New Lesson Plans Enhance Three R's; Character-building increasingly is becoming part of the curriculum in U.S. schools as educators strive to mold both the hearts and minds of American young people

0 Comments | Insight on the News, Sept 30, 2003

Meanwhile, this sort of thing seems to have captured the attention of many at precisely the time others are going from bad to worse. Lickona, of the Center for the 4th and 5th Rs, has a story about a school he visited whose character-education program "is a mile wide and an inch deep, all talk and no action."

A high school, it had the "six pillars of character" trustworthiness, respect, responsibility, caring, fairness and citizenship each hanging as a banner on each of the six pillars in the school's facade, he says. There were character posters on the walls, and at the start of each morning the principal read a character quote of the day and gave a little character pep talk. "But when I addressed the students at an afternoon assembly on character their behavior was rowdy and disrespectful," Lickona observes. "At the end of the talk, the principal read them the riot act and threatened to do what he had done in a previous year cancel all remaining assemblies."

Interestingly, Lickona says that "If American schools were once better at forming character, it's because all schools once saw this as central to their missions. Schools could count on support from the wider community from home and from church for what they were doing." He observes, "The current character-education movement is trying to re-create that crucial alliance," and notes that the catchphrase "It takes a village to raise a child" has become a cliche of American public life. He then quotes a fellow educator as saying the central question of education in our time should be: "How do we raise a village?"

As Lickona sees it, "We need to create a world in which it is easier to be good. We need to create a culture of character."

Stephen Goode is a senior writer for Insight.