While conducting my latest three-hour Character Education – Teachers & Staff Development Class in a small school district in Texas, I began by asking the staff to discuss why Character Education is important in Texas schools. Over the last few years I have received the same type of answers – “kids are not being taught values (some teachers mention basic courtesy,) any more”, “kids are meaner to each other today”, “parents are not involved in the child’s life”, and other very similar responses to these.

In this last class, when I asked “What particular value do you see is most needed in your students?” three people responded at the same time, “Respect”. What an unambiguous indication of what this Texas District needed most!

This reminds me of an article I wrote recently on my Building Good Citizens for Texas website regarding Hal Urban. A comment from Dr. Urban was highlighted in that column – “What we accept, we teach!” As we continued to talk about the reasons for the lack of respect in this Texas district, it became clear that although teachers were working very hard to instill respect, students were just not being required to strive for those high standards teachers expected and wanted from them. Read the rest of this entry »