Moral Narration In The Moral Education: Decline And Renewal

The moral narration is an educational activity to convey a particular moralknowledge, moral emotions moral values and to promote children’s moraldevelopment by telling stories. It is one of the methods that attempt to nurturechildren with good moral characters. In essence, there are fundamental differentialsbetween “moral narration”,” life narration” and “narration in the moral education”that are well known in China. Life narration emphasizes on the children’sindividual life and highlights the differences and uniqueness of the children in theprocess of moral education; narration in the moral education belongs to the scopeof research methods in the moral education, it is trying to lead moral educators tothe practitioners of moral education, but also moral education researchers aswell;however,moral narration means that it want to nurturing children with goodmoral character, moral feeling and moral habits by telling moral story, itemphasizes on the dominant position of teachers in the process of moral educationand on the need of society’s basic values to children. Its important feature is“non-mandatory”.As a traditional method of moral education, moral narration has a richtheoretical foundation and a long history of practice in the East and West. Whetherit is in the pre-Qin era, Chinese feudal society, or in the West of ancient Greece,medieval or Renaissance, the moral narration is always the most important moraleducation method. These facts have been particularly evident in the moral narrationideas of Confucius, Plato, and Aristotle.However, with the advent of modern society, the ancient virtues of “actorscentre” are gradually giving way to “action centre” that stress the concept of rulesand obligations. Modern moral philosophy is no longer emphasized the actorsshould have the virtue or character, but stressed the actors to make the correctaction according to the system of rules. Thus, as one of the traditional moral methods, that is, the moral narration has been encountered by strong challengesfrom utilitarianism, deontology, and liberalism which make up the modern moralphilosophy.But the fate of facing the challenges is not indicative of the moral narrationhas lost the logic rationality and necessity of the methods of moral education. Onthe contrary, moral education theory and practice is consistent with a strong proofthat the moral narration remains an irreplaceable significance and values. This wasreflected that the moral narration can effectively provide good moral example forchildren, and can provide the necessary prerequisite and guarantee for children torecognize their own role and moral responsibility.The contemporary theory and practice of moral education in schools in China,stressing the need for moral narration as a moral education method does not meanthat it is completely restored to the state of the classical era. The development ofscience and the progress of the times require the majority of moral educators tocombine the moral narration and other effective methods of moral education, inorder to cultivate the younger generation with a keen moral awareness, the noblemoral sentiments, good moral habits and a firm moral will.