The Moral Instruction of Children

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Felix Adler. The Moral Instruction of Children

EDITOR'S PREFACE

PREFATORY NOTE

INTRODUCTORY LECTURES

I. THE PROBLEM OF UNSECTARIAN MORAL INSTRUCTION

II. THE EFFICIENT MOTIVES OF GOOD CONDUCT

III. OPPORTUNITIES FOR MORAL TRAINING IN THE DAILY SCHOOL

IV. CLASSIFICATION OF DUTIES

V. THE MORAL OUTFIT OF CHILDREN ON ENTERING SCHOOL

PRIMARY COURSE

VI. THE USE OF FAIRY TALES

VII. THE USE OF FABLES

VIII. SUPPLEMENTARY REMARKS ON FABLES

IX. STORIES FROM THE BIBLE

X. THE ODYSSEY AND THE ILIAD

GRAMMAR COURSE. LESSONS ON DUTY

XI. THE DUTY OF ACQUIRING KNOWLEDGE

XII. DUTIES WHICH RELATE TO THE PHYSICAL LIFE

XIII. DUTIES WHICH RELATE TO OTHERS

XIV. DUTIES TOWARD ALL MEN

XV. THE ELEMENTS OF CIVIC DUTY

XVI. THE USE OF PROVERBS AND SPEECHES

XVII. THE INDIVIDUALIZATION OF MORAL TEACHING

RECAPITULATION

APPENDIX. THE INFLUENCE OF MANUAL TRAINING ON CHARACTER.23

Отрывок из книги

The following lectures were delivered in the School of Applied Ethics during its first session in 1891, at Plymouth, Mass. A few of the lectures have been condensed, in order to bring more clearly into view the logical scheme which underlies the plan of instruction here outlined. The others are published substantially as delivered.

I am deeply conscious of the difficulties of the problem which I have ventured to approach, and realize that any contribution toward its solution, at the present time, must be most imperfect. I should, for my part, have preferred to wait longer before submitting my thought to teachers and parents. But I have been persuaded that even in its present shape it may be of some use. I earnestly hope that, at all events, it may serve to help on the rising tide of interest in moral education, and may stimulate to further inquiry.

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The topics of which moral instruction treats are the duties of life. To teach the duties, however, we must adopt some system of classification. To which system shall we give the preference? The difficulty which we encountered at the outset seems to meet us here in a new guise.

For most if not all of the systems of classification commonly proposed are based upon some metaphysical theory or some theological doctrine. To adopt any one of these would be tantamount to adopting the theory or theology on which it is founded; would be equivalent to introducing surreptitiously a particular philosophy or creed into the minds of the pupils; and this would be a plain departure from the unsectarian principle to which we are pledged. Thus, Plato's fourfold division of the virtues into the so-called cardinal virtues of temperance, courage, justice, wisdom, is based on his psychology. Aristotle's division of the virtues into dianoetic and what he calls ethical virtues is clearly dependent on what may be termed Aristotle's intellectualism – i. e., the supreme importance which he assigns to the functions of the intellect, or νοὑς [Greek: noûs], in the attainment of the perfect life.

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