Ethical Education for Children and Teens
American Ethical Union Religious Education strives
to provide ethical education in the member Ethical Societies of the AEU.
Our goal is to encourage parents to work with their children on
an alternate way of doing religion that focuses on values, moral
decision making and living with the difficulties one is faced with
growing up in the world.
The AEU provides curriculum, activities and support for
those societies that have an RE program. Usually these larger societies
have a Director of Religious Education (DRE) who works with the
children’s programming. When contacting an Ethical Society you should
ask if it has a DRE.
The DREs are supported by an RE Committee and a
National Director. There is an extensive RE library available to DREs
and the RE Committee produces AEU curriculum on a regular basis. A
Conference/Retreat is held yearly for enhancing the work of DREs across
the country. Contact the AEU office for more information.
(News on the RE Conference/Retreat is posted on the home page of this
site when it is received.)
Sample curriculum materials:
Download Free Ethical Heroes coloring books.
Appropriate for preschool thru early elementary aged kids. These
coloring books were created by the Religious Education Committee of
the American Ethical Union. (In PDF files for easy downloading
and printing - may require Adobe
Reader 7.0 or later):
The Love Your Neighbor curriculum was written
by the Religious Education committee of the American Ethical Union.
It accompanies the book of the same name, written by Arthur Dobrin,
the Leader Emeritus of the Long
Island Ethical Humanist Society. The Dobrin book of stories is available
through Scholastic books. This curriculum is appropriate
for preschool through early elementary aged children. The
curriculum includes lessons to go along with the 13 stories in the
book. Lessons include art projects, songs, dramatic play, and
discussion questions. Materials for the lessons are primarily basic
easy-to-find supplies. These lessons can be used with a Sunday
School group or at home with your family. For each lesson, key
Ethical Core Values are identified. The stories in the book Love
Your Neighbor were originally written to be shared with an
intergenerational group at the beginning of platform. They are
enjoyed by all ages.