Page:Ethics and Education.djvu/9

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PREFACE.

Two years ago the Illinois legislature passed a law requiring the teaching of morals in all the public schools of the state for 30 minutes every week. When this law was brought to the attention of teachers at the opening of schools the following September, something approximating panic prevailed. Nobody knew what to do or how to go at it to carry out the provisions of the law. Many teachers, perplexed by the necessity of teaching something they knew nothing whatever about, advocated the repeal of the law as the best way of obtaining relief. It was out of this state of consternation and doubt that this book grew.

“Ethics and Education” is a work primarily for teachers. It was written to meet the demand for information on the relation of ethics to the general educational process. Its thesis is that moral training and culture should be included as one of the cardinal anxieties of education. The subject is treated from the evolutional point of view, as all subjects should