Moral and Ethical Education in Elementary Schools in Open Cities

Abstract

This spring, our research society decided to study changes in recent years in the ideological and moral makeup of elementary school pupils in Guangdong province, for which purpose we investigated some thirty elementary schools in the five cities of Guangzhou, Shenzhen, Zhuhai, Jiangmen, and Zhanjiang. In the course of our study, we met with leading cadres of the Education Bureaus and with school principals, teaching staff, students, and parents. We made a random sampling of 2,135 primary school pupils between third and sixth grades and indirectly studied and evaluated the home education provided by 1,354 parents. We also investigated the influence on pupils of social information, Hong Kong television and radio, and various tabloids. We looked into the status of school education, the work of the supervisors, activities of Young Pioneers organizations, and home education. We then analyzed all data collected to arrive at an understanding of current moral and ethical education provided by elementary schools, problems therein, and how to improve this education in the new times to bring up a new generation of successors to the country.