FOR CHARACTER
creating schools and communities of character
                                                                                            May/June, 2008
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… TAKE A MINUTE FOR CHARACTER
RESTORING THE BALANCE BETWEEN ACADEMICS & CIVIC ENGAGEMENT

In April, I had the opportunity to attend this year’s annual conference in Orlando of the Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development (ASCD). Even though I was working the exhibit hall for CHARACTER COUNTS!, I was able to attend a few of the break-out sessions and network with educators who are interested in not only academics but character development.

I learned of an interesting report that encourages schools to restore the balance between academics and civic engagement.  What a timely topic.  In the age of “No Child Left Behind”, schools tend to get wrapped up in the thinking that the only thing that matters is test scores.  What can’t be measured by a state test, gets excluded from our curriculum.

The American Youth Policy Forum and ASCD have produced a guide for supporting school-based civic engagement in schools. The report questions the current focus on core academic subjects at the expense of an equally important role: preparing students to be engaged and effective citizens. The report is the product of collaborative discussion among policymakers, education practitioners, community groups, parents, and youth across the nation.

The report offers a seven-step action plan to help schools refocus on the goal of creating both academically proficient and civically engaged students. The report also highlights several programs, including school-community partnerships that promote both quality academics and civic engagement. The seven steps are as follows:
1)    civic engagement is central to public education;
2)    the school mission should include the knowledge, dispositions, virtues, and skills of responsible citizenship;
3)    civic knowledge and civic engagement are part of the learning "core," in addition to reading and mathematics;
4)    civic engagement improves student engagement and academic performance, while reducing negative behaviors;
5)    education reform efforts should be realigned to support integrated curricula;
6)    a comprehensive action plan must clearly link civic engagement with academic subjects;
7)    success with these approaches requires collaboration between schools, families, higher education, business, philanthropy, government and the community.

The report concludes with an assertion and an appeal. Citizenship in the American tradition, the report insists, is more than a status conferred. It has always aspired to the much higher level of personal participation, and is a continuing affirmation of the role of the self in self-government. But citizenship in the American tradition also carries with it the expectation that we will both enlarge its boundaries and pass it on to our children.  To accomplish this, public education should  be broadened to embrace civic learning and engagement.

For a full copy of the report, you may download the pdf file at:
http://www.aypf.org/pdf/Restoring%20the%20Balance%20Report.pdf

Gary Smit
gsmit@forcharacter.com


A CIVIC MISSION TO DO WHAT’S RIGHT

From day one the mission of public schools in America was to instill and nurture the values of democracy. The reason was simple: Democracy can flourish only when an informed citizenry takes part in the process. William J. Cirone sees this basic concept underscored these days at far reaches of the globe where democracy is struggling to take root. Public schools always have been seen as one important mechanism for instilling the values of citizenship by teaching history, social studies, government, and rights and responsibilities. That goal seems even more important in today’s world. As daily life becomes more complex and distractions from mass media and entertainment grow exponentially, the challenge of getting young people to care about their country and their communities becomes more daunting. Yet several tools remain to assist public school leaders.

High on that list are the opportunities for community service and meshing it with academic learning. The blend, as most educators know, is called service learning and it appears to make a real difference in the lives of those who take part. Studies show that students involved in community service tend to be more involved and better citizens, and they also improve their academic knowledge and skills. Nationwide our communities are filled with individuals who work for community betterment, in large and small ways, as volunteers or professionals or even just here or there as a worthy issue arises. To maintain those worthy activities, we all need to light that inner spark in our young people. We need to give them the chance to feel it.
http://www.aasa.org/publications/sa/2005_03/col_cirone.htm

THE BULLY BLIGHT: THE LASTING HARM OF GETTING PICKED ON

Bullies have lurked in hallways and on playgrounds ever since history's first day of school, and until recently, dealing with them was considered just another painfully useful life lesson. But that attitude is changing. Whatever the reason for bullying, the consequences are clear. Adrienne Nishina found that victims feel sick more often than their classmates do, are absent more often and tend to have lower grades. They are also more depressed and withdrawn -- a natural reaction, says Nishina, but one that "can subsequently lead to more victimization." Studies also indicate that schools take too narrow a view of what constitutes bullying. Physical aggression is forbidden, as are such forms of verbal bullying as sexual harassment and racial slurs. But the rules are generally silent about less incendiary name calling. The damage from bullying doesn't stop after graduation. According to Dr. William Coleman, bullies are four times as likely as the average child to have engaged in criminal behavior by age 24; they also grow up deficient in social, coping and negotiating skills and are more likely to engage in substance abuse. Victims have similar problems; they also have fewer friends and are more likely to be depressed.
http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1047497,00.html


INFORMATION YOU CAN USE PROGRAM DEVELOPMENT - Wrong Turns, Tunnel Vision, and Working Strategies

Some people still contend you can`t educate for character. That`s partly because they don`t understand how the process works. Indeed, the strategies that seem most obvious routinely fail, and unfortunately some schools have used them. So here is a rundown of the poor, the partial and the practical in character education:
Wrong Turns . Well-meaning schools can easily veer onto bad terrain with ill-considered programs. Two classic examples are:
 
