Schools Cultivate the Character Development of their Students
Character education hones social and emotional skills.
by Sara Bernard
Credit: Wesley Bedrosian
In the coming school year and beyond, teachers, and policy makers will develop and advocate for programs that leverage the best practices of two intersecting movements: character education and social and emotional learning (SEL). Activities and standards based on topics such as conflict resolution, violence prevention, and communication skills are expanding throughout the regular school day as a movement to bring values and personal strategies into public school classrooms gathers steam.
Organizations such as the Character Education Partnership (CEP), the Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning (CASEL), and the Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development (ASCD), as well as newly minted districtwide and statewide initiatives, have seen measurable success in promoting these skills as fundamental to student achievement -- academically, socially, and professionally, in and outside of school.
"People don't send their kids to school just for the accumulation of isolated bits of knowledge," says Maurice Elias, psychology professor and director of the Rutgers Social-Emotional Learning Lab at Rutgers University (and an Edutopia.org blogger). "If you look at the history of education, it really is about character development -- implicitly or explicitly."
Initially, character-education curriculum included the concepts of civic responsibility and ethics and the cultivation of a caring school environment. SEL, meanwhile, has tended to prioritize specific interpersonal and decision-making skills. Now, Elias and others predict, the functional merger of social and emotional learning and character education is approaching. Given the variety of nascent strategies, however, it's still unclear which term will draw the broadest following.
The SEL Lab at Rutgers University, for instance, recently developed a hybrid model called Social-Emotional and Character Development (SECD), part of the Developing Safe and Civil Schools (DSACS) initiative, in an effort to broaden the reach and scope of smaller, more specialized character-education and SEL programs in New Jersey schools. Similarly, the ASCD's "Whole Child" campaign delineates holistic requirements for student success that promote many practices (such as bullying prevention) often included in SEL and character-education models. And the Ohio Department of Education recently established what it terms "School Climate Guidelines" that advance social and emotional and character development through respect, motivation, and safety at school.
Other states and districts are stepping up to the plate: New Jersey provided strongholds for character- and SEL-related skills with the creation of the New Jersey Character Education Partnership in 2000, Illinois became the first state to use the term SEL in its benchmarks in 2004, New York State was close at its heels in 2006 with its own guidelines, and Alaska's Anchorage School District has proved a beacon through a comprehensive set of social and emotional guidelines, standards, and goals for all students.
Marvin Berkowitz, codirector of the Center for Character and Citizenship, at the University of Missouri at St. Louis, and lead author of a 2005 study called "What Works in Character Education," predicts a rise of these kinds of state- and district-level initiatives, particularly if we take a broad view of character education. "SEL, violence prevention, service learning -- they're all part of the same thing," he says. From his perspective, the most effective aspects of character education or SEL practices are simply "the means to an end," the end being the healthy, prosocial development of young people.
For educators who have long incorporated character skills in their teaching, this is nothing new. But the increase in awareness, resources, and high-level intention directed at character education means they will have growing support and more company in the future.
Sara Bernard is a former staff writer and multimedia producer for Edutopia.
This article was also published in the August/September 2008 issue of Edutopia magazine as "Moral Aptitude".
What's Next 2008: Special Report
Table of Contents
- What's Next: Ten Predictions for the Future of Public Education
- 1. Full-Service Schools: Where Success Is More Than Academic
- Video: Stealth Mental Health: Student Support Without the Stigma
- 2. In the Trenches: Community Activism Plays a Starring Role in Education Reform
- Posting Protests: Email Becomes Active in Education
- 3. Moral Aptitude: Schools Cultivate the Character Development of their Students
- Video: Talking Heads and Hearts: Intellectual and Emotional Education Make a Potent Pairing
- 4. Serious Gaming: Computer Games Become Potent Student Motivators and Evaluators
- Video: Grading with Games: An Interview with James Paul Gee
- 5. Behaveyourself.com: Online Manners Matter
- Beyond Emily: Post-ing Etiquette
- 6. The Media Is the Message: Invasive Messages Require Defensive Teaching
- Savvy Sites: Online Resources on Media Literacy
- 7. The Way of the Wiki: Building Online Creativity and Cooperation
- Wiki Woman: How a Web Tool Saved My Career
- Wiki Wisdom: How to Use an Online Classroom Clearinghouse
- 8. A Match Made in Cyberspace: The Next Generation of Teachers Will Seek Virtual Support
- Poll: Would you use online mentoring?
- 9. Hail to the New Chief: A Guide to the 2008 Presidential Candidates' Education Agenda
- Poll: Which candidate will be better for K-12 public education?
- 10. Rise of the Robots: Human-Machine Interaction Enhances Tech Teaching
- Poll: Do robots have a place in the classroom?
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Character Education
Many parents of middle school and high school students worry that their child lacks confidence in school. Peer pressure and social anxities play a large role in academic success and can also be affecting academic success and confidence.
All of these social diseases can be best cater with social and character education among all society members...
Our school district strongly believes in character development of students. At our school we do Character Counts and Bully-Free. Some of the teacher leaders from our schools attended a training put on by the Masons. This training taught ways to intervene with troubled students. It's not like we have no troubled students anymore, but we are attempting to raise awareness of our students, their families, and encourage teachers not to be afraid to be caring in a proactive way. Teaching children to be respectful of others and themselves, as well as helping them learn to work out the problems they have with their peers, can go a long way toward fostering peaceful interaction in our society.
Teen Leadership
Our high school faculty believes in character education and tries to incorporate in our homerooms and classes some teen leadership skills to our students. Little things like shaking their hand at the door and calling them by name makes a tremendous difference. As an educator it is so important that we get to their hearts, so we can get to their minds. We have to teach them how to live, grow and develope daily in every aspect of their lives social and intellectual. This is something that most coaches know how to do. (motivate)