Teaching Character Education

“Our district has used many character education programs as part of the regular curriculum, but this one is the best we have found so far. The characters become real to the students as they readily identify with the characteristics they see as most desirable for their own behaviors.”

                                           Nedra Call, Curriculum Coordinator, Nebo School District

Integrating Character Education in the Classroom

Character is all about making choices. There is nothing that defines one’s character so much as the choices one makes. Neither is there anything that so completely determines one’s destiny.

Character education is all about teaching young people how to make responsible choices and helping them to develop the internal controls necessary to make those choices.

As such, character education must do more than impart information, it must also inspire and strengthen students to act nobly—even when every inducement conspires to encourage them to act otherwise. This is the point at which character is manifest, for in these circumstances, if the will to act nobly does not exist within, it does not exist at all.

But, what does teaching character education have to do with teaching math,english, history, science, art, music or other subjects we teach in school?

The Role of Character Education in Public Schools

If there is any justification in the use of public monies to provide universal education, it is to prepare young people to be good citizens, and good citizenship involves much more than achieving a specific level of literacy or technical competence.

Benjamin Franklin, in writing about the Persians who taught virtue as a liberal art or science in their public schools, declared that the ability to govern one’s passions in spite of temptation, to be just in one’s dealings, and to be temperate in one’s pleasures were qualities of far more real advantage to a person than being “master of all the arts and sciences in the world besides.”

But how do you teach a child to govern his passions, or to be just and temperate in a public school setting? Where is the opportunity? Where do you get the time or resources? Where does teaching children about such things as virtue and morality fit within the curriculum?

Introducing The Seven C’S of Thinking Clearly

Hello, I’m George Rogers,
The Seven C’s of Thinking Clearly is a set of resource books containing an invaluable collection of fun, short, easy to prepare lessons designed to facilitate integrating character education in the curriculum.

The activities and stories in The Seven C’s of Thinking Clearly are all organized around an educational concept I call Character Based Learning. Simply stated, Character Based Learning is learning in which students are learning useful knowledge, acquiring essential virtues, and developing their mental and emotional faculties as part of the same learning experience.

As such, each lesson in The Seven C's of Thinking Clearly contains:

1. An Educational Component Tied to Core Curriculum Requirements

2. A Mental and Emotional Development Component designed to help young people develop their     thinking skills by providing:
    a) A mental construct for observing and identifing both helpful and unhelpful thought processes in         themselves and others, and
    b) HIF Questions to help them develop these skills for processing information

3. A Character Development Component designed to help them develop the Four Virtues of     Responsibilty, Self-Respect, Respect for Others and Trustworthiness)

The powerful stories and stimulating activities in The Seven C’s of Thinking Clearly all provide opportunities to create character based learning experiences in the classroom.

These short, literature rich lessons are curriculum friendly, easy to prepare, and fun to present making it easy to integrate them into your daily routine.