Character Education

In an effort to reduce violence and promote safe learning environments at school, many schools have begun to consider moral or character education as a necessary part of the school curriculum. For example, in New York State legislation was passed in 2000 mandating that all public schools in the state have a character education program in place, as noted by Kimberly Williams in 2003. Irene McHenry wrote in 2000 that moral growth occurs when connections with other individuals are strengthened and the value of community is emphasized in ways that promote responsibility to and for others. To encourage this sense of community, character education programs focus on morals and ethics for personal growth. To allay concern about which values should be taught, the federal government has supported grants to develop character education projects that embrace some of the following [Page 114]values: caring, civic justice, fairness, respect, responsibility, trustworthiness, perseverance, and self-discipline, as noted both by Williams in 2003 and Joseph Tomaselli and John Golden in 1996.

A critical aspect of character education programs is to stress the importance of friendships and the process involved in building relationships that result in friendships. Another important component of character education programs is the emphasis on developing a climate for tolerance. John Hoover and Ronald Oliver suggested in 1995 that implementing character education within the curriculum contributes to creating an empathetic school where the focus is on the idea of being “my brother's keeper.” Schools that emphasize character education teach the worth of fellow classmates throughout the entire school day. Other schools focus on a specific character trait, such as honesty, for a week or longer, then move on to another important character quality. Other schools emphasize character traits through reading and discussing books about heroes of the past and of today.

There are many character education programs available at all levels of K–12 education that focus on preventing hate, bullying, school violence, and other negative behaviors. In a variety of ways, character education programs promote respect, tolerance, responsibility, and building connections to the larger society. Teaching students to identify and understand values that promote a basic respect for all within the community enables students to define their beliefs, goals, and behaviors more clearly. This is an important part of education in the twenty-first century.