School Wide Character Education

The Initial Concept:
Schools have a multitude of factors that they must deal with on a daily basis and student’s behavior is a big factor in every teacher’s and most administrator’s days. Dealing with positive or negative behavior after the fact focuses on reward/punishment systems, which are necessary, but myself and many other schools around the country are concerned with a more instilled form of education concerning principles and values. Promoting positive self-image and “good” character in students at a school wide level will hopefully prevent some of the negative outcomes from occurring and help students foster within themselves positive traits that will benefit their future growth. Character education is something I felt would be a helpful addition to classroom management and if we are creating the “ideal school”, help to foster an “ideal environment” in which students can learn.

What I found out:

• Over the last 20 years character education in schools has become increasingly popular and also a topic for much debate. Both Presidents Clinton and George W. Bush made improving character education as one of their educational goals.

• There are many programs, such as the popular Character Counts, that are highly marketed and sold to schools as a tidy, all-inclusive package including teacher conferences. These programs seem unnecessarily expensive and a little contrived.

• Most of the programs center around these six pillars Respect, Trustworthiness, Responsibility, Caring, Fairness, and Citizenship

Different approaches:
Cheerleading (posters, banners, motivational assemblies)
Praise and Reward (“catching students being good”, pos. reinforcement)
Define and Drill (memorize values and definitions)
Forced-Formality (strict, uniform compliance on rules of conduct)

• It is difficult to assess whether or not these programs have had any actual effect on students’ behavior. Lack of clear-cut data.

• Some argue that many programs are merely promoting good manners and how to follow rules as opposed to actually developing strong, independent character.

Since I was feeling detached from much of the information on the internet and thought it would be nice to have actual teacher insight, I contacted Buzz and here is a little about his program/what he had to say.

• The idea lasts only as long as the program, kids don’t internalize (regarding problems with some of these programs).

• Recommended checking out Pat Bellville sp?, “Leadership for the 21st Century”(I searched Google and came up empty handed)
  

Buzz’s 15 Life Skills/Path of the Warrior

• Himself and fellow colleagues decided on 15 life skills they felt were important for promoting student success in and out of the classroom

• Students choose a life skill to work on each month, they write down evidence that relates to their work in the skill, and keep it in a specific folder

• They continue to work on the life skills and as they complete the skill they move on to a different order. Students start in the “Order of the Bear” move to hummingbird, et

• Path of the Warrior concepts combines Native American ideas as well as Eastern Philosophy (looking inward)

• Buzz reads articles, highlights individuals who are exemplifying these skills in the community and world. The topic is not on the back burner.

• There are ceremonies each month to highlight student’s progress and achievements and if a student makes it through all of the orders there is a more to do ceremony at the end of the year with parents. Some students continue to work on the skills long after leaving Buzz’s classroom.

• Not all students buy into it. Important not to force students to participate in this kind of education. Students must want to do it on their own.

Websites:

Character Counts:
Very involved and put together website discussing the program. Newsletters, training links, merchandise store, articles, et. Yet, limited access to resources, must pay in order to ultimately receive.

Good Character:
Can tell less money went into this website. Has more access to useful information. Teacher guides for each focus includes activities/questions to motivate students work towards the goals of good character.

Wikipedia:
Gave definition of character education as well as a history. Had a list of resources that included many interesting articles and discussions about character education, pros and cons. I found this list of resources to be the most helpful.

Changing Lives:
Another website similar to Character Counts, very flashy and showy. A 36 week program that offers 180 daily lessons for all grades!!! Did have nice videos that explained their views, outcomes, and what schools are saying, unfortunately they wouldn’t play on my computer. Testimonials were mostly about their coaching program. Emphasis on diversity in their world view, which is good.

Conclusions:
When I began my research and started off with this idea of implementing character education it seemed all positive, where could one go wrong with instilling positive values? And yet, now here I sit and I wonder whether some of these programs are just financial gains to make our students conform and follow someone’s idea of good behavior. I definitely think that promoting good character has benefits, but after reading about how difficult it is to asses and how little actual evidence exists in relation to it’s success, I am a little more hesitant to jump on the band wagon.

I liked Buzz’s adaptations with the Path of the Warrior and I am leaning more towards the insertion of a teacher created approach such as this. Since our school will be promoting diversity and is bilingual, I think it will be important to focus on pillars that pertain to Acceptance and Awareness. Some other pillars that were suggested after our group discussion included Interdependency (to follow along with the over-arching theme of the school) and Friendship (continues with the idea of community). I thought that I might be able to lay out a very specific proposal, but I am now feeling as though it will take collaboration between all the teachers in order to decide upon appropriate values, traits, or skills (pillars) that the school would like to focus on.

So, do I think our Ideal School should have a school wide character education program? Yes. However, it will not be purchased off the internet and students will not be walking around school with Character Counts t-shirts (maybe shirts that say, Do I like what I see?). It must be a program that is not over bearing and it must be easy for teachers to implement into their curriculum as well as their day. Students will not be forced to participate but hopefully the program will spark interest and motivate students intrinsically. Community involvement as well as parent contribution are two important factors that tie into character education and were mentioned in the programs I read about. Definitely want to place emphasis on both. So through further teacher and community collaboration the school wide character education can continue to develop and grow.