Character Education for Kids

Character education, when listed on high school curricula, is not likely to generate excitement in teenagers. Having taught high school for years, I know whereof I speak. Teenagers seek independence from parents and are in hot pursuit of adult freedoms. Many rebel against lectures on right and wrong, so how can you find character education they love?

Character education is abhorrent to teenagers when they think it is being pushed on them. Just as with many other topics, teens shove back when we drive them toward high moral values. They think they can sort out their own values, and they want no help doing it!

The trouble is that teens are incapable of sorting out high moral values for themselves. Those who try to do so will always allow room for their own interests and desires. This is true of people at any age. We all try to fashion standards that make our individual lives as easy as possible. We would like to establish two sets of rules: one for self and one for others.

Look at these examples of what can happen when you replace strong character education with personal sorting out of values.

· People weaken the definition of honesty to allow wiggle room when they don’t want to tell the whole truth. They assign a value that finds no wrong in “white lies,” “small fibs,” “tact,” or a “polite facade” in certain situations. They fully expect, however, that others will be totally honest in dealings with them.

· Many decide that it is right to respect some people, wrong to respect those they don’t like. They decide that respect must be earned before they are obliged to give it. If someone in authority fails in their eyes to “earn” it, they give no respect. Place the shoe on the other foot, and they demand respect. Read the rest of this entry »