What is Character Education?

So, what is character education? Character education can be defined as the teaching of principles and standards of living that are taught in a systemic way so that students of all ages can understand and incorporate into their daily lives. Whether character education should be taught in the schools will continue to be debated. However, most schools today make this teaching a part of the curriculum in some form or fashion.

The word character itself is defined as; attributes or features that make up and distinguish and individual or groups of individuals. With this definition, we find that there is some debate on what are considered “good characteristics”. What one group would consider, proper and right for living well, others would argue those characteristics are outside the norm, not part of the “mainstream” or don’t go far enough for one to incorporate into society. Character attributes can vary from ethnic groups, communities, regions, and countries just to name a few. Character in and of itself is open to debate as to what is proper and what is not. Given our current society and its challenges, this goes right along with other debates that are on going today.

If we can agree that character education is important in our schools and is important for all ages, there are a few character traits that should be considered. This listing is not conclusive, nor does this list indicate that these traits are the most important. If we teach character education in our schools, we should focus on those traits that will have an immediate impact on a student’s social skills, work ethic, and general well-being.

Optimism

Optimism is defined as being hopeful and confident about one’s future successes. Through the teaching of optimism, a student can gain confidence that success through due diligence is achievable. Alongside of optimism, one should also incorporate the definition of success. Just because a person does not reach an originally set goal does not mean they were not successful. A person can work hard to achieve mastery of a concept and still not make a perfect 100 on the assessment. Learning that success does not mean perfection can and should lead to an optimistic attitude toward learning.

Self-Control

Self-control is defined as the ability to control one’s emotions and desires or the expression of them especially in difficult situations. Along with optimism, a person’s ability to control their emotions is a predominate trait that leads to getting along with and working with others on a consistent basis. Self-control is an important trait for all ages because as we age the situations become more serious as do the outcomes. A person must learn to measure their responses and reactions to situations to “walk along” in society. The person who is always “on the outside looking in” often finds their own optimism, self-esteem and their own self worth threatened. It is easy to see why people who struggle with self-control are often at odds with society and would rather be alone. Suicide is much more prominent with those who have issues with self-control. Basically, a person who struggles with self-control issues often feel like outcasts in most social settings.

Social Intelligence

Social intelligence is defined as the capacity to know oneself and to know others. Social intelligence is developed from life experiences and thus is important to be emphasized for all ages. In general, a person develops social intelligence over their lifetime. Some of the key types of social intelligence are verbal and nonverbal fluency, knowledge of social rules and how to abide within them, listening skills, understanding or being empathetic to the emotions of others, and playing social roles efficiently. These are but a few of the areas we grow daily in social intelligence. Often, our growth in this area comes from misreading the situation and having to learn from a mistake we made. However, we grow in social intelligence, reflection and change of attitude or reaction are important in the growth process of social intelligence.

Gratitude

Gratitude is defined as a quality of being thankful generally for the acts or generosity of someone else toward us. A key character quality which grows along with us as we age, showing gratitude toward others not only gives us a good feeling, but also builds up the person reaching out to us. Showing gratitude in the face of generosity no matter how big or small, grows a mutual bond of respect between individuals. Showing gratitude also teaches a person that to be generous to others is also a character trait that we should be developing within ourselves.

Generosity

Generosity is defined as the quality of being kind, understanding, and not selfish in our daily lives. Generosity is a trait often lost in our “dog eat dog” world of getting ahead no matter who we step on along the way. As the person who has received generosity from others, showing generosity for others should follow naturally. The concept of generosity being learned well can open doors within individuals and a common respect for others. This common respect can ignite reciprocity among those giving and receiving.

These five character traits are nowhere near the exhaustive list of character education topics. In fact, these are just the tip of the iceberg. I am sure that in reading this article you have deduced that I am a proponent of character education in our schools. Your deduction is correct. I believe that teaching “how then we should live” within the schools is as important as “reading, writing and arithmetic.” Remember, as educators, our role is to teach the entire child, not to just infuse “book learning” to the masses.

