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"Character"
North Miami Beach, FL February 28,
2001 Aaron H. Schectman
THINKING ALLOWED
Essays on issues, ideas and reflections on the times. Published now and
then, Opinions pro or con are welcome.
ADDING TO EDUCATION
It seems to me that adding "Character Education" to "Education" is like
putting the straw that broke the camel's back on the back of a badly hurting
system of nurturing the children of this country.
It has been tried before. At the turn of the 20th Century there was a
thrust to mould the "character" of children by exposing them to information
contained in books prepared by associations of good people such as generals,
college presidents and ministers of all faiths. I had a book used by
schools that focused on the character principles to be taught by the
teachers. It was a blueprint for all the words that reflected on
"Character" and there were literally hundreds of them. Each was melded with
past leaders from the early years of the foundation of America to the first
years of the 20th Century. These were all the Presidents of the U.S.,
legislators, judges and educators. The text also provided for tests to see
if the words matched the person.
You must understand that I love "Character". I am one, myself. But the
push to bring study of the personalities of say, a Lincoln, would be a
one-dimensional one centering, perhaps, on his "humanity" in freeing the
slaves. If it were left just at that his HISTORY would be missing.
I have a problem about who would be chosen to teach "Character". We all
had that problem when the decision was made to teach "SEX". You see the
distinction? Teaching ABOUT something is quite different than teaching it.
It is also much the same as teaching ABOUT religion rather than teaching
religion to public school boys and girls.
Character is usually inculcated at home and it has been a bad job when the
heroes of children are athletes and performers. The churches have been
fighting this battle forever. Let them, the faith-based organizations, have
the job of teaching "Character" and not the schools.
Carol's Evaluation: 11 out of 10.
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