Champions of a cause

Teaching Pre K-8, Feb 2000 by Riley, Dick

Civic and character education help lead kids to true greatness.

Certainly, one purpose of our schools is to produce a well-educated workforce. If we work to provide every American child with a high-quality education, our nation will continue to prosper and be a world leader in the next century.

However, we expect our schools to help our children become not merely good workers, but good citizens. The Puritans who came to the New World thought everyone should be able to read the Bible, because they believed doing so would encourage every citizen to learn and accept sound values.

As the colonies became a nation, the rationale for universal education expanded to include civics, as well as the biblical values. Many of our nation's founders believed that democracy could thrive only in a nation of well-educated citizens.

Civic and character education. Both of these qualities - good character and good citizenship - should continue to be important goals of our education system. They fall under the broad category of civic and character education. Character education means teaching our children the values that virtually all Americans cherish. One program that is widely used in schools, Character Counts, lists six "pillars of character": trustworthiness, respect, responsibility, fairness, caring and citizenship.

The last trait, citizenship, is part of what we sometimes call civic education. It includes an academic component - teaching children about how our government was created and how it works. It also includes a character education component - reinforcing the values of voluntarism, community service and charity that many children are taught in their homes and faith communities.

Last fall, the U.S. Department of Education hosted a satellite town meeting on civic and character education. One of the key results of the discussion was a consensus that it is very important for students to learn character and values through real-life experiences, such as service learning opportunities in school and in the community.

As Gloria Cobbs, a civics teacher at School Without Walls in Washington, D.C., pointed out at the town meeting, students learn and absorb values when they are "actually involved in lessons, when they are the participants, when they see themselves as citizens, [when] they see that they can champion a cause."

National Schools of Character. The Character Education Partnership, or CEP, is a nonpartisan, nonsectarian coalition dedicated to developing moral character and civic virtue in our nation's young people. CEP established the National Schools of Character program to identify outstanding school programs that promote civic and character education. The 1999 National Schools of Character, listed at the CEP website at www.character.org include Wake County Public Schools in North Carolina.

Cause for applause. Since instituting a comprehensive character education program in 1993, Wake County's schools have become a more supportive and positive learning environment. That has translated into more students who complete high school and better student behavior in all grades.

For example, a Wake County fifth grader known for his temper and his fighting, shared a journal entry with his class. He explained why he hadn't retaliated when another boy hit him as they got off a school bus. "I know sometimes it takes more courage not to fight than to fight," he wrote, "so I used my self-discipline and just kept on walking." His entire class stood and applauded.

Our nation is strong because Americans work hard, treasure their families, serve their communities, value honesty and respect others. If we can pass these values on to our children, providing what Martin Luther King, Jr. called "true education," our nation will achieve true greatness.