sued must be regarded by him as instruments for attaining an ethical result."[1]
Granted, then, that the ultimate purpose of the school is an ethical one, and that the teachers must themselves be men and women of character, it must now be asked, How is the school to perform this task of moral education?
On this question there are two sharply contrasted views, which have divided the educational world into two opposed camps. One party holds that the ends of moral education are most effectively promoted by moral instruction, the other that moral education, to be of any value, must be either primarily or wholly moral training. The aim of moral training is to help the child to form good habits of conduct; moral instruction seeks to give the child right ideas about conduct. Moral training insists that the important thing in life is that the child should as a matter of fact act rightly. Moral instruction claims that the child should not only act rightly, but should know why he acts rightly.
This difference in aim is reflected in the different methods advocated by the two parties. Moral training is essentially indirect, moral instruction is direct.
Moral training is secured by the discipline of the school, maintained by the authority of the teacher and senior scholars; by the duties and responsibilities which the older children assume in organised school games; by the manifold influences of the corporate life of the school; and by the disciplinary and inspiring effect of the studies of the
- ↑ S. S. Laurie: Institutes of Education, p. ix.
