| Advocating progressive values and equality for humanists, atheists, and freethinkers |
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| Advocating progressive values and equality for humanists, atheists, and freethinkers |
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The Association for Moral Education (AME). The objectives of the AME are to provide a forum for professionals in a wide variety of positions in moral education; to foster communication, cooperation, training, and research in moral education; and to serve as a resource in matters relating to moral education. The association supports self-reflective educational practices that value the worth and dignity of each individual as a moral agent in a pluralistic society. Its emphasis is on the development of moral understanding in all individuals and believes that such development requires opportunities for engagement in moral dialogue. For additional information: www.amenetwork.org/
The Journal of Moral Education provides an interdisciplinary forum for all aspects of moral education and development across the lifespan. It contains reports of empirical research and evaluation of educational strategies which address a range of value issues and the process of valuing. For additional information: www.tandf.co.uk/journals/carfax/03057240.html
Can We Teach Ethics by Howard B. Radest. This thought-provoking book examines the foundations of moral education from a philosophical and practical perspective and recommends that the teaching of ethics be treated with "theater as the metaphor, dialogue as the genre, and Socrates as the model." Moral education is presented from a humanist point of view with emphasis on the developmental approach of Piaget. Research findings are blended with the practice of bringing ethical reasoning to the classroom. A five-level curriculum is outlined in which moral education is introduced without religious prescription. Contact information: Westport, CN: Praeger Publishers. 1989.
The War for Children’s Minds by Stephen Law. (2007), Florence, KY: Routledge, c/o Taylor & Francis, Inc. Stephen Law maintains that behind the headlines on the conflict in Iraq and global terrorism, a deeper battle is raging over children and the values they should adopt. Political and religious leaders have been joined by the popular press in attacks on “liberal parenting,” calling for a return to authority and religious tradition. Law addresses these questions: How do we raise good children and how do we make good citizens? He urges us to re-evaluate the liberal tradition of thinking about morality. Tackling authoritarian rhetoric head-on, he argues that children should learn about right and wrong and respect for others, but that their education should be grounded in the hard-won values of the Enlightenment. Taking on neo-conservatives and religious and media commentators, the book is a call for a liberal, philosophically informed approach to raising children. Law exposes the weaknesses of arguments calling for a return to authoritarian styles of moral education.
Building Moral Communities: A Guide for Educators by Michael Schulman, Ph.D. The Council for Spiritual and Ethical Education, Portland, OR, 2006. Although this resource does not contain lesson plans or curriculum modules, it does set a detailed framework for recreating a school (and other learning environments) as a moral community. Some of the chapters are highly relevant to our interests, e.g., 'How Children Develop Morals and Moral Styles', 'Service Learning', 'Rules and Discipline', 'Parent Involvement', and 'The School and Social Problems: Sex, Alcohol, and Drugs.'
Dr. Schulman also is the author of Bringing Up a Moral Child: A New Approach for Teaching Your Child to Be Kind, Just, and Responsible (Doubleday Books, 1994) and The Passionate Mind: Bringing Up an Intelligent and Creative Child (The Free Press, 1991). He is chairman of the Columbia University Seminar on Moral Education, and Supervising Psychologist for the Leake & Watts Children's Homes, in New York.
Dr. Rodrigue Tremblay is a Canadian-born economist, humanist and political figure. He has developed an extremely valuable curriculum on humanist and comparative ethics. Below is the topical outline of the course:
1. -- Definitions of ethics and morality.
2. -- Humanist manifestos I, II and III
3. -- Various Ethical Codes during history
4. -- Humanist morality and humanist principles
4.1 -- Dignity and equality -- equality between men and women religions and slavery
4.2 -- Property rights: life and other properties, public and private Property, economic efficiency, liberty and social justice, ownership rights and the human genome, the environment and property rights, the right to die with dignity, the issue of abortion, contemporary moral dilemmas
4.3 -- Tolerance and the Empathy Principle -- the empathy principle, open and democratic societies, the rule of law
4.4 - Sharing -- private and collective charity, the principle of the greatest social good, international solidarity and sharing
4.5 -- Humanism and Domination - economic exploitation of workers, sexual exploitation, financial exploitation, human gullibility in religious matters
4.6 -- Humanism and Superstitions -- the religious market for certainties and superstitions, organized religions as social and political support networks, religious thinking, reason and rationality, monism and dualism: the mind-body split, neuroscience and the explanation of spirituality and religion, science and the scientific method, superstitions surrounding natural and random events, separation of church and state, humanist rites of passage
4.7 -- Humanism and the Environment -- natural catastrophes, the paradox of pollution and climate change, creationism and evolution
4.8 -- Humanism and Wars -- fundamentalist religions and moral judgment, intergroup and international violence public morality and the Just War tradition, religions and violence
4.9 -- Political and Economic Democracy -- democracy vs theocratic totalitarianism, religion and American politics, the main dangers to democracy: state-sponsored propaganda, concentration of media ownership and campaign financing, the right to political opposition and to change the government excessive, concentration of wealth and income poverty and economic stagnation
4. 10 - Education -- development, progress and prosperity role of the Internet, religions vs. knowledge 5. -- Problems in Implementing Ethical Rules -- the social contract, humanistic behavior and its consequences, freely accepted morality, "freeloaders and cheaters"
The required reading is the book he authored, The Code for Global Ethics, the Humanist Way which we have described in Category B. 6. 2. The book provides a moral compass for anyone who seeks to follow its principles in order to think and act as a humanist.
To learn more about this course, contact Dr. Tremblay by email: Rodrigue.tremblay@yahoo.com
To contact him by regular mail: Professor Emeritus Rodrigue Tremblay, Department of Economics, Université de Montréal,
Montréal, (Québec), Canada, H3C 3J7
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