Author: Zhai article Source: Excerpted from People's Education, issue 10, 2005, hits: 984, updated on July 20, 2005.
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There are two things, the more I think about it, the more I feel awe. They are the stars in the sky and the moral law in our hearts.
Moral realm
The purpose of moral education is to cultivate moral personality, shape moral culture and create moral life. First of all, the ideal realm of personality is truth, goodness and beauty. The ideal realm of moral culture is self-improvement, morality, harmony without difference and fairness. The ideal realm of moral life is harmony, that is, harmony between man and society, harmony between man and nature and harmony between man and body.
The realm of morality can be divided into three levels: first, basic morality, second, noble morality, and third, sage morality.
The main connotations of basic morality are patriotism and law-abiding, courtesy and honesty, unity and friendship, diligence and self-improvement, and dedication to their posts. Basic morality requires people to be independent and have a corresponding sense of responsibility. Noble morality requires people to have higher moral quality, strong sense of responsibility and dedication on the basis of basic morality. Above noble morality is sage morality, which is a lofty moral realm. Sages have a heart of caring for all beings, benefiting all things and helping the world, which is the embodiment of lofty morality and wisdom. He communicated with the spirit of heaven and earth and thoroughly understood the truth of cosmic life; He stood at the commanding height of human spirit, his thoughts were ignored by the world, and his personality was immortal.
Aristotle believes that education should enable students to have basic moral cultivation, bottom line ethics and the ability to adapt to social development. Moral education should take the cultivation of basic morality as the bottom line and the cultivation of noble morality as the purpose. Basic morality is the foundation, while noble morality is promotion. Basic morality cultivates qualified citizens, while noble morality cultivates wise gentlemen. The main task of school moral education is to cultivate basic morality and noble morality and cultivate people with sound personality. The cultivation of sage morality is not a mission that school moral education can independently undertake, but sage thought is a valuable asset of moral education.
Fundamentals of moral education
The root of moral education is mindfulness, the key is mindfulness, and the focus is conscience.
The heart is neat and upright, and the beauty of the heart is the beauty of the body. A beautiful mind is the source of all virtues. Only a beautiful mind can flow out the source of virtue. It is the basis of moral education to cultivate, move, correct, purify and beautify their hearts.
Correct your mind first. The so-called mindfulness is to establish correct beliefs and correct world outlook, outlook on life and values. Faith is the soul of life, and noble faith is the fundamental driving force to enhance the realm of life. Sincerity, kindness, beauty, justice, respect, tolerance, generosity, gratitude, diligence, simplicity, courage, responsibility, love, elegance and civilization ... these beliefs are universal and precious, simple and noble, externalized into actions, cultivated into virtues, infiltrated into life, the source of happiness in life and the cornerstone of a beautiful world.
Conscience is the bright morality in our hearts and the truth, goodness and beauty that exist in the depths of our souls. Conscience is to sprinkle bright morality in your heart and carry it forward, sow the seeds of truth, goodness and beauty in your heart and combine them to take root and sprout; As Mencius said, it is necessary to inspire people's compassion, shame, resignation and right and wrong, from which four beautiful qualities of benevolence, righteousness, courtesy and wisdom will grow. In short, conscience is to stimulate the goodness in the heart and sow the virtue in the heart.
Mind is a field, conscience is a seed, faith is sunshine, virtue is a flower, and good deeds are fruits. If you plant flowers, you will get flowers, sow, and you will get beans; No pains, no gains. Only by sowing truth, goodness and beauty can we grow truth, goodness and beauty.
Moral education mode
A hundred rivers are full of tolerance. Moral education has profound connotation and covers a wide range, which is compatible with human beings, nature, family, society, schools and other aspects. There are various ways and methods. In the words of two ancient poems, it is always spring to cultivate talents in an eclectic way.
We should constantly explore and refine some effective methods to do everything well, such as inspiring moral wisdom, cultivating moral feelings, cultivating humanistic feelings, experiencing moral situations, setting life examples, establishing life norms, sowing moral behaviors, forming moral habits, casting the first environment, respecting appreciation and encouraging, and so on. Here are some points:
1, stimulate moral wisdom.
Truth is moral truth. Without understanding moral principles, there will be no moral belief; Without moral belief, there is no moral desire; No moral desire; No moral behavior. Of the three "faithfulness, willingness and action", faithfulness is the foundation.
The premise of a letter is understanding. Only understanding can enlighten wisdom. Moral education should make students understand the truth of life and have certain moral wisdom.
