Trustworthiness, respect, responsibility, justice, fairness, integrity, caring—these concepts are at the heart of good character. Yet these are lofty words that are difficult for young people to appreciate or for teachers to set as instructional goals.
Amitai Etzioni, a George Washington University sociologist and leader in character education, has formulated a conceptual framework that helps turn character development into accessible skills for both teachers and students. Rather than focusing on particular character traits, he identifies two underlying skills, empathy and self-discipline, that are prerequisites for character development. Empathy allows the child to appreciate the perspectives and feelings of another, to sense violations of justice and care, and to better distinguish right from wrong. Self-discipline provides the ability to take action and delay or even forego gratification in order to remain committed to a set of values or goals. Together, these skills provide the foundation for moral behavior.
Concerns for safety and order in schools have led to a raft of violence-prevention programs, from conflict resolution training to metal detectors and security guards. We believe that such programs, though well-intentioned, are incomplete. The missing piece in prevention programs is character development through the skills of empathy and self-discipline. Without these skills, we run the risk that schools will become locked-down, oppressive institutions built around fear rather than responsiveness. Nurturing empathy and self-discipline is our best hope for establishing an ethic rooted in shared rights and responsibilities.
- Learn basic decision-making and perspective-taking skills.
- Delay gratification and persist through obstacles.
- Develop a consistent set of positive values they can translate into action.
- Learn how to act responsibly.
- Have opportunities to successfully test skills.
Further, we need to structure all learning activities within a developmental context. What empathy and self-discipline mean to children changes with age, life stage, and experience.
Confronting Challenges
Children today face an extremely challenging social environment. They experience growing economic disparity, the increasing acceptance of violence and abuse, a sense of disenchantment with government, and society's emphasis on self-interest and material goods. Too many young people feel hopeless, helpless, and powerless.
Such feelings and experiences undermine children's ability to help others, to trust, and to see meaningful possibilities for their own future. Young people are easily seduced by a material culture that promotes instant gratification. And the violence they see around them desensitizes them to their own pain and that of others.
Although adults have created this environment, our children most vividly live out the contradictions between our words and our deeds. If we wish to address the crisis in character we observe in our young people, we must confront those circumstances in our environment. Children are the mirrors in which we can see our own reflection. We must hold ourselves and our social, educational, and political leaders accountable for living the values of trustworthiness, respect, responsibility, justice, fairness, integrity, and caring. Adults need to demonstrate to young people that it is possible to live one's values and advocate for a more just and responsible society.
But adults also need to help schools become moral communities where students experience the values we hold dear. Our vision of a school as a moral community that nurtures empathy and self-discipline is the exception today. Making such schools commonplace will take concerted effort by the local school community and the citizenry at large.
Principles for a Moral School Community
- The school community collaboratively develops, clearly states, and celebrates core moral values. Members of the school community can develop mission statements, codes of responsibility, and shared moral values. Students thus get a sense of contributing to the common good. To encourage students to live these values, we can provide time for peer leadership, cross-grade tutoring, caring for plants and animals, and beautifying the school. We can display posters and essays focusing on empathy and self-discipline. We can engage in regular rituals that emphasize caring, such as matching first-year students with older students for orientation and holding recognition assemblies that celebrate caring in both adults and students.
- Adults exemplify positive moral values in their work with one another and with students. Children—especially adolescents—often see the contradictions in values that adults live by. We cannot erase all contradictions, but we can help model moral behavior by developing codes of conduct for our own work—as teachers, administrators, school board members, parents, and even cafeteria workers.
- The school functions as the hub of the neighborhood community. The alliances we build with parents, business leaders, and community members strengthen the moral support structure children need to develop character. We can keep the school building open on evenings and weekends and plan activities, classes, and programs that serve all ages. We can encourage parents and community members to share their expertise.
- Students develop skills in goal setting, problem solving, cooperation, conflict resolution, and decision making. We can help children develop social skills and moral values through modeling, direct instruction, experience, and continual practice. Norma Haan and her colleagues found that though children could think in profoundly empathic and moral terms, they lacked the skills to handle moral conflicts. To learn these skills in a history class, for example, students could collaboratively study strategies that real diplomats use to diffuse international conflict.
- Students are involved in decision making within their classroom and school. We must provide students with age-appropriate opportunities to participate in the decisions that affect their lives. The practice of democracy is vital. Even very young children can participate in class meetings to discuss rules and moral values. High school students can serve on screening committees for new faculty members, be representatives to the school improvement committee, and meet with department committees to review new courses.
- Educators use a problem-solving approach for discipline. To develop self-discipline, children need structures and limits with clear consequences to guide their behavior. We enhance students' ownership and sense of responsibility when we include children in the development of rules and consequences. Beginning at the preschool level, we can teach and use conflict management and mediation skills and use discipline problems and conflicts as opportunities to enhance students' social skills.
- School communities provide opportunities for service—within and outside of the school. K–12 service learning provides ways to develop empathy and practice self-discipline. Young children can take responsibility for a nature area near the school. Older students can volunteer in nursing homes and community agencies, become active in social and political organizations, provide peer leadership, or tutor younger students.We must also engage young people in asking the hard questions about how we, collectively, live up to high moral standards—questions about the roots of violence, economic disparities, and environmental crises. We must allow students to make their own informed decisions and take responsible action. Students need to experience being part of the solution rather than remaining passive observers.
- Students and staff members appreciate diversity in cultures and beliefs through both study and direct experience. We can help the entire school community develop empathy by consistently expanding the boundaries of family, religious, class, cultural, national, or racial groups. We can encourage discussions of literature and offer direct contact with people who differ in age or culture, thus providing the common ground for resolving differences and developing caring relationships. Through telecommunications, students and adults can collaborate with people in other communities, states, and countries.
- At least one caring adult is personally connected with each child. Such relationships are fostered through smaller schools or "houses" within schools. Mentors, tutors, and adult advisors should pair with students on a long-term basis.Young people need structure and guidance, yet they also need developmentally appropriate opportunities to take risks and overcome failure. Empathy and self-discipline evolve through practice in real-life situations.
Character and Meaning
At heart, character education is helping young people develop a sense of social responsibility—a personal investment in the well-being of others and in the future of the planet. We can teach the virtues we hold dear only when we step out of our own perspective, empathize with others, and see the future consequences of our actions.
Character education means helping students understand, through experience, that what they value matters and that living these virtues lends meaning and richness to their own lives. Young people begin to see that their actions and choices create the world as it is and as it will be. When students grasp the positive difference they can make in the world, they grow in responsibility, respect, self-discipline, integrity, empathy—all the virtues we wish to see.
