School is the first place where students encounter social structure, making it the perfect opportunity for educators to teach character-building skills. Qualities such as honesty, respect, and kindness are all the foundation of what makes a responsible and respectable citizen. While teachers serve as role models to their students showing them a positive example of what an upstanding citizen should act and look like, character development can also be learned through classroom activities, teaching approaches, and lessons.

What Is Character Education?

Character education is an educational method focused on teaching and instilling shared attitudes, values, behaviors, and social and emotional skills in students. This method aims to prepare students to become responsible, compassionate citizens who will positively contribute to society.

Character education is important in every facet of a child’s life, from their home life to their school life and extending into their community involvement.

It aims to shape elementary school students into responsible citizens and equip them with the life skills that are vital for personal growth, building relationships with others, and positively contributing to their community. Character education can help students succeed not only academically, but also help them to become socially responsible citizens.

How to Teach Character Education

Character education aims to instill positive values and moral principles so that children will develop into caring, responsible citizens of society. Here are a few suggestions on how to build students’ character and create a classroom culture that is kind and respectful.

Teach the Six Pillars of Character

A person’s character is how they act or react when no one is looking. To help build your student’s character, teach them the six pillars of character. The six pillars are trustworthiness, respect, responsibility, fairness, caring, and citizenship. Once a month choose a specific character trait to focus on and have students explore it. You can choose which character trait to concentrate on by thinking about what specific trait your students lack or need to work on. Assign projects, classroom tasks, or discussions that revolve around a particular trait. This method is a great way to raise awareness about a trait, enabling students to foster it within themselves.

Exemplify Positive Role Models  

Although you may be a wonderful role model for students, by actively practicing listening, treating students with respect, and engaging in acts of kindness, students need to have other tangible examples of the qualities you are promoting. Initiate classroom discussion about exemplary character role models found in the novels they are reading or in their history books.

Utilize age-appropriate literature that contains characters facing moral choices or dilemmas, then use these books to discuss the choices and the consequences of the character’s actions with your students. Bring attention to the character traits of world leaders, politicians, or celebrities they look up to. Ask students to share their personal role models and ask them what qualities these role models possess that make them a positive influence.

Offer Community Service and Volunteer Opportunities

Encourage students to engage in community service and volunteer activities. Engaging in volunteer work is one of the best ways for students to build character because it allows them to apply character education in real-world situations. It also teaches them empathy, compassion, responsibility, and teamwork. Students learn how to listen, communicate, and be kind to others.

Every volunteer experience allows students to expand their knowledge and skills and grow. Whether students are aiding to provide food and clothing to the homeless or offering companionship to elders in a nursing home they are learning valuable life skills that will enhance their character.

Organize School-Wide Assemblies

Create a positive culture within the school by organizing a school assembly that teaches, reinforces, and recognizes students who exemplify excellent character traits. During the assembly reinforce the importance of good character by having students recite a pledge or code of conduct they must follow. Then invite a guest speaker to help motivate students to set high standards for themselves. You can find a variety of speakers online at A Vision in Motion.

The Role of Parents and Teachers in Character Education

Parents and teachers both play essential roles in collectively shaping a child’s development. Parents are their children’s first role models; they are the ones who instill their morals and values by leading through example and communicating their standards and expectations. By providing a loving and supportive home, parents are the ones who lay the foundation for the development of their child’s character.

Since students spend most of their day in the classroom, teachers can reinforce and expand the core values that parents teach their children at home. By creating a nurturing classroom environment students can feel comfortable practicing these values. Teachers can help students understand these important values and principles through classroom discussions and activities to develop their social and emotional skills.

Implementing a character education program in your school can help lay the foundation for students to become responsible, ethical individuals who can move through life with compassion and integrity. By modeling ethical values and integrating character education into your daily elementary education lessons, you are nurturing young minds to be respectable and contributing members of society. Remember, consistency is key to building and reinforcing character development. Lead by example and try to integrate character education into your daily curriculum to ensure students are filled with opportunities that will encourage and develop their character.

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According to education author Thomas Lackona, the purpose of education is to “help people become smart, and to help them become good.” As educators, we spend most of our time making students smarter. We also need to spend time making them better.

Character education is the process by which humans learn to interact with society, usually through the teaching of core virtues such as courage, justice, and wisdom. Feelings, thoughts, and actions all work together to form character. Character education is the act of teaching students how to regulate those feelings, thoughts, and actions into pro-social behaviors.

Character education can be a stand-alone curriculum, or it can be part of a larger school initiative, such as Positive Behavior Interventions and Supports (PBIS). Not surprisingly, it is more effective when integrated into the academic curriculum and other school initiatives.

Character Education is a Tier 1 Support, meaning it should be offered to all students, not just the ones who show a lack of character. However, further character education interventions may be necessary for some students.

The Importance of Character Education

Character education has always been important, but its relevance has varied over time. In the eighteenth century, our new nation’s leaders understood that democracy required virtuous citizens who could exercise their rights responsibly.  As the majority of our nation’s populace was Protestant Christians, the Bible was the primary source of character education. Character education was taught through the lens of religious morality.

As more immigrants arrived from predominantly Catholic countries, controversy arose over the correct source material for teaching good character. This is where secular texts such as McGuffey Readers offered values-based instruction that was applicable to a more diverse population.

As Americans began to question traditional power structures in the 1960s, character education declined in American schools. This is in part due to the rise of moral relativism, a more pluralistic society, and the misconception that teaching character means teaching religion. By the end of the 1970s, character education was reduced to teaching thinking skills, rather than instructing students in specific values.

In the 1980s, character education made a resurgence, thanks to the “war on drugs” and the desire to reduce violence. Once again, schools were encouraged to offer direct instruction in character education.

Since then, we have come full circle to educating the whole child. The Whole Child Initiative encourages wraparound education that addresses students’ need to be “healthy, safe, engaged, supported, and challenged”.

Today’s character education curriculum emphasizes Social-Emotional Learning (SEL). According to The Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning (CASEL), SEL is the “process of being able to identify and manage our emotions, set and achieve positive goals, feel and show empathy for others, establish and maintain positive relationships, and make responsible decisions.”

As school leaders, we must strive to offer character development as part of a social-emotional learning approach that addresses the whole child.

How to Implement Character Education Programs in Your School

Begin with the End in Mind

Start by establishing expectations for your program. Decide with your Building Leadership team (BLT) what you expect out of students and make those expectations very clear to everyone in the building.

Share Leadership

Chances are good that you have a teacher or group of teachers that is passionate about character education. Share leadership with these folks and work to establish teacher buy-in.

Emphasize Relationships

Study after study shows that students learn and behave better for people with whom they have a positive relationship. It is no different when it comes to character education.

Make it a Daily Ritual

Incorporate direct instruction in character education EVERY DAY. By all means possible, institute a homeroom or advisory period that meets daily. The daily interaction also establishes relationship building that is so important for building character. Weekly video announcements centering around character education allow you as the building leader to set the tone for the rest of the building. A daily recitation of school expectations is also a consistent reminder of school values.

Make it Building-Wide

In general, every student should be participating in the same character education program at the same time. This allows you to establish consistent language surrounding character, which makes communication easier among the building population. It also allows for more meaningful discussions with students.

Stay Flexible

Even if you pick a great character education program, sometimes you will have to veer off-plan a little. As long as it is in the best interest of students, you are on safe ground.

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