Moral Education in Schools. 461 



of the child, proceeding gradually from the self-regarding to the 

 other-regarding aspects of morality. First, personal and physical 

 habits and duties; then the duties which relate to the feelings — filial 

 and fraternal duties; lastly, social and civic duties. All these would 

 natxirally receive illustration from all the sources which Nature, His- 

 tory^, and Art so richly afford. 



As to the method — the teaching must be realistic and concrete 

 • — not abstract nor didactic, and should proceed by way of analysis, 

 illustration, question, and answer; the aim of the teacher being to 

 draw out the thoughts of the children, and tO' guide them, where 

 necessary, in the right direction. This means that the teachers 

 themselves should be trained in Ethics and in methods of moral in- 

 struction, and that the}' should always be required to carefully pre- 

 pare their moral les.sons beforehand. This would make great de- 

 mands upon the teachers, but it would help to perfect or, at least, 

 improve their teaching powers, and lead to a more sacred estimate 

 of their high calling. The teaching itself would alsO' lead to the 

 segregation of backward or hardly endowed children under specially 

 trained teachers; to more frequent conferences amongst teachers 

 themselves; and tO' conferences with parents in order to bring the 

 home training intO' harmony with the school life. By this means our 

 conception of the meaning, value, and aim of education would be 

 gradually widened, and our educational ideal transformed from that 

 of the production of self-regarding and self-seeking units to that of 

 the cultivation of a richer individuality seeking its highest activiry 

 and good in the well-being of the whole. 



If this moral education — education in the practical side of 

 religion — is the highest part of education, a place must be found 

 for it in the curriculum of our schools. With all our reverence for 

 scientific knowledge, intellectual ability, and technical skill, let us 

 .not forget that all these lose their value unless they are transfigured 

 by moral imagination and guided by moral aims. And though this 

 system of moral education may not bring the millennium, it will help 

 the psychological balance of society to dip, if ever so slightly, in the 

 direction of progress. 



N.B. — This paper has been printed, separately, in full. Copies 

 may be obtained from the writer (Upper Camp Street, Cape Town). 



