II. Theory, methods and principles of moral education

Historically, the mission of schools has been to develop in the young both the intellectual and the moral virtues. Concern for the moral virtues, such as honesty, responsibility, and respect for others, is the domain of moral education. Moral education is whatever schools do to influence how student think, feel, and act regarding issues of right and wrong.

The general question is not whether school and family should pursue moral education, but how. Moral (or perhaps immoral) education goes on constantly, if not always self-consciously. Aristotle captured this insight when he argued that every association has a moral end, a hierarchy of values, which is cultivated through its everyday norms and practices.

There are offer only the briefest sketch of a theory of moral education, which help to decade the question “How to educate?”

• For any society (or school) to exist, its members (students, teachers, and administrators) must share a number of moral virtues: they must be honest, responsible, and respectful of one another's well-being. Public schools have a vital role to play in nurturing these consensus virtues and values, as the character education movement rightly emphasizes; indeed, a major purpose of schooling is to help develop good persons.

• If we are to live together peacefully in a pluralistic society, we must also nurture those civic virtues and values that are part of our constitutional tradition: we must acknowledge responsibility for protecting one another's rights; we must debate our differences in a civil manner; we must keep informed. A major purpose of schooling is to nurture good citizenship.

• But when we disagree about important moral and civic issues, including the nature of morality itself, students must learn about the alternatives, and teachers and schools should not take official positions on where the truth lies. The purpose of a liberal education should be to nurture an informed and reflective understanding of the conflicts.

• Character education and liberal education cannot be isolated in single courses but should be integrated into the curriculum as a whole. [7]

The process of moral education based on principles. Principles of education are the governing provisions, reflecting the general patterns of parenting and define the requirements for the contents and methods of the educational process. The basic principles are the following:

• purposeful education;

• communication education with life;

• unity of consciousness and behavior in education;

• combination of respect and reasonable insistence;

• individual attention at the education;

• principle of consistency, coherence and continuity in education;

• unity of the school education, family education and community education.

The main methods and means of moral education of children are conviction; prevent improper behavior, pedagogical tact and teacher rewards and punishments, but not physical, personal example of the teacher and the parents and elders, proper treatment, training and more. But the best way to moral education is the physical labor by which formed the best moral character of children and young people.