Character education
Character education is the teaching of virtuous attitudes, behaviors, and practices aimed at fostering good moral and ethical conduct in children. It equips students with essential values and skills needed for positive interactions within their families, schools, and communities. Historically rooted in American public education, character education has faced challenges over the years, particularly with the increasing emphasis on academic subjects limiting its prominence. In the twenty-first century, a renewed movement advocates for its integration into school curricula, although debates persist regarding the appropriate values to teach and the methods for doing so. Supporters argue that character education enhances academic performance, improves school environments, and prepares students to be responsible citizens. However, varying cultural perspectives complicate this initiative, leading to concerns about the inclusivity and appropriateness of certain values being taught. While many agree on the importance of virtues like honesty, respect, and compassion, the methods of teaching character remain contested. Despite the challenges, public opinion tends to favor character education, recognizing its potential benefits for student behavior and overall school climate.
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Character education
Character education is the process of teaching children virtuous attitudes, behaviors, and practices that will help them develop good moral and ethical conduct. It provides them with the values and skills they need to function well in their families, schools, and communities. Character education was traditionally integrated into what children were taught in school, but an increased focus on academic subjects limited the amount of time and effort most schools put into character development. A movement began in the twenty-first century to return character education to greater prominence; however, controversy has arisen as various factions discuss and debate which values are appropriate to teach and how best to teach them.
Background
From the earliest days of American public education, schools included lessons aimed at developing children's character. The schools and the people who lived around them and supported them generally shared the same faith tradition and values. Thus, children were exposed to the same value system at home and in school. One of the main concerns early colonists had when forming schools was teaching children to read and understand the Bible. Indeed, children often learned to read using the Bible, and they absorbed the lessons in morality that it taught as they learned.
Even after the Bible was replaced with reading books, moral lessons continued. The famous McGuffey Readers, the more popular of the two common readers in use for decades, relied on Bible stories and other stories that featured character-developing values. They were first published in 1836 and sold more than 120 million copies by 1960. They continue to be used in some schools and as part of home school curricula.
In time, other texts came into greater favor as educators began to believe that teaching morality was more complex and could not be handled adequately in the school classroom. Some educators thought that the subjective nature of character education made it less suitable for students than academic subjects. In addition, the increased diversity of students due to immigration meant that children from different cultures were being educated together, and these cultures did not always share the same beliefs and values.
Character education faced additional hurdles from legal challenges to using religious materials to teach values and morals. Schools became cautious about teaching anything that might offend or insult people and soon began shying away from teaching anything related to morality and character development. This, combined with a number of socioeconomic factors that converged in the 1960s, caused what some educators saw as an overall decline in character in American schools.
Interest in character education reemerged in the 1980s. By the early 1990s, several organizations gathered to promote teaching values in schools. These included the Wingspread Conference held in Racine, Wisconsin, in 1992, which encouraged the formation of a national coalition to help schools create and establish new character development curricula; the Josephson Institute of Ethics conference in Aspen, Colorado, also held in 1992, which created a declaration of character education that called for the teaching of morals and values to help benefit students and prepare them to be part of an ethical, democratic community; and the Character Education Partnership, Inc., which formed in 1993 and included many people who participated in one of the 1992 conferences and who were dedicated to improving society by helping students develop good character.
In the twenty-first century, schools take different approaches to character education. Some provide separate lessons or sessions dedicated to teaching moral concepts and ethical skills through exercises, worksheets, videos, and other materials. Other schools integrate morality lessons into the overall curriculum. For instance, these schools may use English reading assignments as opportunities to discuss a character's emotions and behavior or a history lesson as a chance to discuss civic responsibility. However, universal agreement on what should be taught or how it should be taught does not exist. The same issues that arose in the middle of the twentieth century and led to the removal of character education from schools are still a problem as educators struggle to teach values to students who come from different cultures and value systems.
Overview
Character education deliberately introduces students to materials intended to teach them values such as honesty, responsibility, respect, perseverance, courage, compassion, justice, and patience. These virtues are nearly universally appreciated and considered good because they support the well-being of a person and his or her community. Most people think favorably of people who exhibit these characteristics and strive to uphold them in their own lives.
Those who support including character education in school curricula say that it improves students' academic performance, makes schools safer and more conducive to learning, and prepares students to become reliable, participating citizens and contributing members of society. Some studies have found that students feel more comfortable in schools that emphasize character because they can trust that their fellow students will act honestly and with respect and compassion. Many of those who support character education endorse a method in which school staff, including administrators, teachers, coaches, and support staff, expect and model ethical, moral behavior.
While few people would say they oppose character education, some do oppose the means used to accomplish character education. They raise questions about the values and morals being taught, especially when those values or methods are closely associated with one particular cultural or faith tradition. For example, a school that decided to use Bible-based readings as part of a morality curriculum would likely run into opposition from people who practice non-Christian faiths.
In addition, some question the validity of teaching character and values in schools. Some studies have shown the advantages of character education, such as documented improved test scores and student behavior and decreased instances of violence, bullying, vandalism, and other criminal activity, but others have not found the same correlation. Nevertheless, most people surveyed in Gallup polls favored teaching elements of character education such as honesty, acceptance of people from different backgrounds, and the "Golden Rule" to treat others as they would like to be treated.
Bibliography
Almagor, Lelac. "Whose Character?" Boston Review, 26 Nov. 2013, bostonreview.net/us/lelac-almagor-character-education-inherent-flaws-schools. Accessed 23 Dec. 2024.
"A Brief History of Character Education in America." Waarden & Normen, www.waarden.org/studie/concepten/history.html. Accessed 23 Dec. 2024.
“Character Education….Our Shared Responsibility.” U.S. Department of Education, www.ed.gov/sites/ed/files/admins/lead/character/brochure.pdf. Accessed 23 Dec. 2024.
Lahey, Jessica. "The Benefits of Character Education." The Atlantic, 6 May 2013, www.theatlantic.com/national/archive/2013/05/the-benefits-of-character-education/275585/. Accessed 23 Dec. 2024.
Wilce, Hilary. "How Do We Prevent 'Character Education' from Becoming a Faddy Bandwagon That Rolls on By?" Independent, 7 Apr. 2015, www.independent.co.uk/news/education/schools/how-do-we-prevent-character-education-from-becoming-a-faddy-bandwagon-that-rolls-on-by-10163673.html. Accessed 23 Dec. 2024.