Huff Post, by Khalid Husain.
While in principle it might be important to teach character, one might ask, “Is it effective? What is it good for? Does it ultimately help academic performance?” As you might guess, people hold opposing viewpoints on those questions. As there is no way to determine the causal impact of character education, groups which advocate for it instead use correlations between the implementation of a program and something like grades or graduation rate. The Character Counts! initiative reports that in Downey, Calif., “High school graduation rates have been over 92% since Character Counts! implementation … compared to the statewide graduation rate of 68.3%.”
“Children are 25 percent of the population but 100 percent of the future. If we wish to renew society, we must raise up a generation of children who have strong moral character. And if we wish to do that, we have two responsibilities: first, to model good character in our own lives, and second, to intentionally foster character development in our young.”
This quote from the introduction of Thomas Lickona’s book “Character Matters” illustrates both the importance of character education and a possible way of teaching it. In its essence, character education is the teaching of basic morals, values and principles which will guide people toward an ethical, well-behaved, healthy and successful path.
I agree 100 percent. The importance of educating our next generation about good moral character is the most important investment parents, teachers & the society can make for the bright future of both the children & the world. The parents & the teacers have to play their role setting good examples themselves, even if the children see the opposite around them ( like in their peers, neighbors ).