A Model for the Evaluation of Moral Education

Abstract

Introduction:  Programs in moral education are often viewed as single events, taught in a particular grade at a particular time.  This is one way of looking at the issues of moral education, but it is also indicative of some of the problems of American education.  Following are several typical comments.  "Curriculum construction in the United States is generally conducted in a shockingly piecemeal and superficial fashion" (Zais, 1976, p. xi).  Alfred North Whitehead makes a plea for unity within the curriculum in Aims of Education: "The solution which I am urging is to eradicate the fatal disconnection of subjects which kills the vitality of our modern curriculum" (in Raths et al, 1967, p. 93).  Philip Phenix relates this point to the practice of education, saying, "All too commonly the teacher teaches a particular subject or unit within a subject without any reference to its relationship to other components to the curriculum" (1964, p. 3).