(This is the second in a three-part series on teaching character. You can see Part One .)
John Bennett :
I鈥檝e always been a strong believer that an educator cannot TEACH anything - only FACILITATE learning. With regard to character then, my question: What approach to character can an educator take? Even if one decided to try to teach character, can it be done?
in this series including guest responses from Debbie Silver, Jason Flom and David B. Cohen. I also shared some of my own thoughts and concerns.
You might want to listen to my . The latest one features Debbie and Jason.
Today鈥檚 post features contributions from Maurice J. Elias, Dr. Sherrel Bergmann, Dr. Judith Brough, and Thomas R. Hoerr.
Response From Maurice J. Elias
Maurice J. Elias, Ph.D. is Professor of Psychology at Rutgers University where he also directs the Rutgers Social-Emotional Learning Lab. He is the author of the new e-book, 鈥淓motionally Intelligent Parenting,鈥� and a book young children, . You can read on social-emotional and character development at Edutopia:
James Comer has said that teaching character is like catching a cold- children 鈥済et it鈥� from the air around them, not from any specific program. Teddy Roosevelt said that to education people in mind and not in morals is to create menaces to society. And Martin Luther King, Jr. said that true education is the combination of intelligence and character.
From these wise individuals, we can derive an approach to teaching character. First, we have to build it intentionally. It is part of the definition of education. Second, it鈥檚 not a program or curriculum. That does not mean one can鈥檛 use a program, and excellent ones abound and can be used (see www.CASEL.org for a list of validated, tried-and-true programs and see www.character.org for information about schools that have been recognized as National Schools of Character and how they have gone about it). But it does mean that character is absorbed from the modeling and actions of others. So one must not only 鈥渄o鈥� a program, but also 鈥渓ive鈥� its principles. And the more theses are shared in a school, the more likely it is that children will 鈥渃atch鈥� the principles. If you as an individual educator are teaching your children to swim against the current, it鈥檚 a lot harder than going with the flow. Again, it鈥檚 not that you can鈥檛 do it, but you are going to have to do a lot more on your own to get your message across in ways children can internalize.
Finally, character is built by how classrooms are run. The quality of respect, responsibility, patience, tolerance, problem solving, cooperation, listening, fairness, justice, honesty, and caring as revealed in all of the everyday interactions that take place from the moments before entry until the moments after dismissal and in other interactions that educators have with students. From this atmosphere, students will 鈥渃atch鈥� the kind of character that is airborne. Programs can be valuable in helping to define the climate of classrooms and schools but when children are given a choice of doing what adults say, vs. doing what adults do, they invariably choose the latter.
Response From Dr. Sherrel Bergmann and Dr. Judith Brough
Dr. Sherrel Bergmann, retired professor, National Louis University and Dr. Judith Brough, Professor Emerita, Gettysburg College are award-winning educators and authors. Their research and practical approaches to working with reluctant learners, motivation, parent-school relationships, and building life-essential skills are widely used in classrooms. They are the authors of :
A sixth grade student who was frequently in trouble with her teachers said that the problem is that everyone tells her to mind her manners, but no one tells her what those manners are. Too often our school day from a student point of view is filled with the 鈥渨hat not to do鈥� model. All adults in the building are teaching character development every time they interact with another person.
Character building is about teaching students to interact positively with others, to make productive decisions, to learn to solve problems, to develop and show compassion, and to set immediate and life-long goals. While there are many curriculum guides for teaching character education, the most productive lessons are the ones that occur in response to classroom and school-wide situations that involve those skills. Simply asking students to set personal and curriculum goals for the day and week is a start in the teaching process. Checking on those goals with the students helps to ingrain that process in their daily lives. *
Character education is, of course, age specific, but all students interact with others during the school day and skills such as sharing, listening to others, and helping are all part of the early childhood curriculum of caring. As students get to middle and high school, they need activities that enable them to discuss the differences they see in handling various situations. Using lessons from history and literature to recognize what type of character is being portrayed and asking questions regarding the decisions made, the problems solved, and the consequences of those actions help a student to understand that character is developmental and everyone is capable of becoming a productive citizen.
If your students don鈥檛 understand what good character means, try completing a graphic organizer with them. What does good character look like? What does it sound like? What are some real-life examples and non-examples?
Response From Thomas R. Hoerr
Thomas R. Hoerr, Ph.D., is Head of School at in St. Louis, MO, and author of (ASCD , 2013):
We need to recognize that teaching character is as important as teaching the 3R鈥檚. Children must learn how to read, write, and calculate, but that is only the beginning. They also need to learn how to respect and appreciate others, how to work as a member of a team, how to be honest and true, and how to develop grit. As I often say, 鈥淲ho you are is more important than what you know.鈥�
We need to embed teaching character throughout our curriculum and in our interactions with our students; it cannot be an add-on. If we want children to respect and appreciate others, for example, we need to ensure that others, however that is defined, are shown in positive ways in our studies, and we need to devote time in class to talking about caring and character. At my school we don鈥檛 have a Black History Month because we believe that studying the contributions of people of color should be done every month of the year. Human differences are recognized and embraced. For example, at early ages children compare their skin color to various shades of milk with chocolate powder. They learn that skin color is simply a color. Socio-economic differences are also part of our curriculum.
We value what we measure so character is on the first page of our report cards. We report on confidence, motivation, problem-solving, responsibility, effort and work habits, appreciation for diversity, and teamwork. Beginning parent-teacher conferences by talking about students鈥� growth in these areas is a wonderful way to ensure that teaching character is a priority for everyone.
Recently we鈥檝e been talking a lot about grit - resilience and tenacity. If we want to prepare our children for success in the real world, they need to be able to bounce back after frustration and failure. We need to ensure that they experience this so that the can learn from it. This needs to be done prudently and with care, but we have failed our students if they have not learned how to respond to failure. Teaching for character must be a priority for everyone.
Thanks to Maurice, Sherrel, Judith and Thomas for their contributions!
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Look for Part Three in a few days....