With all these character-related problems, why aren't the
presidential candidates speaking out on the subject? And why
hasn't it been put on the agenda for their debates? Why aren't
the American people demanding that schools do more to help
our young acquire good character - to become people who do
their best work and do the right thing in all areas of their
lives?
Having spent 40 years in the corporate world, I know that
business leaders don't want young people coming into their
companies who are brilliant but dishonest. And yet the vast
majority of corporate leaders ignore character problems
such as the rising levels of cheating in our high schools
and colleges. Instead, they focus on narrow measures of
school success such as higher test scores.
Far too many parents also ignore the need for character education
in our schools. They, too, concentrate on test scores and
grades in the misguided belief that getting their kids into
the right college is all that really matters.
No matter how many red flags are raised in the media about
the crisis of character in our society, and despite the
fact that we all agree that the role of education should
be to produce citizens who are both smart and good, we continue
by and large to focus on test scores rather than authentic
measures of intellectual and moral excellence.
As a school principal, the survivor of a concentration
camp once wrote to his teachers at the start of a new school
year, "My eyes saw what no person should witness: gas
chambers built by learned engineers, children poisoned by
educated physicians, infants killed by trained nurses, women
and babies shot and burned by high school and college graduates.
Your efforts must never produce learned monsters and skilled
psychopaths. Reading, writing, and arithmetic are important
only if they serve to make our children more humane."
Fortunately, a high-quality character education program
in schools produces young people who are both humane and
smart. Just ask Robert Gehringer, the principal of Boys
Town High School, which Father Flanagan started 90 years
ago in Boys Town, Neb. This school transforms severely at-risk,
abused, abandoned, and neglected boys and girls into productive
citizens. A high-quality character education program in
schools produces young people who are both humane and smart.
The first step with these students is training in basic
social and performance skills, such as following instructions,
greeting others, accepting criticism as well as compliments,
asking for help, and listening. They slowly but surely begin
to accept the fact that everyone at the school, both young
and old, sincerely wants to help them become a better, happier,
more successful person. They are taught to monitor their
feelings, control impulses, empathize with others, set goals,
and delay gratification in order to pursue their goals.
They learn what it means to be hardworking, trustworthy,
respectful, responsible, and caring, and that they are expected
to practice those virtues until they become habits, and
part of their character. In this environment, they find
meaning in their studies, and their academic performance
improves dramatically.
Boys Town High School was one of 10 schools and districts
recognized in a nationwide competition as a 2007 National
School of Character. The other nine winners, chosen by the
Character Education Partnership, included both public and
private schools from urban, suburban, and rural communities.
All 10 winners had different character education programs,
but they all employed practices that met the quality standards
of the partnership's "Eleven Principles of Effective
Character Education." (See www.character.org).
In the early history of our public education, developing
good character - qualities such as diligence, perseverance,
honesty, and kindness-was considered essential for doing
well in school and doing good in life. But in the last part
of the 20th century, most public schools drifted away from
that traditional emphasis on character.
Fortunately, in the past two decades, the character education
movement has revived and is beginning to pick up speed.
Thirty-one states now mandate or encourage character education
by statute. And all across the country schools are implementing
character education programs, but not nearly at the pace,
numbers, and quality needed to overcome our national crisis
of character.
With character-related fires blazing all around us, Americans
need to recognize that we should be emphasizing good character
in our young just as emphatically as we have been focusing
on higher math and science test scores. Samuel and John
Phillips, the founders of Phillips Academy in 1778, said
it well: "Goodness without knowledge is weak and feeble,
yet knowledge without goodness is dangerous, and both united
form the noblest character."
We need to hear how the future president of the United
States is going to help our schools produce young people
who have the strengths of character - the determination
of a Winston Churchill, for example, and the compassion
of a Mother Teresa - to overcome the unprecedented challenges
we face at home and abroad.
As President Theodore Roosevelt reminded us, "Character,
in the long run, is the decisive factor in the life of an
individual and of nations alike."
Sanford N. McDonnell is the chairman emeritus of the
McDonnell Douglas Corp., which is now part of Boeing. He
is also the chairman emeritus of the Character Education
Partnership.
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