The Case For Character Education

This book is about how society continues to reel from generations of children seemingly raised without proper instruction in values, ethics and morals. Since schools will be asked to serve that function, this book tells why school involvement is a must.

Offering guidance to teachers on including character education within their lessons, this book shows how teachers can provide an encounter with literature that enables students to be more responsive to ethical themes and questions.

Winner of the 2023 Outstanding Book Award from AERA's Moral Development and Education SIG! In PRIMED for Character Education, renowned character educator Marvin W Berkowitz boils down decades of research on evidence-based practices and thought-provoking field experience into a clear set of principles that leaders, administrators, and teacher-leaders can implement to help students thrive. The author’s original six-component framework offers a comprehensive guide to shaping purposeful learning environments, healthy relationships, core values and virtues, role models, empowerment, and long-term development in any PreK-12 school or district. This engaging and heartfelt book features tips for practice, anecdotes from award-winning schools, and straightforward tenets from moral education, social-emotional learning, and positive psychology.

In this dynamic look at the current state of character education, Alan Lockwood assesses its strengths and weaknesses and finds fault with leading advocates for failing to respond to sound critiques of their work. Lockwood argues that contemporary character education can be significantly improved by using key principles from established theories and research on developmental psychology. He offers numerous examples to support his recommendations while inviting character education theorists and practitioners to generate their own implications from his presentation. For anyone interested in improving the quality of values-based education for children and adolescents, this book: Elaborates an alternative view of values education that is critical to pursuing a mission to promote good citizenship. Explains what contemporary character education is, identifying its strengths and addressing its major criticisms. Offers recommendations for curriculum and instruction that systematically take into account developmental perspectives. Alan L. Lockwood is professor of Curriculum and Instruction at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. “Brimming with fresh insights on almost every page, Alan Lockwood challenges contemporary character education’s fundamental assumptions and proposes a coherent perspective to guide more defensible and effective programs. This is a significant addition to theory and practice in the field of character education.”—James S. Leming, Carl A. Gerstacker Chair in Education, Saginaw Valley State University

Literature and Character Education in Universities presents the potential of literary and philosophical texts for character education in modern universities. The book engages with theoretical and practical aspects of character development in higher education, combining conceptual discussion of the role of literature in character education with applied case studies from university classrooms. Character education within the academic context of the university presents unique challenges and opportunities. Literature and Character Education in Universities presents perspectives from academics in Europe, the USA and Asia, offering unique insights into the ways that engaged reading and discussion of core texts can promote the development of intellectual and moral virtues. Chapters draw on a wide range of texts from Confucius’ Analects to J. D. Salinger’s The Catcher in the Rye, focusing on themes such as truthfulness, self-knowledge, prudence, tolerance, friendship, and humility. Literature and Character Education in Universities will be of real use to researchers, academics and postgraduates in the fields of higher education, philosophy, and literature. It should be essential reading for university educators interested in character development and advocates of literary education in modern universities.

A hard-hitting and controversial book, WHY JOHNNY CAN'T TELL RIGHT FROM WRONG will not only open eyes but change minds. America today suffers from unprecedented rates of teenage pregnancy, drug abuse, suicide, and violence. Most of the programs intended to deal with these problems have failed because, according to William Kilpatrick, schools and parents have abandoned the moral teaching they once provided. In WHY JOHNNY CAN'T TELL RIGHT FROM WRONG, Kilpatrick shows how we can correct this problem by providing our youngsters with the stories, models, and inspirations they need in order to lead good lives. He also encourages parents to read to their children and provides an annotated guide to more than 120 books for children and young adults.

The educational system in the United States has ended its failed experiment with separating the intellectual from the moral. Schools from K–12 to colleges and universities are increasingly paying attention to students' values and character. But how can we ensure this new era in character education makes the right kind of difference to young people? What obstacles in our current educational system must we overcome, and what new opportunities can we create? This anthology offers unique perspectives on what is needed to make character education an effective, lasting part of our educational agenda. Each chapter points out the directions that character education must take today and offers strategies essential for progress. The expert contributors reveal why relativism has threatened the moral development of young people in our time—and how we can pass core values down to new generations of students in ways that will elevate their conduct and their life goals. And they show the critical importance of reestablishing student morality and character as targets of higher education's central mission. Perhaps most important, they clarify the necessity of authority in any moral education endeavor—and show how it is a powerful force for developing personal freedom and building character.