IN THIS ISSUE
Feature: Dr. Avis Glaze, CEP Lifetime Achievement Award Winner Q&A
Teacher's Lounge: National CC! Week 2008 – Your Stories
Character in the Curriculum: Mini-Quotation Posters Inspire Creative Thought
Commentary by Michael Josephson: Too Little Too Late
ON THE SIDE
Announcements
Resource of the Month: CHARACTER COUNTS! Pledge Certificates
CC! In The News:
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Meet Our Newest Board Members
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CC! is Now on Facebook®
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Chicago Schools Pursue Victory With Honor
Did You Know? A Gandhi Pill Can Help You Turn the Other Cheek
Web Poll: Should Pharmaceuticals Be Used to Enhance Morality?
Free Teacher Resources: Free Books and Letters to the Next President
Donuts in the Lunchroom: Barbara Gruener – Put a Face to the Name
Conference Schedule
Training Programs
This year over 5 million kids in nearly 60 countries celebrated the Six Pillars of Character, values we all share. The Week's parades and parties may be over, but the need for good character never ends. So what do we do now?
Enter the photo contest
Submit your CC! Week photos for a chance to win a $200 gift card from BestBuy.com! The deadline has been extended to November 30th.
Let the world know how you celebrated by posting your news.
Maintain the momentum by sending faculty and staff to a Character Development Seminar, or host an onsite training.
The Next Big Thing for CHARACTER COUNTS!
In the spirit of election month, we’re asking students to vote on a name for a new initiative, starting with a website. Our goal is to engage millions of teens in co-creation of social media platforms where they can hash out problems, deal with stress, learn how to make their lives better, and make a difference in the world.
You'll learn more in the coming months, but now we ask you to encourage your students to help us choose a name.
What’s in it for them? Three randomly selected voters will be selected to win $100 each. In addition, as an incentive for teens to urge their friends to vote, the three people listed most often as a reference will also earn $100 each.
Hurry! Voting closes November 30, 2008.
Dr. Avis Glaze, CEP Lifetime Achievement Award Winner Q & A
Internationally recognized character educator Avis Glaze, Ph.D., is the former education commissioner of Ontario, Canada. The Jamaican-born author, researcher, and educator has taught at all levels and helped educators worldwide.
Dr. Glaze has a doctorate in education and two master’s degrees. Since 1991, she has won numerous awards including Educator of the Year, The Order of Ontario, and Character Education Partnership’s Award for Lifetime Achievement in Character Education.
We asked her if education has a moral purpose, how she saves “throw-away kids,” and if there are secrets to getting parents involved.
CHARACTER COUNTS!: Character education has been around a long time, but you’ve said the work has only begun. How come?
Avis Glaze: Too many educators have allowed our focus on the domains of learning – cognitive, affective, and behavioral – to be eroded. With all the issues that plague young people today and the breakdown in ethical behavior in society, there’s a sense of urgency in ensuring that schools focus on character education. According to former U.S. Secretary of Education Rod Paige, “We are in a race for the hearts and minds of our young people – and we’re not the only ones.”
CC!: Does education have a moral purpose?
Glaze: Whenever our work affects the life changes of others, it has a moral component. Author and educator Thomas Sergiovanni said, “Whenever there is unequal distribution of power, the relationship becomes a moral one.” The interpersonal aspects of education, the ethic of caring, and the fact that the quality of the student-teacher relationship has an impact on learning are why education has moral imperatives. There’s a yearning in students to “be good and do good.” We need to capitalize on that desire – especially during the values stage of their development when they want to save the world.
“The only way to have a friend is to be a friend.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson, American philosopher and writer (1803–1882)
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CC!: Can teachers who have questionable character implement character education effectively?
Glaze: Children learn by example. Teachers who model good character have a greater opportunity to influence students. The sayings “Your actions speak so loudly, I can’t hear what you’re saying” and “I don’t care how much you know until I know how much you care” are applicable.
