FOR CHARACTER
creating schools and communities for character!
July/August, 2004
An electronic newsletter to help you make sure CHARACTER COUNTS!sm
Gary Smit
CHARACTER COUNTS! and the Six Pillars of Character are service marks of the CHARACTER COUNTS! Coalition, a project of the Josephson Institute of Ethics. For more information about training opportunities and resources available to assist schools and communities in the integration of a character education initiative, check out their web site at: www.charactercounts.org or call them at 1-800-711-2670.
Welcome to our many new subscribers who attended conferences at which I spoke in Dallas and Chattanooga. These are great conferences that are sponsored by the National Center for Youth Issues. If you are looking for a character education conference to attend next year, you should consider either the SW Regional Conference in Dallas or the SE Regional Conference in Chattanooga. Check out the National Center for Youth Issues web site at www.ncyi.org.
TAKE A MINUTE FOR CHARACTER
SCHOOLYARD BULLIES & THEIR VICTIMS
RELIGIOUS TEENS BETTER OFF THAN SECULAR PEERS
TOOLS FOR SCHOOL IMPROVEMENT PLANNING
TEACHERS WHO CARE GET MOST FROM KIDS
COMMENTARY BY MICHAEL JOSEPHSON
TAKE A MINUTE FOR CHARACTER – Gary Smit
On the wall in my office is a large framed picture of a young blond-haired boy standing on a beach peering into the light blue water. The title of the picture is Priorities. At the bottom of this striking portrait is a saying “A hundred years from now it will not matter what my bank account was, the sort of house I lived in, or the kind of car I drove but the world may be different because I was important in the life of a child.”
As educators, we have the opportunity to make a difference in the lives of children. However, the opportunity to impact the lives of children goes beyond our role as a teacher or administrator. No matter what we do, we have a responsibility to the next generation. Whether we are a parent, grandparent, business owner or community leader, we must demonstrate that we care about children.
You may be saying this is rather obvious. Few adults in our society go around admitting a dislike for children. However, a national survey by Public Agenda, a research firm, portrays a different picture. Two thirds of the adults surveyed for “Kids these Days: What Americans really think about the next generation,” called teens rude, wild and irresponsible. Nearly half called younger children spoiled. Only thirty seven percent of adults said, they believe the country will be improved by today’s children. Americans are convinced that adolescences face a crisis – not in an economic or physical well-being, but in their values and morals.
I would hope that in your community these statistics would not hold true. If you have worked to teach students not only to be smart but good, I would like to think that the people in your community may see things differently. I am convinced that children and young people learn best when they also learn the “Six Pillars of Character”: Trustworthiness, Respect, Responsibility, Fairness, Caring and Citizenship. Together, we can commit to helping our children be in a position where they will be our best hope for the future.
Gary Smit
Looking for an in-service presentation or workshop on making character education come alive in your school? Scheduling for the 2004-2005 school year is being planned. More information can be obtained on the For Character web site: http://www.forcharacter.com/page5.html
QUOTE OF THE MONTH
"The core problem facing our schools is a moral one. All the other problems
derive from it. Hence, all the various attempts at school reform are unlikely to
succeed unless character education is put at the top of the agenda. If students
don’t learn self discipline and respect for others, they will continue to
exploit each other sexually no matter how many health clinics and condom
distribution plans are created. If they don’t learn habits of courage and
justice, curriculums designed to improve their self-esteem won’t stop the
epidemic of extortion, bullying, and violence; neither will courses designed to
make them more sensitive to diversity. …If they don’t acquire intellectual
virtues such as commitment to learning, objectivity, respect for the truth, and
humility in the face of facts, then critical-thinking strategies will only
amount to one more gimmick in the curriculum." -William Kilpatrick
(author/educator), "Why Johnny Can’t Tell Right From Wrong"
SCHOOLYARD BULLIES & THEIR VICTIMS
Five years after social outcasts made tragic history at Colorado's Columbine
High School, experts say bullying remains a schoolyard constant -- and may even
be growing. Amid the offensive against heckling and hallway anarchy, with
measures from anti-bullying assemblies to armed guards at schoolhouse doors,
there are growing questions about whether such tactics really prevent bullying
or ease students' fear, reports Patrik Jonsson. Those doubts, along with a
rising awareness of school violence, are stoking a national debate over how
deeply adults should get involved in playground politics. In fact, some experts
cite an explosion of bullying that might leave even Bart Simpson cowering in a
high school bathroom: In one Kansas school, according to a recent study by Jim
Snyder, a psychologist at Wichita State University, kindergartners bully each
other once every six minutes. Bullying "may be particularly problematic in
American schools," says Jaana Juvonen, a psychologist at the University of
California, Los Angeles, who studies school culture. "The victims of bullying,
unlike the bullies, are clearly suffering and, unfortunately they're suffering
in silence." Confounding the issue is that many American adults consider
bullying the natural order of childhood -- a first, instructive taste of the
dog-eat-dog world. Moreover, teachers, worried that they'll make the situation
worse, often seem reluctant to step in: According to the Juvonen study, they now
intervene only about 10 percent of the time.
http://www.csmonitor.com/2004/0512/p01s03-ussc.htm
RELIGIOUS TEENS BETTER OFF THAN SECULAR PEERS – Laura Sessions Stepp - Article from The Washington Post – April 6, 2004
Here's a crazy idea: After all our ambitious child-rearing with Discovery toys,
Suzuki piano lessons, conflict-avoidance classes, 4 a.m. swim practices, SAT
prep classes, driver education and summer flights to study folk music in the
Republic of Georgia, we might have done as well (and saved money) by just
sending our kids to church, temple or mosque.
