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TULSI PRAJÑA Christianity which emerged as result of the fusion of the Roman and Judaeic traditions regarded character training as the primary task of education. Most of the educational thinkers in christian traditions, therefore, viewed moral education as the hub of any activity that could well be described as educational. In fact, the term "Humanities” which designates one of the curricula, indicates that in educational process and practice as well, relations between man and man were considered central and most essential.
According to Comenius, curriculam should include all those subjects which can make a man wise, virtuous, and pious. Similarly Locke asserts that it is virtue alone which can be considered as the most important aims of education. Rousseau. Pestalozzi, Herbart and Froebel, the great educators of their times, sounded similar tone of humanism in educational pracice. In fact, Herbart goes to the extent of summing up the whole task of education in the concept of morality, whereas Froebel considers that the child is in possession of innate goodness, and the main function of education is to draw it out or to develop it to the full (Rusk 1957).
Recent trends in moral education: In the recent years there is still greater revival of moral education for giving it its due importance in the curriculum of the child. The morality that is being stressed now a days is a morality is secular kind. As we have already seen that morality cannot be, and, therefore, should not be linked too closely with religion. We find that to day there is a growing tendency to reject religion, and if morality is linked with religion it may suggest a rejection of morality as well.
Moreover, today the concept of morality itself has undergone a kind of transformation. In earlier thcories moral precepts were seen as objectively valid and, therefore, it was sensible to talk of moral knowledge or knowledge of the "good". This results in morality as a kind of character training. Under such a theory the base of morality was fixed and objective. It is a view, therefore, which leads us to the notion that the morally educated person is one who has recognised the truth of certain particular moral values, and he acts on them irrespective of the conditions. It is nothing but moral instruction. The purpose of education would be to instil these values in pupil. Such a veiw of morality is authoritarian and hence not different from religious morality which we have already rejected as outmoded.
In the recent years John Dewey whose ideas were, no doubt, influenced by Rousseau and other theorists of the nineteenth century, gave a changed attitude towards morality. For Dewey the central concern for education was life or living itself, which implies the development of thinking and other abilities which enable him to control the aspects of his environment to make living purposeful and effective. Environment, as we know, constantly changes and therefore the prime need for man is to adapt to these changing aspects to suit his needs and purposes of life. The traditional theory of morality according to which moral precepts or
January March 1993
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