Character Education is Up to Parents, Not Schools

7/31/2019

Albert Einstein notably said that, “Most people think that it is the intellect which makes a great scientist. They are wrong. It is character.” Einstein should know, because it was at his urging that Franklin D. Roosevelt initiated the Manhattan Project, which would develop the world’s first atomic bomb. Though he was not personally involved in the Manhattan Project, it was a decision which Einstein regretted his entire life – he was horrified by having contributed to the destruction that the bomb made possible.

In my estimation, we are typically educated so that we will get into the right college and be successful monetarily. Far less emphasis is placed on developing a strong moral character, which is often only an afterthought. If intellectual achievement outpaces the development of moral character, we get a population of people bent on being smart and successful but not much concerned about the needs of others.

How does someone develop moral character? I'll give you a hint; not in school. The largest scientific study conducted on the subject concluded that school-wide character education programs produce no improvements in student behavior or academic performance. Moral character develops in the family and through exposure to various life experiences. Parents therefore need to be intentional about character education for their children, and in this post, I’ll give some tips for how to do it.

Why You Shouldn't Depend on Schools for Character Education

Character education was traditionally a fundamental part of the curriculum in classical education, and it was part of the medieval baccalaureate. In the European past, it was understood that a person must have a sufficiently developed sense of character and integrity before they were fit to receive higher intellectual and religious knowledge. As the Catholic Church’s influence declined over the centuries, so too did the emphasis on personal integrity in Western education.

The last couple of decades have seen a resurgence of interest in school-based character education. There are dozens of formal character education programs, most of which vary from the classical approach in that they all emphasize completely different character traits. As I mentioned above, there isn’t a lot of evidence that these programs work.

One thing all these programs do agree on is what values are NOT included in their lists of core values. Not found, even though they are fundamental to the history and success of great nations are such noted values as independence, calculated risk, ingenuity, curiosity, critical thinking, skepticism, and even moderation.

It is unsurprising that schools can’t teach calculated risk, curiosity, and critical thinking; schools are mostly about conformity to a system and competitive grading based on providing the right answers. So if school-based character education doesn't work so well, what can parents do to foster moral character in their children?

Character Education Tips For Parents

It seems to me that a combination of parenting and life experiences help to shape a person’s moral character.

First, parents should be clear about their own philosophy of life and moral values. Then, they should be intentional about finding ways to teach these values, which includes providing opportunities for their children to develop traits like critical thinking, curiosity, moderation and calculated risk taking – subjects which I and others have written a lot about previously on the blog.

All of these posts contain tips for parents looking to be more intentional about character education for their children:

Calculated risk-taking can be developed through outdoor play and programs like the Free Forrest School for younger children: https://www.freeforestschool.org/

Also be sure to provide your kids with plenty of downtime and let them be bored! Boredom promotes ingenuity and resourcefulness. Many kids today are chronically over-scheduled and have no time for unstructured play.

Please feel free to comment and suggest more programs and resources that I haven’t included here!

"Character is higher than intellect. A great soul will be strong to live as well as think." -Ralph Waldo Emerson

*This post has been updated. It was originally published in December 2013, under the title, "Why Character is More Important than Intellect."

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Sources:

"Efficcacy of Schoolwide Programs to Promote Social and Character Development and Reduce Problem Behavior in Elementary School Children" (PDF). The Institute of Education Sciences, U.S. Department of Education. 2007. The Teacher Report on Student was a self-administered survey completed by teachers. The survey took approximately 15 minutes. Even then, the study found that the vast majority of character education programs failed to prove their effectiveness over 3 years, some were detrimental.

11 Comments

Zeena

3/6/2018 05:36:50 pm

Well said.

Leah Goldrick

3/6/2018 07:19:09 pm

Thank you Zeena.

Hifi link

11/13/2018 08:30:52 pm

Leah, why is this topic Common Sense? Anyway, you failed to support the premise that character is more important than intellect - you don't even mention it past the title of the article.

Rules Don't Apply to You. I agree. Hypocrisy is the only universally despicable crime because social or personal, the inequity is unarguably and fundamentally not fair.

But sorry. There are no rules. There is no such thing as universal character - even if such a thing as character exists.

You say, "Many people believe that there are no universally applicable moral laws." We can do better than that. Anthropologists have done the survey and proven it - so not a belief. Moreover, there is a huge gap in overlap (except, it seems to be universally true that self-identified groups of humans fear and demonize out-groups, to whom any in-group social rules don't apply).

What causes dysfunctional societies? Not individuals, children in particular, who most character education is aimed at are no born with a deficit of it (such as they are with ability in math, or chemistry). You are on the scent here. Society proscribes means to success to new members of the culture. If the game is cheat and lie yourself into wealth and power, even the Presidency of the USA, you would be foolish not too. In fact, you will roundly be taken advantage of if you do not. In game theory, only Tit-for-Tat protects a player while maximally advancing his interest. If you want to change people, change the socio-economic structure (the hungry will always steal bread).

