FOR CHARACTER
creating schools and communities of character
March/April, 2005
An electronic newsletter to help make sure character counts!
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.
IN THIS ISSUE …
· Honor Above All
· Information You Can Use
· Engaging the Public on Behalf of Children
· Curbing Bad Language
· Bullying
· Commentary by Michael Josephson
TAKE A MINUTE FOR CHARACTER – Gary Smit
Over the next few months, I will be making presentations at six national conferences on the topic of academic integrity. The Josephson Institute has written a program entitled Honor Above All that promotes integrity and prevents academic dishonesty.
In April of 2004, ABC aired a special edition of Primetime that focused on the alarmingly cynical attitudes and widespread cheating in schools. The comments from the young people interviewed and the survey data the program presented, paint a dismal picture of the present moral environment and of the future if current attitudes about honesty, respect and responsibility do not improve before this generation enters the workforce. Today, we have students who readily admit to cheating and plagiarism, and openly justify their actins.
According to a 2002 survey of more than 12,000 high school students by the Josephson Institute of Ethics, 74 percent admitted cheating at least once within the past 12 months (48 percent said they cheated at least twice). Things are getting worse; in 1992, 61 percent admitted cheating. When it comes to lying and stealing, the statistics are no more encouraging: 37 percent said they would lie to get a good job; 46 percent said they sometimes lie to save money and 43 percent agreed with the statement that “a person has to lie or cheat sometimes in order to succeed. These statistics illustrate the problem that we have in making desired character values become a way of life for our students.
It is up to each individual student to make a commitment to integrity, but much can be done to create an ethical culture at home and school. An ethical culture is a climate that promotes honest and honorable conduct and discourages dishonest, deceitful and dishonorable behavior, In an ethical culture, it’s easier and more rewarding to do the right thing than the wrong thing, and everyone is expected to be concerned with discerning and doing the ethically right thing.
If this topic is of interest to you, the Honor Above All kit can be purchased from the Josephson Institute. The kit includes PowerPoint presentations for use with faculty, parents and students. Or, feel free to contact me for additional information.
Gary Smit
Scheduling for teacher institute days in 2005-06 school year are beginning to take place. If your school or district is interested in a one-day in-service program, please contact me.
INFORMATION YOU CAN USE
WHEN TESTS’ CHEATERS ARE TEACHERS
The "Texas Miracle" that helped launch the nationwide accountability movement in education is facing new doubts as allegations surface about possible cheating on test scores. Last month, the Houston Independent School District (HISD) - one of the nation's largest -- announced an investigation of "suspicious" results on 2004 statewide tests. The wrangling is being closely watched by districts across the country that are bound by the federal No Child Left Behind Act of 2002, which was modeled in part after the success of Houston schools. Critics say the possible cheating scandal, and the idea of educators willing to go to such lengths to raise their schools' scores, is further proof that high-stakes testing doesn't work. Supporters say the instances of cheating on such tests are very rare and can be found in every profession. Whatever the reality, reports Kris Axtman, cheating on standardized tests has been making the news with increasing frequency. From Boston to Florida to California, school districts have been investigating claims that educators are providing students with answers, changing answers after the test is over, and giving students extra time. "The No Child Left Behind Act, which has some very solid goals, when implemented creates an awful lot of trouble in the schools," says John Fremer, a testing expert with 40 years of experience. While he says cheating has been around for as long as there have been tests, the difference in the past few years is that teachers and administrators are heavily involved, "something that's so alien to the concept of teaching."
http://www.csmonitor.com/2005/0111/p01s03-ussc.html
The ERC periodically creates and makes available games and puzzles designed around ethics and values. These include:
Access the ERC site at: http://www.ethics.org/games/index.html
EDUCATING EACH GENERATION FOR DEMOCRACY
Educating our youth for citizenship is our most important public work, affirm John Glenn and Marian Wright Edelman. We must purposefully nurture the value of service and civic engagement in each generation if our country is to be caring and just. This fundamental ideal depends on a well-informed citizenry that understands the importance of engagement in civic and political life. Restoring the civic purposes of education should be paramount in any serious public dialogue about education reform. In addition to making civic education a priority in elementary and secondary schools, we should expand the definition and measurement of student achievement to include students’ civic knowledge, skills, and contributions.
http://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2005/02/16/23edelman.h24.html
LEARNING TO GIVE
This website teaches the importance of voluntary action for the common good in a democratic society. "Learning to Give" offers lesson plans, activities, and resources to educate youth about the power of philanthropy (sharing time, talent and treasure). Help empower young people to make a difference in their school, their community and their world.
