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The
Six E's of Character Education |
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to Curriculum Resources |
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Politicians
call for it. State education departments write memos about it. Parents
and schools now agree on the need for it.
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| "It"
is character education, and lately more and more educators are looking
for ways to present and model the definition of it: to help each child
know the good, love the good, and do the good. |
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| Like
many human endeavors, it's easier to talk about character education than
to actually do it. Since many secular teacher education programs dismiss
the entire field of moral, ethical and character education, a great hole
exists in teacher preparation. But there's hope. |
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| Over
the years I have developed six E's of character education: example, explanation,
exhortation, ethos (ethical environment), experience and expectations of
excellence. The six concepts will help educators promote morality within
each student and in the class and school environments. |
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| 1.
Example |
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| Example
is probably the most obvious way to model character education. While I'm
not suggesting that teachers be saints, they should take their moral lives
seriously by modeling upright behavior. Students imitate their trusted teachers. |
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| One
middle school social studies teacher emphasizes biographies in his curriculum.
"When my students studied Harriet Tubman, I had them perform skits
with Tubman as the central character," says the New Hampshire teacher,
referring to the great abolitionist. "The skits taught them about courage
and self-sacrifice. We then placed a poster of Tubman in the classroom so
the students would remember her." |
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| 2.
Explanation |
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| We
need to practice moral education by means of explanation — not simply
stuffing students' heads with rules and regulations, but engaging them in
great moral conversations about the human race. The very existence of this
dialogue helps make us human. |
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| A
private school teacher, tired and discouraged by the hostility of her sophomore
students, explained the meaning of friendship to them. |
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| "Many
had never heard that values like compassion and trustworthiness are needed
to be a true friend," says the Boston educator. She also had her students
read essays on friendship by Cicero and C.S. Lewis. "My students began
to understand what it means to be a friend," she says. |
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| Forty
years ago, as an undergraduate at the University of Toronto, I sat dazed
listening to Marshall McLuhan, then an obscure literature teacher, rambling
about the medium being the message. I see now that his point is relevant
to schooling and the moral education of children. Our continual explanation
of the rules is one of the most important messages of school. |
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| 3.
Exhortation |
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| A
child discouraged by academic, athletic or artistic failure often needs
something stronger than sweet reason to ward off self-pity. So do students
who passively attend school, flirt with racist ideas and get denied entrance
into a college of their choice. Sincere exhortation is needed. |
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| When
a fifth-grade class in upstate New York learned of its low scores on a statewide
test, the teacher exhorted her students with pep talks. "I also led
them in discussions about the qualities of a good student," she says.
"My class felt that a good student achieved good grades. But I helped
them understand that a good student is also someone who makes class contributions,
does homework and assists other students." |
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| Use
exhortation sparingly and never stray far from explanation. But appeal to
the best interests of the young and urge them to move in the proper direction
when the need arises. |
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| 4.
Ethos (or Ethical Environment) |
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| A
classroom is a small society with patterns and rituals, power relationships
and standards for both academic performance and student behavior. Moral
climate influences classroom environment. |
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| Does
the teacher respect the students? Do students respect one another? Are the
classroom rules fair and fairly exercised? Does the teacher play favorites?
Are ethical questions and issues about "what ought to be" part
of the classroom dialogue? |
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| Disgusted
by the bad language used by their students, members of a New Hampshire senior
high faculty joined forces to stamp out rudeness and obscenity use. At an
in service just before the school year started, they discussed ways to promote
a more positive climate in their classrooms and around campus. |
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"When
the students arrived on the first school day," recalls their principal,
"I announced that we were all going to work towards using a new kind
of language, one free from obscenities and rudeness. We got the students
involved in changing their crude environments into better ones.
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| There
is little doubt that the ethical climate within a classroom promotes a steady
and strong influence in the formation of character and the student's sense
of what's right and wrong. |
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| 5.
Experience |
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Today's
young people have smaller and less stable families than kids two generations
ago. A modern house or apartment offers fewer tasks for children other than
the laundry and dishes, the trash and a few other light chores. Without
the discipline of work-related chores, students have difficulty
building sturdy self-concepts. |
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| Today's
young people also exist in the self-focused, pleasure-dominated world of
MTV, promiscuity, drugs, or simply "hanging out." Only rare and
fortunate teenagers have experiences that help them break out of self interest
mode and learn to contribute to others. |
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| Many
schools respond by providing students both in-and out-of-school opportunities
to serve. Within such schools, students help other students; older children
often help younger ones learn academic or physical skills. Students also
help teachers, librarians or other staff members with routine clerical tasks. |
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| Out-of-school
programs represent a larger departure from the ordinary. They enable students
to provide services to individuals in need, such as a blind shut-in or a
mother with a mildly retarded child. Other students volunteer in understaffed
agencies, such as retirement homes or day care centers. |
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| School
staff members serve as troubleshooters between students and the individuals
or agencies in need of assistance. Such service programs teach valuable
humanitarian skills. |
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| Through
these activities, abstract concepts like justice and community become real
as students see the faces of the lives they touch. Students begin to appreciate
the need to couple moral thinking with moral action. |
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| 6.
Expectations of Excellence |
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| Children
need standards and the skills to achieve them. They need to see themselves
as students engaged in a continuing pursuit of excellence. |
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| When
the faculty of the Dexter School in Brookline, Massachusetts, discussed
ways to boost high standards, it created the motto, "Our best today,
better tomorrow." That brought home the concept in a focused way to
the students of this private boys’ school. The teachers there encourage
their students and help them to set reasonable standards and work toward
their goals. |
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| These
standards of excellence in school work and behavior will encourage students
to develop qualities like perseverance and determination, and those virtues
will affect every aspect of the children's lives as they mature. |
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| Academic
studies change rapidly; what we discuss in class today becomes passé
tomorrow. But the values, moral influences and noteworthy characteristics
we model and discuss will outlast academic facts and figures. We can leave
our students a legacy that will remain constant throughout life: to know
the good, love the good and do the good. |
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Copyright
2002
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| Center
for the Advancement of Ethics and Character |
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