Reading comprehension. This book is rich in truth. "Book of Changes" Day: "Heaven is healthy, and gentlemen are constantly striving for self-improvement; The terrain is Kun, and the gentleman carries things with morality. " Self-improvement and respect for morality complement each other and achieve mastery through a comprehensive study, which constitutes the inherent beauty of a gentleman's personality. I understand that the enlightenment from these two sentences is very profound.
Reading can be sensible, and understanding life can also be sensible. Life is the best textbook. Compared with books, life can inspire people more and give them more training. In short, look up at astronomy, look down at geography, read and think, communicate with people, feel life, feel life, and you will understand. Understanding focuses on penetration, and understanding focuses on perception.
2. Cultivate moral feelings
To cultivate healthy and noble feelings, it is important to cultivate. Infiltration Purification. Plato said: "The best education is the kind that makes the body and mind as beautiful and perfect as possible." People's body and mind are often influenced by a beautiful environment, and unconsciously they will give birth to a beautiful emotion and cultivate a beautiful temperament.
When talking about empathy in aesthetics, Mr. Zhu Guangqian said: "Aesthetic experience is people's attitude towards interests and things and their reciprocal returns. People not only empathize with things, but also absorb the gesture of things to me and unconsciously imitate the image of things. Therefore, although the direct purpose of aesthetic experience is not to cultivate temperament, it has the function of cultivating temperament. The image of beauty is printed in the heart and is often infiltrated by the image of beauty. Naturally, it can be less turbid. " (On Beauty and Literature)
Literature and art play an important role in cultivating emotions. Mr. Ba Jin said: "We have a rich literary treasure house, that is, masterpieces left by generations of writers. They educate us, encourage us and make us better, purer, kinder and more useful to others. The role of literature is to make people better. "
3. Cultivate moral habits.
Mr. Ye Shengtao said: "The essence of education is to cultivate students' good habits. "To cultivate good habits, we should start from daily behaviors and go through a long-term training process to keep bad habits away from ourselves and make good habits natural. The highest state of education is to form a self-educated personality. Self-education is the most effective education. " It's no use reading books about this country often. "Students should consciously form good habits and form civilized accomplishment. In self-education, they should pay attention to moral details, and educate students not to act because of small goodness, not because of small evils. "We should always guide students to be kind, say good things, do good deeds, be good people, be civilized and self-disciplined, and create a good image of health, civilization, harmony and progress.
Sowing behavior, harvesting habits; Sowing habits, harvesting character; Sow character and reap fate. Once a good habit is formed, it will play a positive role in promoting a person's development. Saving good habits is equivalent to saving happiness for later life.
Culture is moral education, and life is moral education.
"Moral education-the cultivation of spiritual goodness-involves many aspects. It involves rules and precepts-what can and cannot be done in daily life-as well as specific guidance, persuasion and training. Aristotle wrote: Good habits formed in early years can change a lifetime. Moral education must also make clear the absolute importance of moral example. Some people say that nothing is more powerful and influential than a silent role model when a child is growing up. ...
In addition to precepts, habits and examples, there is one thing that cannot be missed in the garden of moral education. We call it moral writing. Let people see what good morality is through vivid words ... "
The above is a passage written by Dr. William Bennett, a famous educator and former American Secretary of Education, in the preface of Virtue. The reason why I quote this passage from literary and art workers is that it concisely summarizes several main points of moral education. I also want to explain the close relationship between moral education and life. Whether it is the guidance of rules or the formation of habits; Whether it is the role of example or the influence of words; Whether it is the enlightenment of wisdom or the edification of emotion ... everything is inseparable from life. Without life, moral education becomes passive water. Similarly, moral education is inseparable from the influence of culture. Different cultures make different people. Without culture, moral education becomes a tree without roots. This shows that morality is a kind of culture and life is the best education. Culture is moral education, and life is moral education.
Take the excellent traditional culture of the Chinese nation as the noumenon, absorb the world cultural achievements and create a new culture; Based on the excellent traditional virtues of the Chinese nation, it combines the essence of world civilization and creates a new morality. Building a harmonious new life on the basis of perfecting a society ruled by law and a moral society is an important prerequisite for the progress of moral education, especially ideological and moral education for minors. The success of moral education, especially the ideological and moral education for minors, will promote the development and progress of society, thus realizing the ultimate goal of moral education-cultivating moral personality, shaping moral culture and creating moral life; Promote the all-round development of people and the continuous progress of society; Create a happy life and a beautiful world!