Education
- “What ought I to do?” is the great ethical question for everyone, and
- “How does this question affect my commitment to all humankind?” is the great ethical question for capital-H Humanists.
Answering these questions leads to the perfect formula for bringing up ethically minded children because Humanism is the resolve to think for oneself without imagining devils, fairies, gods, magic and other imagined supernatural forces.
Therefore the ethics lessons are participatory rather than dogmatic so that the children can feel free to study all views. The lessons are most suitable for use by parents in the home. (The science lessons can be delivered with the resources of an ordinary home kitchen probably much more easily than a schoolroom.). Children need tools to think for themselves, and they will master more if they can enjoy themselves whilst thinking. Any one given view ceases to be unique.
In the result Humanist ethics is applied ethics in everyday life. For Humanist’s children their daily behaviour at school should be exemplary regarding caring, diligence and honesty. This ethics course supports the ethics of a nominally secular education system.
For the Preface (including contents and indexes), together with manuals for each age level and a demonstration lesson, please go to the sub-menus!
The course is based on human experience without appeal to the idea of any hypothetical supernatural person. The familiar three-letter name (begins with capital “G”) is not used in any lesson.
The course is linked here both in turning pages format and as PDFs, namely, Preface, Ages 4 – 6, Age 7, Age 8, Age 9, Age 10, Age 11 and Age 12
Demonstration lessons:- Your Life as a Trick (Age 4 – 6), George Washington’s Hatchet (Age 4 – 6), Little Dutch Boy (Ages 9 and 10), Tom Sawyer (Ages 11 and 12) and Waltzing Matilda (Age 12).
[...] Census data from the ‘religion question’ are used to guide government funding. They are also taken by governments, media, politicians, researchers and many others as an accurate picture of religious allegiance. Wouldn’t it be great if ‘No religion’ numbers match social survey data? These show over 40% of Australians live without religion. Read more in July newsletter [...]