MelArete: A Research Project to Promote Ethical Education in Kindergarten and Primary School

MelArete is a research project on ethical education realized in some Italian kindergartens and primary schools by the Melete Center of the University of Verona. The paper presents: the ethical theory at the basis of the project, which is rooted in the ancient philosophy, with particular reference to the Aristotelian and Socratic perspective, and in the contemporary philosophy of care; the educative experience realized for the children, that is structured in the following typologies of activities: thinking through stories, reasoning together, writing the diary of virtues, debating vignettes, inventing stories and playing with virtues; the empirical research carried out on the first edition of the project in order to qualitatively evaluate its effectiveness, based on the results obtained from the children’s answers to the following question: “What have you kept in your heart and in your mind about the MelArete project?”, asked at the end of the educative experience.