Lecture On Moral Education For The New Era
By Prof Thomas Leung

The lecture jointly organised by Soka Gakkai Malaysia, the Association of Confucianism Malaysia and Sin Chew Jit Poh, drew an enthusiastic crowd of over 400 participants.

Dr Leung is the President and Founder of the Culture Regeneration Research Society (CRRS), a non-profit and non-political organisation. The CRRS aims to promote understanding and harmony among Chinese culture, Christian thoughts and Western ideas through research, interaction, and integration.

Prof Leung's lecture, humorous and thought-provoking, focused on the differences between the Eastern and Western education approaches. He observed that the geographical and natural habitat has a profound influence on people. "Living by the sea that stretches beyond the horizons, and living inland surrounded by vast grassland or mountainous terrain would impact on how people view nature and the world they live in ... The West has a tendency to want to conquer the nature. People from the East, on the other hand, wish to co-exist with nature."

Prof Leung also remarked that the current education systems of the West and the East have some serious flaws. The former, with an emphasis on freedom and self-expression, tends to lead to extreme self-indulgence and the development of self-centredness. The Eastern education system, on the other spectrum, emphasises group consciousness that leads to the suppression of individual creativity. Taken to the extremes, the two systems are not conducive to character building and the cultivation of critical thinking.

What then is the best approach to take in education? What is the basis of Dr Leung's moral education in the new era? He concluded that it must be inspired by something bigger than oneself, based on the conviction that every human being possesses kindness and consideration, in short humanity.

People are capable of developing altruistic qualities if they are taught to bring them out. He also said that moral education can only be effective if there is self-discipline. We live in a world that is rapidly changing. Our education system must evolve to help people cope and manage the ever changing phenomena around them in a meaningful way.

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