Character education: a critical analysis; robert tatman, stacey  (Page 3/16)

Eighteenth century

In the 1700s, parents in the early days of the Republic “valued character, and they expected public schools to help their children become both smart and good (Josephson, 2002, p. 42). Educators were aligned with parents in this educational thrust. According to Josephson, educators “embraced this responsibility gladly. There was no effort to separate the teaching of knowledge from the teaching of virtue” (p. 42). Educators of this era also connected the moral education of schools with the success of the new American democracy (Josephson). Benjamin Franklin understood moral education to be mankind serving one’s country, friends, and family. Connecting moral sensibilities and good habits with the survival of Colonial America democracy, Ryan (2003) proposed the purpose of the era’s common schools:

In Colonial America, common schools were brought into existence for an ostensibly moral purpose. Our Founding Fathers were profoundly aware that the health of the new democracy would rest on the virtues of its people. Worried that their fledgling experiment would fail, they called for the spread of education – an education that would instruct the young in the moral sensibilities and good habits needed to sustain not only their own lives, but also a healthy democracy. (¶ 3)

By the latter part of the 18th century and early part of the 19th century, Ryan (1993) recorded that the early educational pioneers understood that a very diverse and multicultural America needed, “a school system that would teach the civic virtues necessary to maintain our novel political and social experiment” (p. 16). The school would help students understand what being good meant, and teach the habits needed for democratic citizenship.

The Constitution of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, adopted in 1780, is the oldest written constitution still in effect in the world today. The document, written by John Adams, Samuel Adams, and James Bowdoin, called for public institutions to promote:

agriculture, arts, sciences, …, to countenance and inculcate the principles of humanity and general benevolence, public and private charity, industry and frugality, honesty and punctuality in their dealings; sincerity, good humor, and all social affections, and generous sentiments among the people. (Constitution of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, 1780, Chapter V)

The founders of William and Mary College proposed that “the youth of Virginia should be well educated to learning and good morals” (Education, 1968, p. 370). Thomas Jefferson’s Rockfish Gap Commission reported on the multiple goals of the proposed University of Virginia in 1818 in the form of 12 objectives. Several objectives dealt with students’ character. Students, for example, were to improve their morals and faculties by reading, understand their duties to both neighbors and the country, and to form in students both the “habits of reflection and correct action, rendering them examples of virtue to others and of happiness within themselves” (Education, 1968, p. 370). Summarizing both the 18th and 19th centuries, Barber (1998) noted that: