Page 111 - 2022(1) International Confusion Studies

104 P. F. Neo

Singapore went through a process of deliberate planning in developing the
Confucian Ethics curriculum. Confucianism has a self-contained canon as well
as well-defined methods to teach its well-articulated doctrines. However,
Singapore did not advocate teaching Confucianism word by word, chapter by
chapter, or piece by piece, according to the original Confucian classics. Dr Goh
Keng Swee believed that “the conventional approach of going through the Four
Books and take extracts” should not be the way to teach Confucian ethics in a
modern society. He told the reporters that the government, after listening to the
advice of foreign experts such as Tu Wei-ming, decided to adopt their proposal
by first drawing up a clear teaching objective and then devising a method of
curriculum development to ensure that this objective could be achieved. The
teaching goal was to use the curriculum to ensure “the development of the
moral person in a social environment.” (Lim, 1982, p. 1) This means that the
authors of the textbooks should first set up a framework, and then follow this
format to enhance this predetermined structure by drawing appropriate con-
tents from the various Confucian classics. The shape of this framework was the
so-called “social environment.” From the texts, we can see that the “social
environment” for which the textbooks were intended was individuals, families,
communities (schools and workplaces), and the country that were closely
related to the students’ growth. It was with this social environment in mind that
the textbooks writers extracted Confucian materials for shaping students into
moral or ethical persons.
For example, in order to make students aware of the necessity of cultivating
their body and mind (Lesson 7 of the Textbook Secondary Three), the authors first
5
quoted “That whereby man differs from the lower animals is but small” from “Li
Lou II” of Mencius (《孟子 · 离娄下》). This was done to draw the students’
attention to the topic. Then, the authors stated that, “The small difference is that
man is born with a good nature.” The text then goes on to say that “man has to
maintain this nature by cultivation” to be different from the lower animals. The text
also quotes from “Great Learning”of The Book of Rites (《礼记 · 大学》), “Their
persons being cultivated, their families were regulated. Their families being
regulated, their states were rightly governed. Their states being rightly governed,
the whole kingdom was made tranquil and happy. From the Son of Heaven down to
the mass of the people, all must consider the cultivation of the person the root of
everything else.” This is done to ensure students understand that the cultivation of
the person is actually closely related to the harmony and stability of the whole

5 https://ctext.org/dictionary.pl?if=gb&id=1718&remap=gb.