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Moral Education - David Purpel

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Moral Education: An Idea Whose Time Has Gone Author(s): David E. Purpel Source: The Clearing House, Vol. 64, No. 5, Values Education (May - Jun., 1991), pp. 309-312 Published by: Taylor & Francis, Ltd. Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at . http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp . JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact support@jstor.org. . Taylor & Francis, Ltd. is …show more content…

Scholarshipand researchcontinue to erode what were once considered to be universaltruths, everlasting values, and permanent visions. Knowledge and virtue have been relativized, contextualized, deconstructed, and demystified, if not devalued and discounted. Ironically and tragically, the brilliance and force of this scholarshiphas made the once bedrock assumption of education-namely, that "the truth shall make you free"-seem quaint if not hollow. Indeed, the once-liberating solutions to cultural arbitrariness,political autocracy, and intellectual rigidity that marked the Enlightenment have created anguishingproblems of their own. Our skepticism, our individuality, and our criticalness have left us alone, fragmented, and lost. In an era when we yearn to believe, our intellect cautions; in a time when we ache for community, our impulse for autonomy intervenes; and in an era when we desperately seek meaning, David E. Purpel is a professor at the School of Education, University of North Carolina at Greensboro. 309 This content downloaded from 132.174.255.49 on Sat, 14 Sep 2013 15:21:22 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions 310 The Clearing House sion 's better efforts. My critique focuses not only on those hardy authors of moral education theories but also on their criticsand those professionalswho choose

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