Character Education: It's a Joint Responsibility

Overview & Synopsis

Young children's beliefs about what is right and wrong traditionally have been strongly influenced by their families. However, in today's American family and current culture, children often are coming to school with problematic behaviors and attitudes. Therefore, character education has become a necessity in schools. As children enter school, teachers join in the process of shaping children's minds, attitudes, and behaviors by forming a partnership with parents and administrators. The importance of character education and parent involvement are obvious. However, the exact role of the school and teacher in the education of children's character is somewhat more unclear. The author decided to interview National Board Certified Teachers (NBCT) at the elementary school level across the state of Illinois to learn about their character education practices. According to teachers interviewed, there are many reasons for including character education in the school curriculum. A majority of teachers surveyed strongly support teaching character education. Some teachers, administrators, school boards, and parents resist the idea of teaching character education in the classroom. However, NBCTs who have been successfully implementing character education explained that it is a joint responsibility between home and school. Those interviewed expressed that children's character development is a shared responsibility between parents and the community-at-large. The author describes five key elements identified by teachers interviewed for making character education a school-wide effect. She also presents five successful ways the teachers have found to include parents in their character education programs.