  1. Forced formality. Certain schools demand that students follow strict rules of behavior, such as walking in line in the halls or standing when an adult enters the room. These rules may have little to do with ethics and tend to breed obedience -- or rebellion -- rather than character.
  2. Drill. In this approach, students memorize values and their meanings, and produce them on command. Rote learning is very different from understanding. Kindergartners, for instance, will recite the Pledge of Allegiance with little grasp of its sense. But even where the learning goes beyond rote, character education will have little effect if it is merely academic. You can read 100 books on how to swim, but you still won`t be able to do it.
Tunnel Vision . Other schools fall victim to narrow focus. They have just one of the tools and try to do everything with it. It`s like trying to eat a full-course meal with a knife. Here are two of these approaches:
  1. Message only. Some schools focus entirely on posters, banners and announcements of the day. They stress the A in TEAM -- Advocate -- and ignore the rest. Banners and announcements can be great for a program, but they can`t be the program itself. Some call this approach "cheerleading," and the term does highlight an essential flaw: cheerleading alone can`t win games.
  2. Reinforcement only. Other schools focus solely on rewards and penalties, praising students for acts of character and punishing them for misdeeds. They stress the E in TEAM -- Enforce -- and ignore the rest. This strategy is essential but insufficient. Students do need to feel the consequences of their acts, but when kids act well just to get awards, they can miss the significance of character.
Strategies That Work . TEAM is not pick-and-choose, like a spice rack. It is just what the name says: a team of strategies that all pull together. So schools should Advocate and Enforce, but also Teach and Model the Six Pillars of Character.

To Teach, educators can`t use rote. They have to involve students, and there are many ways to do it. For instance, teachers often find that when they highlight moral issues in, say, a history lesson, students grow more interested. While not every student can make thoughtful contributions to a discussion on the causes of the French Revolution, many can make valid moral points about it. Weaving ethics into lessons can make them universal, so the 18th-century French become flesh-and-blood people making real moral choices, rather than hazy figures in a text. It also taps kids` innate ethical emotions and thus makes instruction more memorable. Schools shouldn`t limit these analyses to academic lessons. When students take part in thoughtful discussions of events all around them, they learn to spot and probe moral issues in the everyday world. Without such discernment, moral thinking remains vague and liable to error.

Another form of teaching may not seem like teaching at all. It is student decision making. Like everyone else, kids learn by doing. Where they take part in creating an ethical atmosphere -- by setting policy on playground behavior, for instance -- they gain key experience and have a greater investment in the result.  Schools have to Model the Pillars as well. Teachers and staff must be the change they wish to see in students. A callous educator can hardly teach caring, any more than a liar can teach trustworthiness. Imitation is crucial to social learning, as scientists are discovering.

Character comes from the heart, so schools have to engage students` emotions as well as their minds. One excellent way is to meet genuine student needs, such as for safety, belonging, competence and autonomy. This is a form of Modeling: the school shows caring for students by understanding their needs and helping provide for them. When they do, students will care for its values. This strategy is water in the soil from which character springs.

[Adapted with modifications from Eric Schaps, Esther F. Schaeffer, and Sanford N. McDonnell, "What`s Right and Wrong in Character Education Today," Education Week, Sept. 12, 2001 . Though over three years old, this article remains dead-on today.]

PARENTAL INVOLVEMENT IMPACTS UNDERAGE DRINKING

Some well-intentioned parents believe they can increase parental monitoring and control over teen alcohol consumption and decrease drunk-driving rates by supplying alcohol to their teens and their friends at parties in their own homes. However, a recent research report examining drinking habits of 6,000 teens in 242 communities finds such parents are actually more likely to be raising binge drinkers. (Source: Adults’ approval and adolescent alcohol use. (2004). Journal of Adolescent Health, 35(4), 345-346).

These findings are consistent with an analysis of the 2003 National Survey on Drug Use and Health. The analysis found that adolescents who start drinking before they are 15 are five times more likely to report alcohol dependence or abuse alcohol in adulthood than individuals who first used alcohol at age 21 or older. A startling 16% of those who began drinking alcohol before age 14 were classified with alcohol abuse or dependence. The rate of alcohol dependence or abuse was 9% for individuals who began drinking between ages 15 and 17, and 4.2% for those who began drinking alcohol between ages 18 and 20.
To read the full report, go to www.oas.samhsa.gov.

COMMENTARY BY MICHAEL JOSEPHSON
Taking Charge of the Balloon

A man in a hot air balloon, realizing he was lost, lowered it to shout to a fellow on the ground, "The wind`s blown me off course. Can you tell me where I am?"
The man replied, "Sure. You`re hovering about 60 feet over this wheat field." "You must be an engineer," the balloonist yelled.  "I am. How did you know?" the man replied.  "Well, everything you told me is technically correct but of absolutely no use."  The engineer retorted, "You`re an executive, right?"  "How did you know?" the balloonist responded.  "Well, you were drifting in no particular direction before you asked my help and you`re still lost, but now it`s my fault."

The balloon is a good metaphor for our lives. At first, all we want to do is rise as high as we can in terms of money, position and prestige. Yet as we rise wind currents push us sideways. Eventually, many of us discover that we`re on a very different course than we intended, a long way from the spot we took off from or hoped to end up at. So we blame the wind or anything else.

What we have to realize is that our power of choice is a steering mechanism that lets us respond to each breeze and gust. We can drift with or go against the current. Like haphazard wind currents, unplanned events beyond our control affect the direction of our lives. But, in the end, what we do and become is determined by our choices. The key is to be attentive, to look around to be sure we are going where we want to go.
 
This is Michael Josephson reminding you that character counts.