Educating for Character
How Our Schools Can Teach Respect and Responsibility
Thomas Lickona
(New York: Bantam Books. 1991)
The Case for Values Education
To educate a person in mind and not in morals is to educate a menace to society.—Theodore Roosevelt
Moral education is not a new idea. It is, in fact, as old as education itself. Down through history, in countries all over the world, education has had two great goals: to help young people become smart and to help them become good.
We know that smart and good are not the same. Not long ago, in an upstate New York community, four suburban teenagers—three girls and a boy—broke into their high school at night, emptied several jugs of gasoline, and ignited a fire that did $500,000 worth of damage before it was brought under control. The oldest member of the group was an honor student; the other three were described in press reports as "bright students." The only discernible motive was that one member of the group was upset because he had missed a French class and had been disciplined.
Realizing that smart and good are not the same, wise societies since the time of Plato have made moral education a deliberate aim of schooling. They have educated for character as well as intellect, decency as well as literacy, virtue as well as knowledge. They have tried to form citizens who will use their intelligence to benefit others as well as themselves, who will try to build a better world.
Just as character is the ultimate measure of an individual, so it is also the ultimate measure of a nation.
To develop the character of our children in a complex and changing world is no small task. But it is time to take up the challenge.
Educating for Character—And Why Schools Need Help from Home
The moral education thing bothers me because I feel as if I'm doing it alone. Many parents seem to enjoy their rights—having a child—but no longer seem to want the responsibilities. I get the feeling, who's helping me here?—Elementary school teacher, central New York
Does Values Education Make a Difference?
My research for this book has taken me across this country and to Canada for a firsthand look at schools doing deliberate moral education, and at every school I've visited, people say that the commitment to values education has paid off.
The evidence for that claim varies. Sometimes schools can point to numbers. At San Marcos Junior High School in California, a course in responsible decision-making is now required of all seventh- and eighth-graders. Says assistant superintendent Joseph DeDiminicantanio: "Last year we had one drug incident all year, compared to about a dozen the year before" (prior to implementing the new curriculum). Student pregnancies are also down, and test scores are up.
Sometimes the testimonies are subjective but nonetheless persuasive, especially when they come from the students themselves. One of the Canadian schools I visited was the Scarborough Village Public School in Ontario. I interviewed a group of fifth-graders and asked them how many had gone to schools other than this one; about half raised their hands. "How is this school different?" I asked. to be continued
