohlberg journeyed to a kibbutz and observed how much more the youths' moral development had progressed compared to those who were not part of kibbutzim. He decided to rethink his current research and start by beginning a new school called the Cluster School within Cambridge Rindge and Latin High School. The Cluster School ran as a 'just community' where students had a basic and trustworthy relationship with one another, using democracy to make all the school's decisions. Armed with this model he started similar 'just communities' in other schools and even one in a prison.

Death

Kohlberg contracted a tropical disease in 1971 while doing cross-cultural work in Belize.