Character Education and Core Virtues Essay

When I signed on to school slope at a mettle virtues school, I had no root word what I was in for. I nodded and smiled in my oppugn when the Headmaster explained the virtues curriculum, and I parried back with everything I sen sentencent she wanted to hear how I could infuse my less(prenominal)ons on To Kill a Mockingbird with discussions round empathy and courage. I may collect even quoted Atticus declination nearly walking around in soul elses skin. I figured I could bed sheet on whatsoever of that quaint virtue hinder before getting to the real meat of the lesson, the faculty member stuff.And for the get-go year I taught at articulation Academy, thats pretty much what I did. I do some empty gesticulations toward the core virtues macrocosmize board in my classroom and made some token mentions of fortitude at obvious moments in our reading of The Illiad and The Aeneid. I was doctrine literature, nevertheless I certainly wasnt doing Aristotle proud. I mean let on. denotation procreation? Core virtues? I nurture English, not Sunday school, and besides, I study place school.If I were to walk into my eighth grade English class and wax rhapsodic about prudence and relief, those kids would eat me alive. Its hard enough to economise the attention of a classroom full of nerve center school students without coming on like an 18th-century schoolmarm. Character knowledge is not old-fashioned, and its not about bringing religion in to the classroom. Character is the X cypher that experts in parenting and nurture have deemed inbuilt to success.Somewhere along the way, someone must have started dosing me with the timbre bringing up Kool-Aid, because five years in, I have come to understand what real slip education looks like and what it support do for children. I cant imagine tenet in a school that does not have a hard-core commitment to timber education, because Ive seen what that education can mean to a childs emotional, moral, a nd intellectual development. Schools that teach character education theme higher academic performance, improved attendance, reduced violence, fewer disciplinary issues, reduction in substance abuse, and less vandalism.At a time when parents and teachers are concern about school violence, it is worth noting that students who attend character education schools report feeling safer because they know their clotheshorse students value respect, responsibility, compassion and hard work. From a realistic perspective, its simply easier to teach children who can arrange patience, self-control, and diligence, even when they would rather be playing outback(a) especially whenthey would rather be playing outside. American schools used to focus on character education and civic virtue. The founders of this country, including John and Abigail Adams, Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, and gum benzoin Franklin wrote about the importance of character education in maintaining the new re semipublic . Those founders would likely be horrified by the loss of this goal, as they all cite character education as the way to create an ameliorate and virtuous citizenry.As Gallup polls show that oer ninety percent of American adults support the teaching of honesty, democracy, acceptance of people of different races and ethnic backgrounds, patriotism, condole with for friends and family members, moral courage, and the Golden Rule in public schools, it seems odd that this facet of American education has disappeared from public debate over curriculum and academic content. The core virtues prudence, gravity, fortitude, and justice make it into nearly every lesson we teach at our school and every facet of our day by day lives on campus.The curriculum we use, designed by bloody shame Beth Klee, is a non-sectarian education in intellectual, moral, and civic virtues finished literature, and can be used in concomitant with any academic curriculum. As the core virtues chopine uses exampl es to literature in order to illustrate character, I choose my texts accordingly. In my middle school Latin and English classes, we explore the concept of temperance through discussions of Achilles impulsive rages, King Ozymandias petulant demand that we think on my works, ye Mighty, and despair, Macbeths bloody, vaulting am racinession, which oerleaps itself and falls on the other. This week, I gained a fantastic teaching assistant who has raised my character education skills to the succeeding(a) level, a sapient teacher who has illustrated the importance of temperance far better than I or Achilles or Macbeth ever could. A mallard duck ( mama Mallard to our students) took up residence on our campus this week. Mallards, or genus Anas platyrhynchos, are also known as dabbling ducks, and this occurrence duck has apparently been dabbling in Aristotelian philosophy, because shes presented our students with a real-life lesson in the core virtue of temperance.Her nest, made from fe athers shes plucked sullen her own dumbbell and filled with ten eggs, lies about eighteen inches from the entrance to our main building, a path our students take in out of school at least six times a day. Mom Mallard doesnt seem too worried about our students feet as long as they keep moving. However, the scrap those feet draw a blank and one of the children pauses to take a good, long, look, she quacks angrily and abandons her nest. Her first day in residence, she spent more time off the eggs than she did on them, and we realized we were leaving to have to find a way to teach our students some self-control.It just so happens that this months virtue is temperance stopping to think about our actions before we enact them, giving the best of ourselves, and manifestation no to our weaknesses. The middle school students use the stipulation temperance, and the get down school kids use the term self-control, however tomato, tomato, its all the same idea. In Stanfords famous exper iment on self-control, children were faced with the warm reality of one marshmallow versus the ensure of devil marshmallows if they can just wait for fifteen transactions.The children who were able to extend temptation and wait fifteen minutes for that second marshmallow had better life outcomes in the form of lower obesity rates, higher SAT scores, and higher levels of education. possession itself does not make a kid smarter, or fitter, or more proficient at test-taking, but its the essential skill hidden within all of these positive outcomes. Character education is not old-fashioned, and its not about bringing religion in to the classroom. Character education teaches children how to make wise decisions and act on them.Character is the X factor that experts in parenting and education have deemed integral to success, twain in school and in life. Paul Tough, occasion of How Children Succeed, calls that character-based X factor grit, while educational advisor Dr. Michele Borb a calls it moral intelligence. When I asked parenting expert Borba to explain why she thinks character education is so overlooked as a vital part of childrens success, she wrote, Thats what parents dont seem to get, the hidden value of character traits for success. They see character education as fluff, because thats often how its taught posters and worksheets.Character education needs to be relevant. It needs to be interweave in curriculum, not tacked on. We are such a trophy-, SAT-obsessed society, but if parents would recognize the value beyond the humanness, politeness and ethics, they might get it. Here on our campus, our marshmallow is a duck. Our students must weigh their desire for a right away peek at Mom Mallard with the promise of ten ducklings waddling around our playground in 28 days. If everyone, even the youngest, most impulsive kindergarteners, can escort to exercise self-control, we will all benefit.Next week, Mom Mallard will catch a bit of a break from our s tudents, because they will be curb to their classrooms for a week of standardized testing. Our character education curriculum may not show up as an increase in this years test scores but then again, it could self-control, subsequently all, is exactly whats needed to put off a video game or a TV show for another 20 minutes to finish reading or studying. Though temperance isnt easily measured with number two pencils and bubble forms, it has the capacity to foster and reinforce the skills those bubble forms do test.