Character Education: From the Perspective of Confucian Ethics

The crisis of modern character education is caused largely by the crisis of modernity. A series of campaigns of modernity against morality have posed a serious threat to moral education of the schools on the whole, including the character education. Characters are not just about making the right moral decisions. Without the proper and comprehensive character education, we can only have the soulless excellence of moral education, which can only produce the hollow people. With regard to the deep crisis of modern character education, Confucian ethics has provided us with a great many insightful and fundamental ideas about how to overcome the crisis, such as teaching the characters on the basis of practical moral wisdom, focusing on the practical meaning of learning in the process of character education, and emphasizing the importance of the life-long character education for all moral agents. Above all, Confucianism places great emphasis on the value of surpassing the weakness of will by the constant and virtuous practice of the characters.