The Center For The 4th and 5th R's (1996) has pointed out that:
Among leading industrialized nations, the United States has by far the highest murder rate for 15- to 24-year-old males -- seven times higher than Canada's and 40 times higher than Japan's. From 1965 to 1990, the arrest rate for all juvenile violent crime in the United States rose more than 300 percent. This trend cut across gender: Among girls, for example, arrests for aggravated assault more than tripled. From 1978 to 1988, according to FBI statistics, rape arrests for 13- and 14-year-old males nearly doubled. (p.1)
Statistics such as these coupled with the pervasive violence in so many of American schools are, for many educators, indicators of the moral regression of our society. One educational answer to this problem has been the call for programs of character education. According to the Center for the 4th and 5th R's (1996) this call for character education programs is based on the belief that destructive and irresponsible youth behaviors such as violence, dishonesty, drug abuse, and sexual promiscuity have a common core which is the absence of good character.
This chapter of the study presents a comprehensive examination of the character education literature. The review begins with a general definition of characterization and a brief examination of some associated ideological issues. This is followed by a description of various kinds of character education programs, and then by an examination of the empirical literature on the effects of character education. The final section of the review presents several conclusions about character education formulated on the basis of the reviewed literature, and discusses the implications of these conclusions for the educational system and for continuing research in the field.
Character Education: Definition and Ideological Issues
The Oxford English Dictionary defines character as:
the sum of the mora...