Moral education changes with the development of society, and it has a distinct class nature in class society. In order to cultivate talents who are loyal to themselves, the ruling class of all previous dynasties attached great importance to moral education. In the schools of slave society and feudal society in China, moral education occupies the primary position. Among the "six arts" of school education in the Western Zhou Dynasty (ritual, music, shooting, imperial, calligraphy and mathematics), "ritual" teaching is in the first place. According to "Zhou Li? According to Si Tuleideng, a local official, Shi "taught the country with three virtues: one day, the highest virtue thought the Tao was a book; The next day, Mingde thought that line was the book; In the third grade, filial piety knows evil. Teach three lines: first, filial piety should be based on parents; Second, friendship should be based on respect for virtuous people; Third, obedience should be based on teachers. "At that time, the so-called" three virtues "and" three lines "were all moral education to maintain slavery in the Western Zhou Dynasty. Confucianism advocates "rule by virtue" and "rule by courtesy". Kong Qiu emphasized "teaching the people with morality" and thought that "Tao (guidance) should be based on politics, and the people should be punished, so as to avoid shame; Tao (guide) should be guided by virtue and ashamed of courtesy "(The Analects of Confucius? Politics "). Monk clearly put forward: "Set it as" order ","study "and" school "to teach. ..... School, Xu, Zhou Yueyao, knowledge is shared by three generations, and all this is so ethical "("Mencius? Teng Wengong "). He regarded ethics education as the educational purpose of ancient schools in China. This is a feature of feudal social education in China. In the long feudal society of China, the moral dogma "Three Cardinal Principles" (the monarch is the minister's cardinal principle, the father is the son's cardinal principle, and the husband is the wife's cardinal principle) and "Five Permanent Principles" (benevolence, righteousness, propriety, wisdom and faithfulness) were taken as the main contents of moral education.

In the ideological and moral education of feudal society in China, there are also some good traditions with reasonable factors. For example, we should attach importance to the unity of political and ideological education and moral education, and pursue the unity of morality and learning; In the implementation of moral education, we should lead by example, match words with deeds, teach students in accordance with their aptitude, be ambitious and fulfill their duties.

In the west, ancient Greece also attached great importance to moral education. Socrates advocates that "knowledge is virtue", and thinks that as long as one knows what is good and correct, he will certainly practice it, and virtue can be cultivated through education. Compared with the traditional conservative view that virtue is passed down from generation to generation through aristocratic lineage, this idea is obviously an improvement. Aristotle believes that to cultivate virtue, we must practice and form moral habits through "rational" education. He also believes that music has a special position in moral education. The moral education advocated by ancient Greek philosophers serves the maintenance of slavery. In the long feudal society of Europe, religious dogma became the main content of moral education.

During the development of capitalism in Europe and America, many philosophers and educators also put forward some new moral education ideas to serve the consolidation of bourgeois rule. Locke,/kloc-a British educator in the 7th century ￠j￠ emphasized the cultivation of young gentlemen's manners and moral qualities through "rationality", and demanded that "one can restrain one's own desires" and "obey the best guidance of rationality". /kloc-Rousseau, a French enlightenment thinker in the 0 th and 8 th centuries, has a strong anti-religious tendency in his moral education thought. He respects children's nature and emphasizes the law of natural development. He advocates that moral education should pay attention to the stage and age characteristics of children's maturity. /kloc-in the 9th century, German educator Herbart, J.F. attached great importance to moral education. He believes that idea is the father of action, and knowledge means real power. There should be no separation between knowledge and behavior, and between morality and reason. Moral education is mainly to form children's correct moral concepts and establish an apperception group of moral concepts. The task of moral education is to cultivate moral concepts. He is a representative of the so-called "theory of main wisdom"

At the beginning of the 20th century, Dewey (J), an American pragmatic educator, believed that moral education should start from the ideal of "democratic society" to meet the needs of the American monopoly bourgeoisie at that time. He said: "The society in which children will become a member is the United States." "Without participating in social life, schools have no moral purpose and no purpose." He advocates cultivating moral habits beneficial to social order through the "typical social life" of schools. The task of moral education is to cultivate behavior habits, so it belongs to the "main line theory"

Significance and task of moral education in socialist schools: Communist moral education is an important part of all-round development education. At the beginning of the victory of the socialist revolution in October, Lenin called on young people to learn "communism" and clearly pointed out that the whole cause of cultivating, educating and training modern youth should be turned into the cause of cultivating young people's communist morality. Moral education should permeate all educational and teaching activities in schools. Mao Zedong pointed out during the new-democratic revolution in China that young people should first have a firm and correct political direction. He said: all the work of the school is to change students' minds, and political education is the central link. In the socialist period, it is emphasized that there is no soul without correct political views.

After entering the new historical period of socialist modernization, China attaches great importance to the construction of socialist spiritual civilization with communism as the core. Ideological construction determines the socialist nature of China's spiritual civilization. Its main contents are the working class's Marxist world outlook and scientific theory, the communist ideals, beliefs and morals, the master's thoughts and collectivism thoughts adapted to socialist public ownership, the concept of rights and obligations and organizational discipline adapted to socialist political system, the dedication to serving the people and the communist labor attitude, socialist patriotism and internationalism, and so on. Among them, the most important are revolutionary ideals, morality and discipline. This is the main content of school moral education in China, that is, social content. This is determined by China's socialist economic and political system.

In order to effectively transform the social content of moral education into students' inner ideology and morality, students must take active psychological activities. The basic task of school moral education in China is to promote the formation and development of students' communist ideology and morality.

In the development of personality psychology, cognition, emotion, will and behavior habits are a whole psychological structure that is interrelated and mutually promoted, and development is a holistic development. Therefore, the task of moral education in socialist schools in China should not only oppose the theory of cultivating moral concepts, but also oppose the theory of cultivating behavioral habits.