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When we think about our students and wonder how we can better prepare them to be good, valuable citizens in the future, the idea of character education comes to my mind. Of course, we want our students to be proficient in math and reading, but we also want them to be proficient in being a productive and beneficial member of society. What better way to do that than introducing character education in the classroom! Character education is the act of instilling the values of kindness, generosity, and integrity in students. It consists of teaching the key components of moral excellence through one’s actions.

What is moral excellence? Moral excellence is centered on one thing, and that is doing the right thing. It includes having integrity or doing what is right when no one is looking. It is showing care for others or having empathy when our friends are going through a hard time. Moral excellence is demonstrating kindness to those around you. It is being responsible and taking ownership of one’s actions.

As we enter the holiday season, we can find several ways to easily integrate character education into the classroom. The holidays are an excellent time to teach students the value of kindness, charity, empathy, and putting the needs of others above their own. Below are some ways to help develop those invaluable characteristics in your students during the most wonderful time of the year!

Character Education Activities for the Holidays

Organize a Food, Toy, or Clothing Drive

The holidays present a lot of fun, but they also present a lot of needs. There are always needs within every community, but it is especially important to reach out to those less fortunate during the holidays. Many are without family or lack the means necessary to attain items on their own due to financial circumstances or other personal situations. Students can organize food, toy, and/or clothing drives to help families continue to celebrate the holidays despite those unfortunate circumstances.

Any drive of this nature requires community involvement and a large amount of responsibility from students in order to be successful. Students must learn to communicate with those in their communities to get the word out and better help those in need. Students learn to be responsible for collected materials and understand their importance.

Fundraisers for an Important Cause

During the holidays, students can raise money for important causes either locally or nationally. For instance, students may be encouraged to raise funds for cancer research, a local homeless shelter, or animal shelter. As a class, students can learn about the intended recipient of the funds before beginning the fundraising process. In doing so, students gain a better understanding of why it is important to raise money for their chosen organization.

This understanding also helps to create a bigger desire in students to make a difference, too! Since students will be collecting money, students will learn to do the right thing even when no one is looking. They must collect money and show integrity to ensure that the money goes to its intended recipient only.

One way to extend this idea within your classroom is to research two or three different organizations. Then, students can vote on which organization they would like to raise money for and why.

Embracing Charity and Giving

In continuing with the idea of drives and fundraisers, another excellent activity for character education is to embrace charity and giving. The central ideas of the holidays that echo all throughout the season are thankfulness and giving. Charity is the act of giving to others in need. Charity helps to develop empathy in students. In school, students could place themselves in another person’s shoes. For example, students could volunteer in the cafeteria or help clean the school building in order to better grasp all that cafeteria workers and custodians do on a daily basis.

Outside of school, students could imagine what it must be like to be homeless or without basic needs and decide to do something about it. This may inspire them to volunteer at a local soup kitchen or shelter. Regardless of the location, acts of charity teach students to be sensitive to those around them, and they also remind students to be thankful for all they have.

Random Acts of Kindness

This is probably my favorite way to instill the values of character in students! It is fun and rewarding. It’s simple. Ask students to participate in random acts of kindness. These “acts” can be performed anonymously or not, but they are sure to put a smile on someone’s face.

There are several ways to give acts of kindness while in school. Students could write thank you notes to public service workers, be directed to help a friend when they are having a bad day, clean up a mess that’s not their own, share words of encouragement with one another, or even make gifts for school staff members. Students can even spread kindness outside of school by delivering treats to local businesses, buying someone else’s meal, picking up trash, or surprising a neighbor with a meal.

Clearly, providing others with an act of kindness can be as simple or complex as you desire. The main idea is to teach students to be kind to others and realize how it makes them feel in the process!

Creatively Encourage Others

One of the best aspects of the holiday season is how joyful it is! Students can spread cheer to others in a large number of ways, and in the process, they reinforce the need to care about others and their feelings. Students could go caroling, make holiday cards to share within the school or local nursing home, decorate holiday scenes to share with those in the hospital, etc. All of these activities are both fun and exciting for students, but when they realize the activity serves an additional purpose of providing joy to someone else, it makes it even more rewarding and enjoyable.

