Character Education

http://www.scu.edu/ethics/publications/iie/v13n1/interview.html

This is a link to an interview with Steve Johnson, the director of character education at the Markkula Center for Applied Ethics. The center is part of Santa Clara University in California.

While reading over some ethical matters, a question came to my mind. What is the difference between ethics, morals, values, and character? I looked the definition of each up on dictionary.com. They are all very connected. Character and morals, however, may be construed as more personal than the others. Values and ethics seem to rely more heavily on what is acceptable behavior within a culture or society. At any rate, the Markkula Center for Applied Ethics offers character education programs to area communities, and one might say worldwide, because there is a plethora of information on the site. The interview asks the question, "How do children become moral people, and what role do schools have in that process?" Johnson makes a direct correlation between character and citizenship. How many times has the issue of building good citizens come up in class this semester alone? John Dewey eludes to it as well as our beloved Tinkering Toward Utopia, I believe it was, that pointed out the creation and original purpose of kindergarten was to essentially teach people "matters of civility" that would allow children to become ready to participate in school. (Maybe it was in School and Society, I'm being unethical and doing this from work, but that's another discusion all together!) Johnson describes the triangle model used at the center to explain moral development. I thought it was interesting that at its base (the foundation) is coping and cooperation skills. Before reading this, I never really thought about how essential these characteristics are for progress in the home, the classroom, the community, and democracy itself. Three sets of factors influential to character development are also outlined in the interview. After reading this, I am left with several questions: 1) Who are we as a society that we would require entire centers dedicated to teaching character? 2) Is Bloom right? Do we lack cultural identity as Americans? 3)How do you balance character, morals, ethics, and values within a classroom of diversity without stepping on the toes of cultural identity?