信息时代中的青少年德育

Moral Education of the Youth in the Information Age

在华人社会,道德教育一直以来都是教育最基本的组成部分,因为培养有道德的人是教育的首要任务。道德教育的实施,其实是培植那些反映道德标准的价值观。然而,信息时代的出现及充斥在互联网上的大量信息,已改变了教育的方式,并向传统的道德教育发出挑战。在这一背景下,我们建议中国的教育工作者应寻求实践道德教育的新途径,以迎接网络世界的出现。崇高空洞的道德标准应让位给简洁易懂的观念,比如“尊重”。我们应该积极的去探索“网络世界”中的信息和观念,而不是一味的避免。有启发性和适切的道德教育应建基于儿童和青少年的发展需要和真正兴趣之上。华人社会的德育工作者,包括学校教师,家长,非正式教育的组织者,都应共同努力去了解虚拟的网络世界,并设计出可行的方法来适应新形势下的教育需要。

As fostering people with certain morals is the first-line task of education, moral education has always been the elementary part of education in Chinese societies. The implementation of moral education in essence is to implant those values that reflect the moral standards. The emergence of the Information Age, with a plethora of information and ideas being disseminated instantly through informational technologies, has altered the educational landscape of the world and challenged the conventional approach to moral education. Given this context, we argue that it is important for Chinese educators to find an alternative approach to moral education that can embrace the new realities of our networked world. In this approach, lofty moral ideals should give way to simple and easily understood concepts such as respect. Information and ideas in the ＂cyber world＂ should be explored rather than shunned, and the genuine interests of children and the youth should form the basis of moral education that is relevant and enlightening. In proposing this approach to moral education, we also assume that moral educators in Chinese societies, which include school teachers, parents, and organizers of nonformal education programs, would endeavor to understand the virtual cyber world and devise feasible ways to suit the educational needs under the new situation.