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Yet, in a society that values standardized test scores over character education, quickly eliminating the social interactions that build integrity for hours spent with artificial intelligence is creating a culture that idolizes a filtered social media post over giving an undocumented hand to those in need. The power of our actions and investment into the moral and ethical education of students will pay dividends because you create more than knowledge; you arm students with the power of goodness and kindness, which far supersede any other score.

Why Does Teaching Morality Matter?

Turn on the evening news and the reason for incorporating character education reaches out and grabs us like a bad dream. The daily dose of reported violence, apathy, offense, and divisiveness  has desensitized us to the deterioration of moral character. Teaching morality matters because treating your neighbor as yourself has become a less and less frequent practice. We need a little less TikTok and a little more Mr. Rogers. Schools have the platform to instill what has been missing in our curriculum for so long, but how do we do it?

How to Connect Morality to Academics

Like so many best practices that have been ingrained into educators, morality does not have to be taught in isolation but can be partnered with content to make learning experiences impactful in more ways than one.

Be a Role Model

Teachers are heroes in the eyes of their students. What makes you stand out even more is to practice what you preach. Just like a great teacher models thinking strategies, demonstrating for students how to show moral character is just as important.

On several occasions, I have seen a teacher apologize for a wrongdoing towards a child. Saying “I’m sorry,” can be difficult, especially when it is never seen at home. The freedom that comes with recognizing we made a mistake, owning it, and asking for forgiveness is a priceless gift we can share with our students.

Teachers are role models every day when they show compassion, sharing, choosing kind words when it would be easier to shout, and advocating for the marginalized populations. Never underestimate the difference you can make when you leave your signature upon a student’s mindset.

Connect to Your Content

The autonomy in teaching manifests itself oftentimes in the details. Choosing examples or opportunities for your students to intertwine content with principled foundations proves impactful for students.

At my school, Washington County Elementary School, we ask teachers to involve students in a passion project. Students were learning about animals in a kindergarten/first grade split classroom and, as a result, the students chose to adopt an animal clinic. The students brought in pet food and supplies and donated them. In turn, they learned about life cycles of animals that visit the clinic. They wrote cards to the vets, thanking them for their service. They added together the supplies and the cost of the supplies to incorporate math skills. The teacher chose guided reading books and interactive read-aloud texts that focused on animal life cycles.

The experience was rich for students and their enthusiasm for the work they were doing shown through their pride in their work. All students were engaged and wanted to explain to me all about the project they were doing, and I was always beaming when they used such sophisticated vocabulary to paint a vivid picture for me, one I never get about a worksheet!

Encourage Positive Behaviors

Providing reinforcement of positive behaviors, opposed to positively reinforcing negative behaviors, keeps your classroom in a state of growth. Pouring all of your energy into the negative leaves educators drained with no real results. Rather than focusing on what is not going well, praise the positive. When students make a mistake, do not ignore it; instead, allow them to grow through it. This makes your classroom a safe place, and students will have the innate desire to please.

Building Grit

One of the golden opportunities teachers often allow to pass by is when a student makes a mistake and we do not take the time to reflect upon how the mistake was an open door for learning. As a result, we have a generation of students who are terrified to be anything less than perfect. In the hallways, PLCs, faculty meetings, and parent-teacher conferences, I constantly hear how kids are not motivated, but in return, what I want to say is we have not taught nor expected grit from students today. It is significant to teach students to press through difficult tasks. When a student does not meet the expectation, whether it be behavioral or academic, take the time to allow students to correct mistakes.

How Does Character Education Impact Students?

Teachers are needed in today’s society, more than ever, to have a profound impression upon the students they teach. Education is not the same field it was in previous decades; yet we are focusing on all the wrong things.

When we focus more on a score than the heart, we are losing generation after generation. If it takes a village, then we have to step up and be the warrior for morality. Investing in character education improves attendance. When students know they are valued by not only their teachers but their peers as well, they want to be at school. Respect towards others, honesty, compassion for others, and teamwork are all character traits that do not magically appear when we teach how to take a test. Be more intentional about heart work than homework and your career will be worth more than a paycheck.

*Updated November, 2020

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