Types
According to the Center for the Fourth and Fifth R’s (www.cortland.edu/www/c4n5rs/index.html)
character education holds that there are universally important ethical values such
as respect, responsibility, trustworthiness, fairness, caring, courage, self-control,
and diligence. Character means living by these core values - understanding them,
caring about them, and acting upon them. Character education is a comprehensive (http://www.cortland.edu/www/c4n5rs/comp_iv.htm)
educational system that’s goal is to produce a moral person. It is for this reason
that it is difficult to separate the disciplinary procedures of character education
from the rest of the curriculum. The two are truly integrated. However, it is useful
to examine the ways in which character education instills values before discipline
problems occur and to examine the way in which it is dealt with when it does transpire.
A primary difference between character education and traditional paradigms is the
installation of values before transgressions occur. While most schools attempt to
instill students with core values, very little is done to explain why these values
are important. For example, while a student is taught that it is rude to shout out,
they are typically not given a reason why that is so. Character education, on the
other hand, focuses on the "whys" as well as the "whats" of our
commonly held values.
The installation of core values begins in elementary schools where stories are often
times used to valuable lessons. In his book Educating For Character, Thomas Lickons
writes:
"Stories, read or told, have always been among the favorite teaching instruments
of the world's great moral educators. Stories teach by attraction rather than compulsion;
they invite rather than impose. They capture the imagination and touch the heart.
All of us have experienced the power of a good story to stir strong feelings. That's
why storytelling is such a natural way to engage and develop the emotional side of
a child's character."
A good source of these stories is: The Character Building Site (http://coe.ed.usu.edu/eb/resources/characterbuilder/)
At the elementary level a story like "Don’t Get Trapped" (http://coe.ed.usu.edu/eb/resources/characterbuilder/coyote.html)
teaches the importance of "staying within the boundaries". At the middle
school level biographies like that of "Anne Frank (http://coe.ed.usu.edu/eb/resources/characterbuilder/annefrank.html)
are used to display the values of honesty, courage, and empathy. These moral lessons
serve as part of the framework for discipline in character education.
The character education framework is laid out in "The Eleven Principles of Character
Education (HTTP://www.character.org/principles/index.cgi)
by Tom Lickona, Eric Schaps, and Catherine Lewis. They write:
"There is no single script for effective character education, but there are
some important basic principles. These eleven principles serve as criteria that schools
and other groups can use to plan a character education effort and to evaluate available
character education programs, books, and curriculum resources."
When a transgression occurs in a character education curriculum class stops and a
moral conversation ensues. Nell Noddings offers a description of the moral conversation:
(In education) whether the foundation be God or cultural tradition, it is assumed
that there are values to be transmitted, virtues to be encouraged, a character to
be established. Much of character education grows out of the Aristotelian tradition;
moral educators seek to develop character, and as virtue is manifested the scope
of conversation is allowed to broaden. The openness of conversation varies. In the
loving form described by Thomas Lickona, children are invited to express their anger,
fear, and doubt. (Noddings, 1994)
It is this type of conversation on which the foundation of character education is
laid. Moral conversations in response to a disciplinary transgression can take all
shapes and sizes. However, a simple example might be as follows:
Setup: Student 1 has just called Student 2 a hurtful name. The teacher stops the
class to have a conversation about what has just happened.
In a situation like this the teacher facilitates a discussion about what has happened
with the entire class.
The teacher might ask Student 1 questions like:
Why did you say what you said to Student 2?
How do you think what you said made Student 2 feel?
Why is it wrong to use hurtful names?
Questions like these begin a conversation in which the whole class participates.
Eventually, the entire class is able discuss and learn from what has just transpired.
Ideally, all students learn a moral lesson and the entire class benefits.
However, there are many times when a transgression is serious enough to warrant further
action. In these cases, conversation is still at the root of discipline and the emphasis
is placed on reform, not punishment. One example of further discipline is as follows:
A student is caught writing on a bathroom wall. Instead of simply serving detention,
an unrelated, mindless punishment, the student might be instructed to spend a month
with the custodial staff. Ideally, this type punishment would instill the character
whose absence is at the heart of the transgression.
Discipline in character education is part of a larger holistic curriculum that’s
primary aim is to build a person of moral Charachter. It is for this reason that
discipline cannot be separated entirely from the curriculum. Character education
and its focus on values serves as a foundation for the disciplinary process when
their is a transgression. When discipline is called for, it approached by all parties
with a shared set of values and a genuine aim towards resolution. There is no way
to completely replicate this set of circumstances outside of the framework of a Charachter
education curriculum.