Even today, much of our explicit moral teaching, even when it is not sermonizing, suggests that it is a special subject, separate from others (Schilpp, 259).
The first important point that Dewey makes is that moral principles are an integral part of the social life of mankind; that the school is a form of man's social life, not a preparation for one. Although the teaching of morals in children may be distinguished from what they learn and how they learn, it is never t be separated from it. Moral attitudes are acquired in school throughout the entire course of the education. That is, as the child learns different curriculum, he is also acquiring moral principles and applying them to new ideas and social interactions (Ozmon, Craver 151).
Dewey's approach therefore undermines the conception of morality as something brought in from outside the experience of the child, as merely a command from some adult authority reinforced by fear or bribes (Democracy, 93). What is true for adults is also true, within the limits of their growth and understanding, of children. "The moral life is lived only as the individual .
appreciates for himself the ends for which he is working and does his work in a personal spirit of interest and devotion to these ends" (Moral Principles, 117-121).
Dewey explains that the child truly learns this moral sense, as evidenced in his behavior and interactions with others, by being trained in all areas that elicit interaction and testing or carrying out ideas (Stuhr 326). In other words, by being taught in a methodology that allows the child to put into practice the concepts he is being instructed. Instead of being merely told, the child is encouraged to problem solve by himself and sometimes by interacting with others. This helps instill a strong moral foundation that extends beyond mimicking adult behavior. If this type of instruction is provided through the guidance of a good teacher, certain habitual behavior patterns are formed.
