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Frequently
Asked Questions |
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| 1.
What is character education? |
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Character
education is not an educational trend or the school’s latest
fad. It is an essential and inescapable mission of schools. The
goal of character education is to help children to develop good
dispositions that will enable them to flourish intellectually, personally
and socially.
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| Character
education does not amount to simply a lesson or course, a quick-fix
program, or a slogan posted on the wall. It is an integral part of
school life. With intentional, thoughtful character education, schools
can become communities in which virtues such as responsibility, hard
work, honesty and kindness are taught, expected, celebrated and continually
practiced. |
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| 2.
How can we distinguish virtue from personal values and viewpoints? |
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| Values
can be morally good, bad, or neutral. Moreover, values do not necessarily
command our behavior: that is, we can value one thing and do another. In
our current cultural climate, values are not only a matter of personal choice
but also a personal right, not to be limited by one or another form of moral
authority. Therefore one of the premises of the values-driven approach to
character education is that teachers and schools should not indoctrinate
or impose their values on students. Instead, schools should give students
practice at sorting out their own values. There are no absolute moral standards
or norms in this approach, only individual values. |
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| Views
are the intellectual positions we hold on a range of issues, from politics
and the economy to religious practice. The views-driven classroom regularly
engages students in discussions of controversial issues. In classrooms where
views are emphasized, teachers believe that they are helping students develop
a moral compass by helping them acquire strong views on social issues such
as the environment, gun control, homosexual marriage, and prayer in school.
In general this approach generates more heat than light, and students are
left with the impression that some issues are "just too complicated"
or "ultimately just a matter of opinion." |
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| Virtues
are dispositions cultivated within the individual that actually improve
character and intelligence. Virtues— such as diligence, sincerity,
personal accountability, courage and perseverance— enable us to develop
better relationships and to do our work better. It is our virtues, not our
views or our values, that enable us to become better students, parents,
spouses, teachers, friends and citizens. |
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| Whereas
views are simply intellectual positions, and values evoke neither a moral
commitment nor the promise of leading a good life, virtues enable us to
shape and lead worthy lives. Education in virtues—those good dispositions
of the heart and mind that are regularly put into action—is the foundation
of solid character development. |
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| Excerpted
from Chapter 2 of the Building Character in Schools Resource Guide (Bohlin,
Farmer & Ryan, 2001) |
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| 3.
What moral values do we share in an increasingly pluralistic society? |
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| Contentious
discussion of "whose values" can be replaced by discussion of
universally recognized virtues. Few, if any, would report that they believe
that it is better to be lazy and fearful than diligent and courageous. Few
indeed would say that lying is a nobler course of action than telling the
truth—even perhaps those who are prone to lying. |
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| Diligence,
courage and honesty are not virtues which belong to one or another race,
one or another religion, one or another culture. Americans have always recognized
this truth. Those ideals that tend to cut across history and cultures and
show up most frequently are the Greek cardinal virtues: wisdom, justice,
self-mastery and courage. They are called cardinal, from the Latin cardo,
or "hinge, that on which something turns or depends," because
most of the other virtues are related to one or more of them. |
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| Wisdom
is the virtue that enables us to exercise sound judgment, engage in careful
consideration and maintain intellectual honesty. It also enables us to plan
and take the right course of action in our pursuit of the good. Justice
is an outward, or social virtue, concerned with our personal, professional
and legal obligations and commitments to others. A sense of justice enables
us to be fair and to give each person what he or she rightly deserves. Self-mastery,
by contrast, is an internal or individual virtue. It gives people intelligent
control over their impulses and fosters moral autonomy. A ten-year-old who
throws frequent temper tantrums or a teenager who spends six hours a day
in front of the television and cannot complete his homework are examples
of individuals who lack self-mastery. Courage is not simply bravery
but also the steadfastness to commit ourselves to what is good and right
and actively pursue
it, even when it is not convenient or popular. |
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| 4.
Why teachers? What about the parents? |
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Parents
are, of course, the primary moral educators of their children. Schools can
only supplement their efforts. It is important to realize that the central
reason why character education must be integrated into the life of each
school is not because today’s parents are somehow failing where they
have succeeded in generations past. Even the best of parents need the support
of schools to carry out their responsibilities. Indeed, schools, until recent
decades, have always had a moral mandate.
Educators are not entering into a territory new or foreign to the nature
of their work. A teacher inevitably educates for character. At the most
basic level, learning requires attention, discipline and perseverance. When
an educator holds high expectations for her students, demands that their
work be thoughtful, complete and on time, she is helping them to become
responsible, disciplined persons. |
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Copyright
2002
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| Center
for the Advancement of Ethics and Character |
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