At the same time, I don’t believe the majority of teachers have bad character. I have an abiding faith in teachers. Most enter the profession for the right reasons: love of children, wanting to contribute to humanity, wanting to make the world a better place, wanting to make a difference in people’s lives. I am by no means naïve. Teachers can become dispirited, cynical, and disengaged, but “if you scratch the surface of a cynic, you’ll find a frustrated idealist.”
CC!: You’ve developed programs for expelled and marginalized students because “there are no throw-away kids.” How can educators turn such children around?
Glaze: Bring back the ethic of caring. Demonstrate that you love them as if they were your own children. Have high expectations. Be demanding. Engage their parents. Be their mentor and coach. Teach them what it means to be human in our increasingly interdependent world. Constantly raise the bar, and they will soar to new heights of attainment.
If they live in poverty, your responsibility is greater. They won’t get ahead without you. You are the master key to their success. I used to meet with expelled students in coffee shops to let them know it’s not the end of the world. I wanted them to regain their dignity and to know they were not alone.
Society needs each and every student to have an education so they can be contributing, engaged, productive, and self-sustaining members of our society. Sandy McDonnell, founder of the Character Education Partnership, said: “We in the business world don’t want young people coming into our employment and communities who are brilliant but dishonest, who have great intellectual knowledge but don’t care about others, who have creative minds but are irresponsible. All of us in business and the community need to do our part in helping build young people of high character. There isn’t a more critical issue in education today.”
CC!: How can teachers get teens to strengthen their character when they’re rebelling against both parents and teachers?
Glaze: Regardless of how much they rebel, they’ll always remember their teachers, not so much for the content of their courses but the quality of their relationships. Many will eventually fall back on the values taught in the home and at school. Shower them with kindness and examples of what good character looks like.
CC!: You’re a strong supporter of parental engagement. Why is there so little parental involvement in some schools and too much in the wrong areas in others?
Glaze: I’ve never met a parent who doesn’t care about his or her children. The old saying rings true: “Parents send us the best kids they have; they’re not keeping the brighter ones at home.”
Many parents don’t have the required parenting skills. Some didn’t have positive experiences in school and don’t enjoy coming into school. Others feel intimidated by the system and don’t know how to participate. Still others, because of their cultures, leave the responsibility of schooling in the hands of teachers. They feel teachers know best. Ten strategies I use are:
- Reach out to them. Go into their communities, churches, synagogues, temples, and mosques to meet them and let them know they’re welcome at school.
- Put parents on the planning teams of school conferences so the topics will be ones they’re interested in.
- Attend community events and put a face on public education.
- Communicate. Communicate. Communicate. But two-way engagement – not one-way.
- Public relations is about dialogue, access, and engagement. Create the conditions for this to happen.
- Use parents who are engaged to bring others into the school.
- Create a Parenting Center at school.
- Call two or three parents each night. The word will soon get around that you don’t call only when something goes wrong; you call just as often about something nice a student did.
- Respect all parents regardless of their background, religion, socioeconomic status, etc.
- Ask opinion leaders in the community for help in engaging diverse communities.
CC!: What was your most unforgettable “aha” moment as a teacher?
Glaze: When we started character education in York Region 10 years ago, many people felt it wouldn’t work at the secondary level. But after I gave students a voice and the ability to plan conferences and activities, they embraced the concepts and led initiatives in their own schools – even harassing their administrations if they didn’t move fast enough.
Another “aha” moment came from a deputy principal: “One morning a grade six student came to the office to report that their teacher had not come. I went to investigate with a great deal of trepidation. How many students would still be there? What would I tell their parents? When I entered the classroom, the students were busy writing and barely looked up. One of them had read the teacher’s Day Plan, wrote the instructions on the board, and all were doing the work. When I congratulated them, one said, 'What did you expect? We’re a character class.'”
Comment on this story in our blog »
“My great concern is not whether you have failed but whether you are content with your failure.”
