Page 110 - 2022(1) International Confusion Studies

The Confucian Ethics Curriculum in Singapore 103

3 Features of the Curriculum

We must first recognize that the political leaders of Singapore did not promote the
study of Confucian ethics among secondary school students out of their
conviction and reverence for Confucianism. They did so because they believed
that the economic success achieved by many of the East Asian countries and
regions (such as Japan, South Korea, Singapore, and China’sTaiwan and Hong
Kong) after the war was due to the character andspiritoftheir people,which were
shaped in large part by the Confucian ethics they had inherited from history.
According to their understanding, the Chinese societies outside the mainland of
China, and the countries of Japan and South Korea have achieved social vitality
and economic successes, because traditional Confucian ethics are the core of
their ethnic or national culture, and their people emphasize harmony, discipline,
and morality, and are motivated and hardworking. The reason why Singapore
was actively promoting the Confucian ethics curriculum in secondary schools
was to reinforce this cultural tradition in its society, at least among the Chinese
community, so that this social foundation for the country’s economic develop-
ment could be maintained.
Traditionally, the moral outlook of the people in East Asian societies was
mainly shaped by the exemplary words and deeds of the senior members of the
clans or families, or by the example of social leaders and elders. However, after
the modernization of their societies, especially after the impact of foreign ideas
linked to the development of the global economy, the inherent folk traditions of
these countries have become diluted. Singapore’s national leaders even felt that
the situation in their country might be more serious than in other East Asian
countries and regions because of the widespread of English education in
Singapore since the 1950s. Therefore, they concluded that a remedial way might
be using the schools to replace (or supplement) the family for continuing the
tradition. But it was not a simple matter to replace the blood-bonded family with
a secularized school to inculcate moral values. It must be done in a systematic
and disciplined way, rather than a casual manner as in the family context. The
most challenging aspect of the effort was how to extract the Confucian “ethics”
that originated in ancient patriarchal societies into “virtues” that were suitable
for modern society. In short, the issue was how to extract the essence of tradi-
tional Confucianism from a modern perspective. This is the reason by which the
Singaporean authorities needed to go to the trouble of producing a set of
Confucian Ethics curriculum.