Message from the Director
New Developments in Moral Education Following the Establishment of the Center for Moral Science and Education
In his vision for establishing a “Moralogy College”, Chikuro Hiroike defined our university’s dormitory system as “taking priority over the regular university curriculum” and being a “source of fundamental principles for shaping the integrity of students”. Upon its foundation in 1935, the college adopted a “full boarding system”, supporting students through activities within the educational dormitories themselves, where the “ability to exercise self-discipline” is developed. Although non-boarders began to be accepted in 1986, the current boarding facilities are still designated as “educational dormitories”, and managed under an autonomous system led by student dormitory managers. At the university, the Assistant President in charge of university-wide student support and the staff of the student administration section in charge of dormitory affairs have organized a “Dormitory Management Seminar” to help solve the various dormitory management problems and to promote students’ spiritual development.
Among the initiatives of student support outside the dormitory setting is the “Leadership Seminar”, which focuses upon the leaders of extracurricular activities (i.e. university clubs and circles), and tries to refine the leaders’ personal capacities through the process of having consideration for and giving assistance to other people. In a move further to expand and enhance the “Dormitory Management” and “Leadership” seminars, a university-wide leadership seminar was held in February 2008. This direction will be pursued further in the coming months, (1) building a university-wide student support framework which focuses on “leader support”, and (2) forging collaborations with other student support programs from the perspective of lifelong education.
Other instances of our social contribution include: (1) mobilizing the assistance of students from overseas in teaching local elementary and middle school students about international understanding; (2) making practical applications of what is taught in the “Volunteerism” class (taken by around 150 students per year); (3) organizing international networking sessions with exchange students; (4) offering a “Thai Study Tour” under the initiative of Foreign Studies College professor Shigeru Takehara as a form of practical education to build up international understanding, and (5) providing a student-led support program called RIFA (Reitaku International Friendship Association) to assist students from overseas.
The Practical Implementation of Moral Education
In 2009, Reitaku University celebrates its 50th anniversary, and, as part of the commemorations, decided in April 2008 to start realigning the entire university structure to enhance the depth of its moral education. Following the Bible’s teaching of “new wine must be put into new bottles”, we have established the Center for Moral Science and Education (CMSE) to facilitate the changes.
The Center’s “educational activities” include (1) supporting the administration and developing teaching materials for the “Moral Science” class, and (2) providing students with a venue for moral education. Its “research activities” include (1) studying our founding philosophy, (2) researching moral science (Moralogy), and (3) conducting research on ethics and moral philosophies, and in addition developing the teaching methods of all three of these.
“Make lifelong efforts, achieving constant progress.” The challenges Reitaku faces tower above us, but we set sail bravely, and with a fair wind!
