Kerry!

So good to read your words. As you know, I am in COMPLETE agreement with you
about the possibility of 'character education' being imbedded in the
classroom. In fact (since I'm a 'whole person' guy), I see that sort of
character education as my PRIMARY goal in the classroom -- the curriculum is
actually secondary! This means that EVERY SINGLE INTERACTION I have with them -
- as individuals and the entire class -- is designed to support their personal
and social growth.

Now, when I use the terms primary and secondary, I don't mean that the
curriculum becomes watered-down or less important than it is for other
teachers. No. The curriculum is JUST AS important, but I believe the person is
even more important than the curriculum. And the curriculum -- with all its
lessons, homework, tests, projects, groups, presentations, et cetera --
provides a great ongoing workshop for whole person development!!

Those who think education and character development are mutually exclusive
MIGHT just be missing out on something wonderful -- the miraculous and
precious human being sitting in front of them!

Do we teach students or do we teach subjects? What is the most important goal
of education in society?

Ah me. Clearly I need my morning coffee...

:-)

Tom

On 7/02/08, Kerry in BC wrote:
> Good morning,
>
> Like the other recent posters, I agree that character education, taught as a
> separate subject and set aside from real life, has little value. BUT,
> character education naturally embedded into the day to day happenings
of
> the classroom has enormous value. My own personal approach to character
> education is to use Marvin Marshall's Hierarchy from his Discipline without
> Stress approach.
>
> Although, to use Tom's wording, any type of "humanistic" discipline approach
> could certainly be used foster positive character traits, I just find that
> having taught the four concepts of Marshall's Hierarchy as part of my
> approach to encouraging self-discipline, I already have a common language
> with my students and a built-in way to take advantage of opportunities that
> highlight various character traits.
>
> The beauty of the DwStress Hierarchy is that it's meant to be used in real
> life situations--as they actually happen--in the classroom, in the gym, at
> the water fountain line-up, or out on the playground, etc. Everyday
> situations provide countless opportunities to discuss kindness, tolerance,
> honesty, patience, responsibility, etc., in very real and, therefore,
> meaningful ways.
>
> I have a couple of stories on my blog from my own classroom in which I
> describe how I use the Hierarchy to build discussions of character
with
> even very young children (K/1). Just by coincidence, both stories deal
> with aspects of INTEGRITY. They might be of interest to the original
> poster of this thread or to others.
>
> Although the stories on my blog are from my primary classroom, I also
have
> a second teaching job in which I work at an alternate high school as a
> literacy teacher with 16-19 year olds. I use the same type of
Hierarchy
> conversations with my older students to help them build positive character
> traits as well.
>
> For many of these disadvantaged and discouraged kids, it's often the very
> first time that anyone has ever been able to show them in a CONCRETE way
> that they too display moments of high personal motivation. For
instance,
> admitting to yourself as a teenager that you are a non-reader and being
> willing to start from scratch again (with Kindergarten and Grade One reading
> materials) shows great strength of character. Being able to
concretely
> show them this using the Hierarchy chart is very encouraging and uplifting.
>
> Finally on summer holidays!
>
> Kerry in BC
>
> PS I only see a way of adding ONE link per post. So, I'll make another
> posting to give the second link.
>
>
>
>

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