Focusing on formal character education is pointless. No scientific study has shown that there is improvement on any measure of behavior or learning from any school programs.In fact, the only reliable, scientific study was a U.S. federal study, conducted October 2010, the largest and most thorough ever. It concluded that school-wide Character Education programs produce exactly ZERO improvements in student behavior or academic performance.

It's no surprise. Just take a look at the lists of values and goals of the dozens of competing CE offerings. The lack of agreement between the lists is one of the most damning aspects of character education! It also becomes obvious that the majority of the values follow a conservative agenda, concerned with conformity, submitting to authority, not making a fuss…

One thing all these programs do agree on is what values are NOT included on their lists of core values. Not found, even though they are fundamental to the history and success of great nations are such noted values as independence, calculated risk, ingenuity, curiosity, critical thinking, skepticism, and even moderation. "Take chances, make mistakes, get messy!" the famous saying by Ms. Frizzle on the much celebrated TV show, The Magic School Bus, embodies values that would be antithetical to those found in today’s character education.

BTW, truth has nothing to do with behavior, one way or the other.

Leah Goldrick

11/13/2018 09:51:57 pm

Hi-fi, thank you for commenting.

Well, if you are right that in group preference is the only universally present belief, the smallest in group is the family. So really it is family culture that shapes character, not, or not only, socioeconomic structure as you suggest.

I'd have to look into the 2010 study that you reference about character education outcomes, but I can see how formal character curricula would differ. Perhaps I am wrong to call for that in formal education. If what you say is true maybe I will revise the post, especially since my interest is not in formal character education per se, but in teaching ones own children character by modeling it, by discussion, providing real life opportunities for calculated risk and so forth.

The very nature of school itself is really anathema to learning the values that you suggest are missing from character education programs such as independence, curiosity, critical thinking and calculated risk. Schools are all about conformity. I've also written quite a bit on this site about teaching your own children critical thinking and moderation, so I agree with you there that they are important. Too important in fact, to leave up to the schools.

I think you have failed to support the premise that truth has nothing to do with behavior though, which you mention almost in passing. People are certainly irrational, but I would argue that philosophy is largely about overcoming such irrationally in favor of a Socratic ideal. The love of wisdom, among other things, means bringing your actions into accord with your beliefs.

Hifi link

11/14/2018 07:26:28 pm

Check out the Wikipedia article that I wrote on Character Education to give yourself a more solid grounding in the history and, for the most part, the fallacies of character education.

The point of in-group preference and out-group demonization and, by implication, their deserving of abject exploitation, is not that it's a good thing - so teach your children who to love and who to de-humanize - rather, it's a small world, and we need level the playing field socio-economically if we want functional, even ethical societies. How? Easy educate women. This has a domino effect on reducing the two most impactful institutional factors that prevent egalitarian society: religion and population.

I should add that intellect (left-brain) may create an atomic bomb or knife, only the right-brain confers the motivation to wield it in an act of passion. It's always hate or prejudice, not a cold calculation.

As far as truth and behavior, you didn't propose any cases to argue. Not one statement connected truth with behavior. Being wise, may prompt a pursuit of truth and even ethical behavior. But there is no third side to it. That a sheep is white and that a sheep is an animal, doesn't make all animals white. But you claim that all interest in truths imply a correlating ethic?

Truth is nothing but the preponderance of facts supporting a hypothesis. By definition, falsifiable with more evidence. As an example, contrary to intuition, all evidence now points to the fact of a sun in the sky that the earth revolves around. Bringing it down to the personal level, the fact that is that we exist as primates in the evolutionary tree, which only proscribes that we advance the reproductive opportunities for ourselves, our family, and on up to whatever large or small tribal affiliation we may identify with.

Maybe we can agree that bringing one's actions into alignment with these two facts means "make hay while the sunshine." Cheating on tests, qualifies. Yeah, probably.

JOHN N PAVLOVITS link

12/26/2018 10:41:49 am

I enjoy the way you think. With an emphasis on Common Sense Ethics that clarifies what is closest to the truth with the intent of benefiting others first.

Leah

1/2/2019 04:45:35 am

Thanks John, for reading and commenting. I hope it does actually benefit others.

Mark Guyer

8/4/2019 01:29:31 pm

Thank you, Leah, for your insights on this topic and others. Your articles are clear, thoughtful, and helpful.
Mark

Leah

8/4/2019 02:32:30 pm

Thank you, Mark, for the feedback. I'm glad this was helpful.

Stuart Evans

8/18/2019 12:12:20 am

Allow me to support Common Sense Ethics and quote following post by John N. Pavlovits, which sums it all up. Thank you

"I enjoy the way you think. With an emphasis on Common Sense Ethics that clarifies what is closest to the truth with the intent of benefiting others first."

Leah

8/19/2019 06:29:02 pm

Thanks Stuart!