The Pursuit Of Core Value And School Moral Education In The Perspective

The main reason why moral educators are badly scolded is the dissatisfied effectof moral education. The theories, which we once have great expectations of, such as"Pardon Patten", "Value Clarification Patten" don't change the condition and onlymake children become immoral by degrees. Because they never know what is thebasic core value that the moral should follow. They have become "moral cripple"under formalism. They can make moral reasoning and judgment perfectly but utterlyignore the core value the abilities serve for. Moral education is considered asdelinquency. Facing rebukes from all directions, several kinds of theories arise oneafter another. After the defeat of relativism and formalism in moral education, peopleincreasingly attach great importance to the basic, universal and stable core value.The first part analyzes the background of the emerging of core value. First, in theview of social macro environment, the globalization is increasingly fierce andexpands from the economy domain to the politics and culture domain. Theglobalization in culture and the more and more common moral and survival crisesmake a trend of tracking down universal ethics, which not only people started to trackdown the universal and basic core value in moral education but also find thephilosophy upholstery for the moral value. Second, facing the dissatisfied effect ofmoral education, some people put the blame on the deficient of students' moral ability,so people anxiously rush into the Formalism: moral educators are busy in looking formethods which give students excellent inference and judgment skill, meanwhileneglect moral value the methods serve for, especially the basic universal value. But ithas proved that the sole improvement of moral skills hasn't brought us satisfactoryresults. The formalism declines. Moral educators started to realize that: ability andskill must depend on some carrier. They demonstrate their usefulness when people usethem make judgment among concrete value. The form must unify with content (value)especially the core value. Third, relativism rejects the universality and grades of moralvalue, and then rejects the existence of core value. It is wrong of culture relativism todefy the universality of moral value. While individual relativism results inlaissez-faire and egoism in practice. The defects of relativism are completely exposed.The second part outlines the connotation of core value, explains the rationality ofits existence and makes comments on several main concepts of core value in history.Core value is a kind of basic, universal and stable moral value. It reflects human'snature and dignity and represents the basic moral orientation of society and the mainbasis of moral judgment and moral life. Universality, stability and basic are its maincharacters,which distinguish core value from other moral values. By this connotation,we afford the explanation of organon and teleology for its existence rationality. Forthe former, core value meets people's basic needs;and it is also necessary for thedevelopment of society. For the latter, the fulfillment of core value is an importantsymbol of a real person. In the end of the part, we make a simple summary andcomment on several representative concepts of core value. God-departmentalismconcept of core value places the hope on unreality and the afterlife. Therefore, itobliterates the positive ingredients in human nature. Society-departmentalism conceptof core value only cares about national benefit, which probably causes racism,hegemony and autocracy. Individual-departmentalism concept of core value abandonsthe benefit of community. It is a disguised relativism. The universalism concept ofcore value regards the survival and development of human beings as its goal andconcentrates on the basic core value reflecting human nature. So the concept is worthadvocating. But people should avoid the hidden danger of anthropocentricism and theneglect of individual.The third part reviews main questions in school moral education since 1949 andaffords some suggestions on the basis of the analysis of core value and thebackground of its thriving. First, taking core value as a mirror, we find manydeficiencies in our moral education: the partiality of idealism far from real life;therelativism hiding in school moral education owning to the over-criticism ontraditional methods and over-emphasis on subjectivity;and the political tendency thatonce and now still exists in our moral education. All those are different from corevalue. Those make some suggestions for school moral education: first, for theeducation idea, we should make school moral education return to the earth and thestudents' general lively life from the heaven and adult world and educate students tohave general moral personality through life. Second, for the education objective,school moral education should go from ideal to reality, from stringency to tolerance.Third, for education content, we should put more attention on core value.