This curriculum on moral education was the first in the science of education that Durkheim offered at the Sorbonne in 1902-1903. He had for some time outlined it out in his teaching at Bordeaux. He repeated it later, e.g., in 1906-1907, without change or editing. The course included twenty lectures. The authors of the book present only eighteen; the first two dealt with methods of teaching. The introductory lecture was published in January 1903 in the Revue de métaphysique et de morale and replicated in the small volume Éducation et Sociologie, published in 1922.
Durkheim wrote out his lectures wholly. The textual reproduction of his manuscript is presented in the book. The provided corrections are merely matters of form or are substantively insignificant, and in any case, they do not affect the thought.
Emile Durkheim argues on the issues of different factors in the sphere of education and provides their own sociological concepts on the matters of education.
The first part of the book is dedicated to moral factors in the sphere of education. Secular morality is regarded as educator itself. As the educational process can not be regarded as a science, it must supply answers to vital needs that brook no delay.
The second important factor of education is discipline. It is possible to distinguish two periods in childhood: the first, taking place almost totally within the family or the nursery school; the second, in elementary school, when the child starts leaving the family circle, is initiated into a larger environment. This is called the second stage of childhood. This is indeed a significant moment in the development of moral character. Before that, the child is still very infantile; his intellectual development is quite elementary, and his emotional life is too simple and underdeveloped. Exactly in this period of life child’s mind is like clay, and discipline should be instilled.
Self-determination is one of the most crucial factors in education. Without it, a child will not be able to find oneself in this life and choose the necessary information from the informational stream. This factor was crucial at the beginning of the 20th century (when Durkheim lived), but nowadays, its actuality has extremely risen. It also includes the definition of the contradictions between the good and the obligatory, the individual and group, between the limitation imposed by the role, and the self-willed unfolding of human nature. Moral reality is at once complex and a single whole. However, its unity derives from that of the concrete being that serves as its foundation, the nature of which is expressed in morality – that is to say, society.
Some factors which Durkheim describes are not of a current interest more. One of these is punishment at school. Children are not forced to study. The teachers must get a child interested in it. So, the punishment may be only from the side of parents. But the importance of awards stays relevant as always.
Another part of educational sociology which is regarded in the book is the role of environment, and school environment in particular. Durkheim regards it in several parts, which are altruism and attachment to something outside oneself. These parts have often been presented as a sort of unexplained, unexpected, almost inexplicable faculty, by reason of which man does violence to his original nature and contradicts it.
Summarizing all the said above, it is necessary to say that Emile Durkheim made rather a great contribution to sociology and education in sociology in particular. All the described factors can be considered crucial enough in the sphere of sociology of pedagogic. The made research involves the basis for the nowadays educational science and used in most pedagogical concepts. Moreover, the importance of the book may also be regarded from the historical position, as the scientific works of the beginning of the 20th century give us the opportunity to realize the condition of sociological studies at that time, which are usually caused by public opinion and social ambiances.
References
Durkheim, Emile. Moral Education: A Study in the Theory and Application of the Sociology of Education. Trans. Herman Schnurer and Everett K. Wilson. Ed. Everett K. Wilson. New York: Free Press of Glencoe, 1961.