http://www.learningtogive.org/
WHEN PARENTS HELP TOO MUCH
Getting involved in your children's education is critical to their academic success. But how can parents determine whether they're helping or getting in the way? If completing children's homework, staying up late to finish their science project, or filling out their college admission applications sounds familiar, then you've probably crossed the "helpful" line. Roseanne Shaw, a parent and counselor, explains that because parents want the best for their children, it's far too easy for them to enable students' irresponsible behavior. Shaw answered some questions from Mel Melendez about the telltale signs and ramifications of being overly helpful.
http://www.azcentral.com/arizonarepublic/local/articles/1104edinvolve04.html
NATIONAL PUBLIC RADIO (NPR) did a wonderful story about the song Don't Laugh at Me and Operation Respect on Sunday morning, October 24th. The story was the number one e-mailed story from NPR's web site in the 24 hours after it was aired! Here is the link: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=4124291. If the link does not work for you, log on to www. npr.org and search on their site for What's in a Song?
PARENTS SERVE DETENTION WITH THEIR DAUGHTER
Susan and Steven Manis say it was their fault their daughter was late for school so they shared her punishment -- spending an hour with her in detention. The couple says their 13-year-old daughter, Jessica Dunkley, was being unfairly punished for being late six times in October and November when the family's van wouldn't start. So when administrators insisted the Pearland Junior High School East seventh-grader would have to spend an hour in detention, they decided to go with her. "We're more at fault than she is," said Susan Manis, who had appealed the administration's decision. After the punishment was over, Jessica said it was "a little embarrassing" to have her mom and stepfather in detention with her. But, she said, "I'm proud of them for sticking up for what they believe in." During the hour, the trio copied two pages from a school handbook about pillars of good citizenship.
http://www.cnn.com/2005/EDUCATION/01/07/parents.detention.ap/index.html
ENGAGING THE PUBLIC ON BEHALF OF CHILDREN
The Ad Council conducted more than thirty interviews with experts in marketing, advertising, communications, and community outreach in order to provide advocates for children with new communication tools and strategies for bringing children's issues to the forefront and engaging the public on their behalf. The resulting suggestions appear in Turning Point: Engaging the Public on Behalf of Children (44 pages, PDF), along with reasons to believe the public is ready to respond positively to messages offering opportunities to help children. At the end of 2003, the report states, 46 percent of Americans used positive terms to describe children, compared to 23 percent in 1995. When asked specifically about their own children or children they know well, that number jumped to 78 percent of parents and 71 percent of non-parents. In 1995, most Americans blamed parents for problems children were experiencing but in 2004, 72 percent said that raising children is the responsibility of parents with support of others in the community. Ninety-seven percent of Americans currently think that one person can make a difference in the life of a child, and 78 percent would like to help.
CURBING BAD LANGUAGE
Tom Lickona and Matt Davidson - Center for the 4th and 5th Rs
In a 1999 Zogby Poll of New York State teachers, 77 percent ranked students’ use of profanity as their most serious behavior problem. How can we teach students to be more
reflective and respectful in their use of language?
SEVEN PROMISING PRACTICES
1. Teach Why Language Matters
An Atlanta high school teacher posts the following sign in her room, gives a copy to every student, and discusses it with each of her classes:
LANGUAGE IS AN INDEX OF CIVILIZATION. IT IMPACTS OTHERS. IT CAN AFFIRM AND INSPIRE, OR DISTURB AND DENIGRATE. IT CAN SET A GOOD EXAMPLE OR A BAD ONE. IT INFLUENCES HOW OTHERS THINK OF US. IT REVEALS—AND SHAPES—OUR CHARACTER.
2. Establish Language Expectations A California high school teacher says to his students, “Are there any places you go where you don’t swear?” Students answer yes. He responds, “Well, now you have another one—my classroom.”
3. Use the Leverage of a Relationship
Teachers who build rapport with students can use that relationship to elicit respectful behavior. A high school biology teacher said he had a boy who used the "f-word" during group work. The teacher spoke to him after class: “Mike, I can’t let you use that language in here. It’s just not respectful. Could you try to work on that for me?” Mike made a sincere effort, and by the end of the quarter his language was no longer a problem.
4. Help Students Reflect on Language’s Impact
In his book, Powerful Words, Positive Results, former high school history teacher Hal Urban says he would write the following questions on the board and use them as a springboard for a class discussion of language:
Would you think differently of me if I constantly used swear words?
Why are some persons offended by swear words?
Are people who use foul language in public polite or rude?
What do you reveal about yourself when you swear a lot?
“What really helped them were their own answers to that last question,” Urban says.
“People who swear a lot, they realize, may come across as angry, uneducated, rude, inconsiderate, having a limited vocabulary, or trying to be cool. Even kids who admitted to swearing a lot said this exercise got them to think about what they were conveying by their language.”
