The Significance of Confucius' Moral Education
Confucius' moral education had a far-reaching influence on the formation and development of China culture. There is a tendency to emphasize morality in China culture, and there is a tradition of emphasizing integrity and honesty among intellectuals and working people in past dynasties. Confucius' moral education serves his political ideal, which is obviously branded with feudalism and has a lot of dross. But we can't judge Confucius' moral education more than two thousand years ago from today's perspective, and discard its dross and take its essence from a historical perspective. Studying Confucius' moral education, it is not difficult for us to find the spirit and methods with modern value for us to use. "A gentleman is the foundation of his life" and "teaching himself to be a man" are both moral education goals advocated by Confucius and contemporary international famous educators. "If a gentleman is not heavy, he will be unable to do so, and his learning will not be solid." "If he is wise, he can't keep it. If he gets it, he will lose it. " Although Confucius' proposition has the bias of "attaching importance to morality and neglecting wisdom" [①], it points out the leading role of morality in wisdom when revealing the relationship between morality and wisdom, which can undoubtedly be a shot in the arm for the current bias of "attaching importance to wisdom and neglecting morality" in the field of basic education. Educators who teach and solve doubts should first pay attention to and do a good job in moral education, and truly put moral education on the basis and primary position of the whole education, so that the face of basic education in China will be greatly improved. Today, what is more worthy of our teacher's study is Confucius' example, that is, set an example, cultivate one's morality and keep one's family in harmony, and achieve intangible results. "Can't be right, like a right person?" [2] Teachers are by no means sellers of knowledge, but safes of personality. Students should imitate the teacher's personality while learning knowledge. Therefore, as a modern teacher, first of all, we should improve our moral cultivation, influence students with noble personality strength, and achieve "being honest and acting without orders" [③]. Throughout our moral education for primary and secondary school students over the years, from "five loves" to "four beauties" to "three loves" to moral quality education and personality education now. These moral education goals are correct and concrete, but they have little effect. In people's minds, these moral goals are just beautiful slogans. What is the reason? The key is that there are no good concrete ways and means for primary and secondary school students to practice. The method and approach of Confucius' moral education is very clear: the method is "from near to far, pushing oneself and others", "filial piety" is the center and starting point of Confucius' morality, and loving the public is its ultimate goal and destination. Obviously, such moral education methods and approaches have strong operability because of their clear steps, and each step is carried out in the order from near to far, from near to sparse, which not only embodies the principle of easy before difficult, but also makes people feel reasonable, in line with human nature and willing to do so. Therefore, it is convenient for students to practice and will not make people feel "preaching" or "instilling". This is very worth learning, especially for primary and secondary school teachers in the front line of education. Using Confucius' moral education methods for reference, this paper studies how to make our current moral education concrete, step by step and rational, and make moral education more reasonable, operable and suitable for students' practice.