Late last year, a commission convened by Dartmouth Medical School, among others,
studied years of research on kids, including brain-imaging studies, and
concluded that young people who are religious are better off in significant ways
than their secular peers. They are less likely than non-believers to smoke and
drink and more likely to eat well; less likely to commit crimes and more likely
to wear seat belts; less likely to be depressed and more likely to be satisfied
with their families and school.
"Religion has a unique net effect on adolescents above and beyond factors like
race, parental education and family income," says Brad Wilcox, a University of
Virginia sociologist and panel member. Poor children who are religious will do
better than poor children who are not religious, he adds -- and in some cases
better than non-religious middle-class children.
Meanwhile, a social groundswell may be under way, as a larger proportion of
teenagers than a decade ago say religion is important. In 2001, about three out
of five teenagers said religion was "pretty important" or "very important" to
them -- a significant increase, according to Child Trends, a research
organization that analyzes federal data. The biggest jump occurred among young
achievers who anticipated finishing four years of college.
Such teenagers have helped make a hit out of "Joan of Arcadia," a CBS show about
a 15-year-old who talks to God; it has been renewed for a second season. They've
sustained a decade-long growth in the number of high school Bible clubs to about
15,000. They are swelling the enrollment at Christian colleges at three times
the rate of other degree-granting schools. Religion is getting bigger in
teenagers' lives, and the Dartmouth panel's findings may suggest to some that it
should.
Though one of its sponsors, the Institute for American Values, publishes a good
bit about God and faith, the commission was no conclave of religious
conservatives. It included professors and researchers at the medical schools of
Harvard and UCLA, as well as longtime experts on child-rearing, including T.
Berry Brazelton, Robert Coles and Michael Resnick.
The commission members said religious congregations benefit teenagers by
affirming who they are, expecting a lot from them and giving them opportunities
to show what they can do. As the panel noted, the same could be said of clubs,
sports teams and other youth organizations (such as the YMCA, which helped fund
the study). What sets religious groups apart, however -- and makes a big
difference to kids, according to the panel -- is that they promote a "direct
personal relationship with the Divine."
Adolescents, said the Dartmouth group, are "hard-wired to connect" to people and
God.
Panels of academics and medical practitioners don't usually refer to "the
Divine." But these experts couldn't ignore what the data suggested, in
particular two things: Religion or spirituality may influence young people's
brain circuits, reducing their levels of the stress hormone cortisol, and
personal devotion is twice as likely to protect them from risky behavior as it
would adults.
"Their brains are changing, their relations with family, friends and the
opposite sex are changing, and they're beginning to figure out what their
purpose in the world will be," Wilcox says. "We know that people often turn to
God in the midst of momentous changes. Adolescents are no different."
This helpful website contains observation protocols, focus group samples and
questions, surveys, questionnaires, and other techniques to help you examine
your specific school-improvement concerns. In the tools section, you'll find a
database of new and innovative tools used throughout the country, organized into
school-improvement focus areas common to many schools, districts, and states. In
addition to numerous proven tools, this site features two other essentials for
school improvement, including a school-improvement guide with a step-by-step
process for successful school improvement, including sample worksheets and
rubrics. In the "Using Data" section, you'll find resources on using data -- a
key to sustained improvement: types and uses of data, selecting and analyzing
data, and using results to drive your planning efforts.
http://www.annenberginstitute.org/tools/
TEACHERS WHO CARE GET MOST FROM KIDS
In his 2003 book, "Who Controls Teachers’ Work?" University of Pennsylvania
professor Richard Ingersoll describes two common and competing views of today’s
schools and the roles that teachers play in them, reports Steve Crabtree. The
first perspective compares schools with factories in which decisions about
strategy and protocol are centralized, with teachers relatively constrained by
those decisions. The second perspective regards teachers more as professionals,
experts who require a large degree of autonomy to do their jobs well. Teens’
responses to a recent Gallup Youth Survey provide support for the second view.
Their comments about which teachers they respond best to suggest that keeping a
group of kids engaged in learning requires having plenty of latitude to be
highly creative, to build strong relationships and to tailor the learning
process to the needs of each student.
http://www.detnews.com/2004/schools/0406/04/a09-173712.htm
COMMENTARY BY MICHAEL JOSEPHSON
A PERSON OF CHARACTER
Let's face it, it's not easy to become a person of character. It takes a good heart, but it also requires wisdom to know right from wrong and the discipline to do right even when it's costly, inconvenient or difficult.
Becoming a person of character is a lifelong quest to be better.
A person of character values honesty and integrity and pays whatever price is needed to be worthy of trust, earning the pride of family and friends and self-respect.
A person of character plays fair even when others don't and values no achievement unless it was attained with honor.
A person of character has strong convictions, yet avoids self-righteousness.
A person of character believes in the inherent dignity of all people and treats everyone with respect, even those whose ideas and ideologies evoke strong disagreement.
A person of character deals with criticism constructively and is self-confident enough to take good advice, admit and learn from mistakes, feel and express genuine remorse and apologize graciously.
A person of character knows what's important, sacrifices the now for later, is in control of attitudes and actions, overcomes negative impulses and makes the best of every situation.
A person of character willingly faces fears and tackles unpleasant tasks.
A person of character is consistently and self-consciously kind and empathetic, giving generously without concern for reward.
A person of character feels and expresses gratitude freely and frequently.
A person of character is not defeated by failure or dissuaded by disappointment.
A person of character seeks true happiness in living a life of purpose and meaning, placing a higher value on significance than success.
This is Michael Josephson reminding you that character counts.