—Abraham Lincoln, 16th U.S. president (1809–1865)
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Teacher's Lounge
National CHARACTER COUNTS! Week 2008 – Your Stories
Did you celebrate National CC! Week this year?
More than 5 million children in 56 countries did and many have posted their celebrations on the website.
There’s still time to share your stories. To inspire you, here’s a taste of what went on during the week of October 19-25:
The Spring Hill RECenter in Fairfax VA, conducted service projects with National Make a Difference Day. Volunteers illustrated the behaviors of the Pillars by freeing the RECenter park grounds from the clutches of invasive ivy. Others collected towels for the local animal shelter. Kids, parents, and volunteers created life-size Pillars of Character.
South Kitsap School Board, in Port Orchard WA, distributed Pursuing Victory With Honor pins to athletes and fans who demonstrated exceptional sportsmanship at home contests. Home and visiting teams selected worthy recipients.
A.J. Holloway, the Mayor of Biloxi, MS, visited Jeff Davis Elementary during CC! Week. The Mayor presented the school with a National CC! Week 2008 proclamation and the celebrations continued with the Primary Focus assembly program, culminating in all students declaring “If it is to be, it’s up to me!”
High-school students gave advice about positive relationships to fifth and sixth grade students in the Churchville-Chili Central School District in Rochester, NY. Anti-bullying workshops helped the younger students be a positive influence on those around them. The high school students performed skits and discussed bully-prevention strategies. This was the sixth year the workshops have been a part of CHARACTER COUNTS! Week.
“Real knowledge is to know the extent of one's ignorance.”
—Confucius, Chinese philosopher (551 B.C.-479 B.C.)
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Character in the Curriculum
Our Foundations for Life program offers free writing prompts, lesson plans, and cross-curricular connections based on character-related maxims that complement your existing programs.
Learn more »
Monthly Lesson Plan:
Mini-Quotation Posters Inspire Creative Thought
Our mini-quotation posters have traditionally been used as bulletin board decorations. Now you can use them as part of a creative writing class with our free lesson plan.
Suitable for kids aged 9-11 or older students, this lesson encourages students to reflect on quotations and illustrate their meaning through creative writing. It comes with age-appropriate rubrics.
Download the lesson plan here, and visit our online store to purchase the mini-quotation posters (available in packs of 48) for your class.
Minimum order of $50 reduced to $25 from now until the end of the holidays.
Commentary by Michael Josephson
Too Little Too Late
Whether your candidate won or lost, this was one of the most important presidential elections in American history.
Besides the undeniably profound social and moral significance of electing an African American President, the election presented voters with starkly different beliefs and strategies about the economy, taxes, health care, civil rights, international relations, and a host of other issues.
I was proud and uplifted by the gracious and eloquent final speeches by John McCain and Barack Obama.
Both men were truly presidential as they expressed respect for the good qualities and intentions of their former opponent and their willingness to work with each other in the best interests of the nation.
But I was disheartened by the thought that it was too little too late.
Despite the high-minded rhetoric of both candidates, this election, like those before it, was stained by name-calling, innuendos, distortions, and outright lies. Both candidates, at least occasionally, abandoned their principles and broke promises when it seemed advantageous to do so.
But that’s the sad state of politics today.
The problem is, while the candidates, as professional politicians, may be able to forgive and forget, most people were left with enduring negative beliefs that the “other guy” was unworthy of the office. That’s not a good thing – and it’s not true.
Despite their imperfections, both Senators McCain and Obama are unquestionably men of extraordinary talent and commitment. They are good and decent public servants dedicated to their separate visions of the common good, and both were qualified to be President.
Regardless of your November 4th convictions, the guy who won deserves and needs your full and unequivocal support.
This is Michael Josephson reminding you that character counts.
Adapted from Michael Josephson's Gabriel Award-winning radio commentaries, airing every day across the nation. They also appear daily in the Commentary blog, where you can post responses and see what others have to say.
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