Method, Content and Motivation in Moral Education

Abstract

Arguments about whether stress should be laid on content or on method in moral education are shown to be misguided: both are inextricably interlocked since morality is a complete form of life, partly concerned with action and partly with feeling. Proper motivation for moral education must display this form in the daily lives of the pupils, who will come to be morally educated only in so far as they share the form with those who love them and whom they love. Schools have to be structured into genuine communities in order to make this possible. In these respects morality is parallel to other forms of life and thought in the school curriculum.

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Notes on contributors

John Wilson

John Wilson is Lecturer and Tutor, Department of Educational Studies, Oxford University, and Barbara Cowell is Research Fellow, Warborough Trust, Oxford.