On American Moral Education In Early Childhood

Early childhood plays a significant part in a man’s moral development. Those moral concepts and behaviors which appear in his or her adulthood have close connection with the moral training in early childhood. However, for children in early childhood, their capability of moral cognition and moral judgment is far from mature, therefore, it is pretty hard for them to resist harmful temptations and make right moral decisions. In that case, it is of great significance to help them figure out the relationship between the moral development requirement from the society and that of their own, so as to progress their moral understanding and promote their moral behaviors. American moral education in early childhood has formed its special characteristics and a unique way of teaching through long time development, which makes it a successful role model in the field of American moral education. This thesis is aimed at taking a close study on the essence, basic content, way of practice and characteristics of American moral education in early childhood, in order to find out valuable theoretical enlightenments and practical guidance to advance the developmental strategy of moral education in early childhood of our own country.According to the National Association for Education of Yong Children (NAEYC), early childhood education is a series of developmentally appropriate practice programs which are designed for children from born to eight years old. The prevalence of early childhood education in U.S. has certain connection with the change of family structure and the movement of children’s right. And it focuses on the all round development of early childhood, including the physical development and the development of cognition, language and emotion, etc. Meanwhile, three characteristics about American early childhood education can be noticed as follow:first, the philosophy of Children Centered is of great popularity; second, communication between the teachers (care givers) and the children should be based on equality; third, the aim of early childhood education is to encourage their consciousness of self development. American moral education in early childhood is a series of practical programs which are aimed at promoting the moral cognitions, enriching the moral emotions and bettering the moral behaviors for children since born to eight years old. And there are three characteristics can also be concluded as follow:first, the subjectivity of children is highly respected; second, multidisciplinary theoretical integration can be noticed; third, principles and flexibilities are equally strengthened in terms of specific teaching. The social learning theory by Bandura, the pragmatism theory of moral education by John Dewy, the humanism theory of moral education by Lawrence Kohlberg, the prosocial reasoning theory by Eisenberger and the theory of empathy for children in early childhood by Hoffman all together compose the theoretical base of American moral education in early childhood.The basic contents of American moral education in early childhood are citizenship consciousness education, personal character education and religious moral education. To be specific, the citizenship consciousness education is mainly about the rights and obligations of American citizens and the personal characteristic education focuses on the consciousness and behavior of share, cooperation and altruism. In addition, the religious moral education is aimed at developing the sense of indiscriminate love, justice and honesty.While studying on the way of practice of American moral education in early childhood, the design of activities, the arrangement of courses and the policy making should be noticed. First of all, there are three kinds of activities related to moral education in early childhood. They are the family activities which focus on the sympathy of children; the activities in kindergarten which focuses on children’s capability of cooperation and the activities in school which focuses on the sense of responsibilities. Secondly, the courses of American moral education in early childhood are related to citizenship quality, moral principles and moral socialization. Thirdly, a lot of policies have been made to guarantee the practice of American moral education in early childhood. Those policies include financial support for early childhood moral education programs, institutional arrangement for parents’participation and relative strategies for young children from poverty-stricken families.After studying on the theory and practice of American moral education in early childhood, it is necessary to summarize its advantages and disadvantages. For one thing, the moral philosophy of "Children Centered", the guidance of "Self Tutoring" and the practice of "Problem Solving" are the advantages of American moral education in early childhood. For another, the disadvantages can not be ignored as well. For instance, the teacher as a leading role in moral education in early childhood has been downgraded because of overemphasizing the importance of children’s demands. Furthermore, the contradiction between the philosophy of traditional moral education and the circumstances of contemporary moral education is still severe. In addition, the conflict between moral education through experience and moral education through knowledge is obvious too. Therefore, it is of great value to learn good lessons from American moral education in early childhood in order to enhance our moral education for young children. First, it is needed to find out appropriate strategies on moral education for children in early childhood based on the rule of moral development; second, promoting the moral education practice for children in early childhood by institutional arrangement; third, building up a cooperation system of moral education for children in early childhood to integrate the efforts from family, school and society.