Departments
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Week of 12 May 1998 |
Vol. I, No. 31 |
Feature Article
BU Center helps Business Week select School of Character
by Josh Shafer
Business Week magazine recently announced that the Benjamin Franklin Classical Charter School in Franklin, Mass., has been designated a "School of Character," one of 10 schools nationwide chosen to receive the magazine's Award for Instructional Innovation in 1998. In making its choice, Business Week relied heavily upon the School of Education's Center for the Advancement of Ethics and Character at Boston University (CAEC).
Schools of Character successfully integrate character education into their students' lives. This includes promotion of ethical values, involving parents and other adults to foster the development of a caring community, and demonstrating positive changes in students' behavior as well as their academic performance. The BU Center worked in conjunction with a Washington D.C.-based nonprofit coalition, the Character Education Partnership, to acquire nominations from 100 organizations and individuals concerned with character education and to evaluate the nominees. CAEC Director Kevin Ryan credits assistant director Karen Bohlin with conducting the lion's share of the research of the nominated schools. The Center's resulting input helped to determine that the Franklin School would be the recipient of a $2,000 grant, funded by the John Templeton Foundation.
Founded at BU in 1989, the CAEC broke new ground by becoming the first such center to focus specifically on the education of teachers. Under Ryan, the Center conducts research and character education projects, guided by the philosophy that instructing students in character and ethics is an essential component of the educational process.
"A moral heritage exists in the humanities throughout our history," says Ryan. "The Center works to help teachers realize they have a mandate to teach about this heritage. And this award is designed to celebrate schools that appear to be doing an excellent job in this character education."