Character Education

John Adams wrote that our form of government was only meant for a virtuous people and Jefferson, Madison, and Washington concurred. A government of the people would work only as long as the people were of good character. Schools did their part by explicit instruction in the virtues (Kilpatrick, 1992).

During the first three decades of this century, character education utilized elaborate codes of conduct and group activities in school clubs as the primary methods of teaching character (McClellan, 1992; McKown, 1935). One widely used code of conduct was the "Children's Morality Code" which emphasized "ten laws of right living---self-control, good health, kindness, sportsmanship, self-reliance, duty, reliability, truth, good workmanship, and teamwork (Hutchins, 1917). From the 1920s to the 1950s, character education more closely resembled instruction in bas

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ues provided to children as part of their education. Haynes (1993) further points out that individual differences as well as cultural differences make it important for schools and communities to assume the obligations of both modeling and teaching this form of character education. Indeed, it is stated that civic education is character education in the deepest sense; and that communities have the responsibility for modeling proper character while schools have the awesome task of inspiring civic virtue. Vessels and Boyd (1996) have stated that civic responsibility character education thrives on an informed understanding of constitutional principles and an inclusive commitment-building process. It is also noted that United States Supreme Court opinions that clarify public school students' free speech rights have established that this and other kinds of values-related education as a constitutionally acceptable practice. One form of civic character education programs is service learning. Hope (1997) reports that service learning is a versatile, developmentally appropriate strategy that integrates public service into student instruction and connects the classroom with the surrounding community and the world. Hope (1997) associat
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Approximate Word count = 9527
Approximate Pages = 38 (250 words per page)

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