0.1 Character education: a critical analysis; robert tatman, stacey

Introduction

Character education is understood as an educational reform movement concerned with the moral and ethical development of public school students within the pedagogical context of a formal character education program. Character education is used interchangeably in the current research with moral education and values education. In the Character Education Manifesto , Ryan, Bohlin, and Thayer (1996) maintained that “authentic educational reform in this nation begins with our response to the call for character” (¶ 2). Combining brevity with profundity, Martin Luther King expounded that, “Intelligence plus character – that is the true goal of education” (United States Department of Education [USDE], 2006, Introduction section). Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings echoed this sentiment decades later by noting that education at its best should both expand the mind and build character (USDE). Preceding both King and Spellings by several millennia, Socrates wrote that, “The right way to begin is to pay attention to the young, and make them just as good as possible” (Dorn, 2003, p. XVII).

Huffman (1995) defined character education as “planned and unplanned things that adults do to nurture the development of moral values in youngsters” (¶ 2). More globally, character education constitutes an educational reform movement that addresses the “complex and significant challenge of facilitating positive character in today’s youth” (Cornett&Chant, 2000, Abstract section, ¶1). Brown and Moffett (1999) referenced the alignment of the head and heart in education noting that educators should be “making an enduring commitment to ensuring that the total child (including his or her civic, emotional, physical, and spiritual needs) is at the heart of the school renewal process” (p. 1). State and local support for values-enriched educational experiences comes from a variety of sources with several states mandating prosocial values as prerequisites for graduation (Lasley, 1997). Demonstrating the importance of character education initiatives, Lasley asserted that, “Teachers, administrators, and even parents resonate to the idea of teaching students the core values deemed essential for cultural survival” (p.654).