| Starting from the stories that children experience, this thesis describes and analyzes the phenomena of sympathy in children's daily life from the perspective and approach of phenomenology. Here and there, children experience sympathy in complicated way and behave towards specific situations in different way. It is difficult to draw an optimistic or pessimistic conclusion but obvious for children to lose sympathy more and more today, which is related to the social phenomena of usual looking on with folded arms and competitive circumstances in examination-oriented education. However, the problem and its importance to children's moral development is not paid attention to enough.Further study finds that not children but adults have a feeling of sympathy when they see somebody in unfortunate conditions, despite they refuse to help others. Sympathy has collective characteristics and it originates from social nature.Social nature is common to human being and high-grade animals, which is obtained from natural selection. But human's sympathy evolves in moral way that objects of sympathy are more and more various and values of sympathy are more and more moral.Seen from historical perspective, human's sympathy evolves in moral way, but it doesn't mean everybody in real life is sympathetic and willing to help others.The development of sympathy differs from person to person and reflects relatively stable and consistent moral quality which consists of emotion, cognition, will and behavior. Moral quality develops with the mutual function of physical conditions, cultural environment and individual practice. Generally speaking, sympathy is a laudatory word, but sometimes it is derogatory in our real life. Sympathy can be called moral on condition that it contains at least the four virtues of mercy, restricting own desire, bravery and impartiality, that is why children refuse to sympathize sometimes.Being isolated from culture, Children cannot develop sympathy. However, historical and lively culture affects children not positively but passively, that is why children must be educated.In a broad sense, education is carried out by family, society and school, but social education is uncontrollable to some degree for educator isn't definite and education content is difficultly chosen. Family is the "cell" of soceity and school is special education institute, so family education and school education are important.Family education has three special features. Firstly, education is at an early stage in children's moral development. Secondly, with the blood relationship, the feeling between children and their parents are deep and particular. Thirdly, family education is carried out naturally in daily life. Then family education plays a particular role in children's sympathy development. However, family education is anti-moral to some extent and it is related to the social environment at the present age and the fact that research on family moral education is marginal, which is caused by the fact that family education isn't systematic and organized. Whatever the reason is, it is not reasonable that research on family moral education is marginal.Children spend their much time at school. As special education institution, school ought to take up the responsibility to help children learn sympathy. School education must be reformed. Firstly, the role of education should be made anew and reasonably and education is naturally linked to cultivation. As farmers need cultivate seeds and young shoots, education should lead children in moral way. On the other side, farmers cannot make shoots grow by pulling or stretching and teachers cannot impose sympathy on children. Children develop sympathy through their own lively activities which is centered on their emotion development and education only creates conditions to support the development. Therefore, the idea of moral education should be transferred into moral study with emotion centered.Secondly, education means care. Moral and effective sympathy means a relationship which is based on care. The relationship consists of sympathizer and the people who are sympathized. Sympathizer full of care will think seriously about the circumstances and the need and feeling of those who need to be sympathized. And one kind of response to sympathy is necessary also. The two elements are not fixed and this means anybody is probably a sympathizer at this time and a person who need to be sympathized at that time. Every teacher ought to be a sensitive sympathizer and earnestly care for all his or her students, especially those who are in pain and need help. Besides setting a good example, discussion, practice and confirming are efficient methods to help children learn sympathy. In order to establish and keep sympathy relationship with care, teachers must help students learn to thank others who care for and help them and deal with grudge in fair-minded way.At last, education should be intensely concerned about the world in reality and it firstly means making education full of vigor and vitality. Education need to care about children's vivid activities in reality and education itself is a kind of creative and lively activity. It is a kind of nature to approach towards happiness and avoid pains, and so it is difficult for children to learn sympathy if moral education leave children more pains than happiness. On the other side, education cannot degenerate into a happy headquarter where pains are refused completely but bring pains into education and help children realize that virtues can give more happiness not only to others but also to themselves than caring for only themselves. Besides, education must be naturally carried out. Apparently speaking, laozi objects to vietue and somebody calls it moral nihilism. In fact Laozi's moral nihilism is to criticize flashy hypo-moral against nature and advocate natural vietue, which does good to everything without claiming credit. The ideas of "following Dao"and "Doing nothing" can enlighten us as to reviewing flashy preaching without substance and reforming our moral education critically.
|
PDF Full Text Request