At “Handmaids”, moral education cuts across the curriculum and is appropriately integrated into all courses as well as into the extra-curricular activities and ethos of the School. The subject, Christian religious knowledge makes a valuable contribution to the moral spirit.
Morality is taught both implicitly and explicitly and the goal of teaching moral education is the development of character or virtue. Two approaches that cut across the curriculum are employed to tackle the two quite different tasks in moral education. The first is moral socialisation, and it is the task of nurturing in students those virtues and values that make them good people while the second task is to provide students with the intellectual resources that enable them to make informed and responsible judgments about difficult matters of moral importance.
The School is a community of character formation in which responsibility, hard work, honesty, and kindness are modelled, taught, expected, celebrated, and continually practiced. Its moral ethos is embodied in rules, rewards and punishments, dress codes, honour codes, student government, relationships, styles of teaching, extracurricular emphasis, art, and in the kinds of respect accorded students and teachers. Through this ethos, children are socialised into patterns of moral behaviour. The School generally conveys to pupils what is expected of them, what is normal, what is right and wrong because it has the obligation to foster in its students virtues such as integrity, courage, responsibility, diligence, service, and respect for the dignity of all persons.
Our teachers do not impose their values on students but lead them towards clarification of their own values through reflections on moral dilemmas and contemplations on the consequences of available choices, thereby enabling them choose actions that maximize their deepest values.
Teaching Methods
Nursery 1-2
At this stage, moral wisdom is gained by pupils through listening to great stories such as Bible tales, literature, works of art, history, and biographies of great persons as told by teachers.
Basic 1-2
The curriculum at this stage aims to acquaint the child to acquire good habits through the reading of books on morality then this is followed by class discussions.
In basic 2, the same themes as those of basic 1 are dealt with more intensively.
Basic 3-4
At this stage, pupils listen to narratives or discuss deeds of the social and individual morality as concerned with moderation, sincerity, simplicity, kindness, courage, and generosity. We aim to give the child an understanding of the value of labour, a spirit of cooperation with others, an observance of promises, an understanding of other persons and appreciation of duties to one’s family and nation.
In basic 3, the same themes as those of basic 4 are dealt with more intensively.
Basic 5-6
The curriculum at this stage aims to guide the child towards consciousness and respect for people, character formation, an understanding of one’s duties in life as an individual, at home and in society. It also aims to inculcate patriotism and facilitate elementary knowledge of the legislative, administrative and judicial systems. Intensive reading on morality also occurs at this stage to enable students encounter a vocabulary and framework for thinking about morality and the human condition that will enable critical distance from the secular ideas and ideals acquired from elsewhere.