5. Get a Class Agreement to Prohibit Bad Language
When one class developed its “social contract” specifying how they would treat each other (with respect), the teacher asked, “What about bad language; does it show respect?” They agreed that it did not show respect since such language might offend some people, and it should be prohibited in their class. They also agreed on a consequence: If you used bad language, you had to come up with two respectful replacement words.
6. Teach Media Literacy
One teacher, as a homework assignment, had her students watch a sit-com and keep a running tally of insults vs. positive comments in the show. The next day, the teacher asked: "What did you find?" "What would happen in real life if people insulted each other this often?" Students concluded that in real life, such remarks would damage or even destroy relationships.
7. Implement a Schoolwide Strategy
Typically, school expectations regarding appropriate language aren’t enforced consistently because staff haven’t made a commitment to respond to inappropriate language in the same way. In one school that had a problem with language, staff agreed that whenever they heard a student using unacceptable language, they would approach the student, say, “In this school, we don’t talk like that,” and then walk away. After this new approach was implemented, the level of student profanity dropped noticeably.
Excerpted from Smart & Good High Schools: Developing Excellence and Ethics for Success in School, Work, and Beyond.
BULLYING
THE BULLY, THE BULLIED, AND THE BYSTANDER If the issue
of bullying is one for your school, there is an excellent book by Barbara
Coloroso called The Bully, the Bullied, and the Bystander, sub-titled, "From
Preschool to High School- How Parents and Teachers Can Help Break the Cycle
of Violence." Now available in paperback, this book offers an analysis of
the problem of bullying, a perspective on dealing with it in families, and
approaches that schools can and should use to create the "caring schools and
involved communities" that we believe are the ultimate answer.
Coloroso writes: "It's a deadly triad: bullies who terrorize, bullied kids
who are afraid to tell, bystanders who watch, participate, or look away, and
adults who dismiss the incidents as a normal part of childhood."
Coloroso responds with: "the three kinds of bullying and the differences
between boy and girl bullies; four abilities that protect your child from
succumbing to bullying; steps to take if your child is a bully; how to help
the bullied child heal and effectively discipline the bully; and how to
evaluate a school's antibullying policy."
Parents of student victims of bullies increasingly are turning to the courts. The number of personal protection orders issued by Michigan courts in cases involving minors increased from 600 in 2002 to approximately 700 in 2003. These concerned incidents range from bullying to boyfriend-girlfriend harassment. Protection orders typically prohibit perpetrators from any contact with the victim, under penalty of arrest. While legal experts acknowledge that the courts can be an effective means of eliminating bullying, they urge parents to use the courts only as a last resort. Bonnie Hanes, education director of Oakland Mediation Center in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan, argues that school programs designed to curb bullying are more effective than court orders, which do little to change school culture. A 2001 survey of 15,600 American students in grades six to 10 funded by the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development reported that 30% of students nationally say they have been involved in bullying, either as perpetrator, victim, or both. To read the Detroit News full story; by Marisa Schultz, go to: http://www.detnews.com/2004/schools/0410/25/a01-314243.htm
COMMENTARY BY MICHAEL JOSEPHSON
When You Thought I Wasn't Looking
Whether you are a manager trying to instill company values in an
employee or a coach trying to teach positive life skills to athletes or a
parent trying to build good character in your kids, you’ll be more effective
if you consciously and consistently teach, enforce, advocate and model good
behavior and attitudes. At CHARACTER COUNTS!, we use the acronym TEAM to
capture this four-step strategy.
Modeling is not simply self-conscious demonstrating. It is living and acting with the realization that everything you say and do will either support or undermine efforts to convey values. Ralph Waldo Emerson highlighted the importance of consistency between words and actions and the futility of the do-as-I-say-not-as-I-do theory when he said, “What you are thunders so loudly, I can’t hear what you say to the contrary.”
This poem by an unknown author expresses it another way:
When you thought I wasn't looking, I saw you hang up my first painting on the refrigerator, and I wanted to paint another one.
When you thought I wasn't looking, I saw you feed a stray cat, and I thought it was good to be kind to animals.
When you thought I wasn't looking, I saw you make my favorite cake for me, and I knew that little things are special things.
When you thought I wasn't looking, I heard you say a prayer, and I believed there is a God I could always talk to.
When you thought I wasn't looking, I felt you kiss me good night, and I felt loved.
When you thought I wasn't looking, I saw that you cared, and I wanted to be everything that I could be.
When you thought I wasn't looking, I LOOKED....and wanted to say thanks for all the things I saw when you thought I wasn't looking.
This is Michael Josephson reminding you that character counts.