Current trends in ethical/moral instruction are placed in context by tracing educational and social change from the 19th century to the present. The focus on religion for salvation and on good behavior lasted in modified form well into the 19th century. In the late 19th century curriculum in the schools changed due to immigration, industrialism, urbanization, and modernization. In colleges, the moral philosophy course faded as Freudian psychology, behaviorism, and the social sciences replaced ethics courses. The ethical/moral atmosphere in the public school also declined. Both the Depression and World War II shocked educators into a renewed search for curriculum unity and moral uplift. Major curriculum revision in the natural and social sciences occurred after Sputnik in 1957. The 1960's and early 1970's saw modern anxiety manifested in protests, crime, drug use, and divorce. Resources were limited, inflation soared, the work ethic declined, and the women's movement became strong. These events influenced the focus on humanism, values clarification, moral development, and moral reasoning in education, particularly in higher education, where ethics courses have multiplied since the 1960's. These approaches contrast greatly with Soviet education, for example, which openly indoctrinates its students in loyalty to the mother country. (KC)