Transcript character

The Road
Ahead: The
Best is Yet
to Come!
Converging Ideas: The Road to the Future
California Association of School
Psychologists Convention 2003
School Psychologists Keynote 2003
#1
© 2003 Josephson Institute
Why be concerned about
character education?
Because I
want my
children to
be safe,
happy and
good
School Psychologists Keynote 2003
#2
© 2003 Josephson Institute
A Challenge and Invitation

Accept and embrace your role as a
teacher and character educator

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Provide the people you work with
knowledge, life strategies and other tools to
improve their lives.
More proactively, more explicitly and more
frequently take on the role as a character
educator, a person who takes on the
responsibility to help all those you work with
become better people.
School Psychologists Keynote 2003
#3
© 2003 Josephson Institute
A Challenge and Invitation
 The mediocre teacher tells. The good
teacher explains. The superior
teacher demonstrates. The great
teacher inspires.
 A teacher affects all eternity. You
never know where his (her)
influence stops.
School Psychologists Keynote 2003
#4
© 2003 Josephson Institute
A Challenge and Invitation

The most powerful thing you can do to
improve the lives of children and adults
you work with is to strengthen their
character: enhancing commitment to
virtues and values that improve their
relationships and the likelihood of
success and helping them eliminate bad
habits and attitudes that undermine
their relationships or sabotage their
personal success.
School Psychologists Keynote 2003
#5
© 2003 Josephson Institute
Six Pillars of Character
(TRRFCC)
 TRUSTWORTHINESS -- integrity, honesty,
promise-keeping, loyalty.
 RESPECT -- courtesy, autonomy, diversity, Golden
Rule
 RESPONSIBILITY -- duty, accountability,
pursuit of excellence
 FAIRNESS -- openness, consistency, impartiality
 CARING -- kindness, compassion, empathy
 CITIZENSHIP -- lawfulness, common good,
environment
School Psychologists Keynote 2003
#6
© 2003 Josephson Institute
To educate a person in
the mind but not the
morals is to educate a
menace to society.
— Theodore Roosevelt
School Psychologists Keynote 2003
#7
© 2003 Josephson Institute
WHAT DOESN’T WORK
 Relativism — there are no objective standards of ethics,
ethics is just a cultural preference or personal opinion.
 Values Clarification — what’s important is not the content
of one’s values but the consistency with which one
recognizes and lies according to them; value judgments are
just opinions.
 Self-Esteemia — the toxic effect of worrying more about
feeling good than being good.
 Do As I Say Not As I Do — we teach by rhetoric and
precept rather than modeling and conduct
 Rhetoric Without Application — extensive awareness and
promotion without substantive training.
 Subtlety — teaching by metaphor and unguided readings
and experiences.
School Psychologists Keynote 2003
#8
© 2003 Josephson Institute
A Challenge and Invitation

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Believe and teach that people of character
tend to have better relationships and that
people with better relationships tend to be
happier.
You don’t have to be sick to get better. It’s
easier to make a good person better than a
bad person good.
Significance – having a lasting positive impact
– is more rewarding and fulfilling than
success – achieving life goals in terms of
income, position, etc.
School Psychologists Keynote 2003
#9
© 2003 Josephson Institute
Avoid defensiveness.
Tell them:
You don’t
have to
be sick to
get better.
School Psychologists Keynote 2003
#10
© 2003 Josephson Institute
A Challenge and Invitation



Believe and teach that people of character
tend to have better relationships and that
people with better relationships tend to be
happier.
You don’t have to be sick to get better. It’s
easier to make a good person better than a
bad person good.
Significance – having a lasting positive impact
– is more rewarding and fulfilling than
success – achieving life goals in terms of
income, position, etc.
School Psychologists Keynote 2003
#11
© 2003 Josephson Institute
Answering the “why us?”
question:
It’s easier to
make a good
school better
than to make
bad school
good.
School Psychologists Keynote 2003
#12
© 2003 Josephson Institute
It’s easier to
make a good
parent
better than
to make a
bad parent
good.
School Psychologists Keynote 2003
#13
© 2003 Josephson Institute
What would you
like to see more of
and less of from
your students?
School Psychologists Keynote 2003
#14
© 2003 Josephson Institute
Top 10 things parents and
teachers want to see:
Respect
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1. More regard for proper authority; no back talking
2. Less fighting, bullying, and physical violence
3. More toleration/appreciation of people and opinions
4. More civility, politeness and courtesy
5. Less put downs, taunting, exclusionary cliques
Responsibility
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6.
7.
8.
9.
Less drinking and drugs
More responsible attitudes about sex
More doing chores/homework without reminding
More being accountable for actions and inactions
Trustworthiness
 10. More honesty; less lying and cheating
School Psychologists Keynote 2003
#15
© 2003 Josephson Institute
If you could
screen the boys
or girls who
would marry
your children
what qualities
would you view
as essential.
School Psychologists Keynote 2003
#16
© 2003 Josephson Institute
If you saved the life of a
leprechaun and he granted you
one wish for your children, what
would you choose?
 Enormous wealth
 Fabulous good looks
 Superb athletic ability
 Great fame
 Genuine happiness
School Psychologists Keynote 2003
#17
© 2003 Josephson Institute
Which quality is most
likely to produce genuine
happiness?
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School Psychologists Keynote 2003
Enormous wealth
Fabulous good looks
Superb athletic ability
Great fame
Deep and enduring personal
relationships
#18
© 2003 Josephson Institute
Which quality is most
likely to produce deep
and enduring personal
relationships?
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Enormous wealth
Fabulous good looks
Superb athletic ability
Great fame
Good character -- trustworthiness,
respect, responsibility, fairness, caring, and
citizenship
School Psychologists Keynote 2003
#19
© 2003 Josephson Institute
Having meaningful and
enduring personal
relationships is the
surest road to happiness
and having good
character is the surest
road to good
relationships.
Therefore, good
character is the surest
road to happiness.
School Psychologists Keynote 2003
#20
© 2003 Josephson Institute
Then, tell them
about the world
their children are
growing up in to
show there’s good
reason to worry
about the character
their children and
the people they will
date and marry.
School Psychologists Keynote 2003
#21
© 2003 Josephson Institute
The Moral Landscape
An increasing proportion of young people are
growing up without a firm understanding of
or commitment to the core ethical values
needed to inform and energize the
conscience.
As a result, they lack internal mechanisms to
help them know right from wrong and to
generate the will power to exercise selfcontrol and consistently do what is right.
-- Michael Josephson
#22
Propensity Toward Violence
 43% of high school males believe it is
sometimes okay to hit or threaten a
person who makes them angry.
 75% of all high school boys and 60% of
girls hit someone in past year because
they were angry.
 44% of males had been in a physical
fight within the previous 12 months.
— Josephson Institute of Ethics, 2000 and National Centers for Disease Control, 2000
School Psychologists Keynote 2003
#23
© 2003 Josephson Institute
Guns
 9% of high school males had
carried a gun within the
previous 30 days.
 60% of high school boys said
they could get a gun if they
wanted to.
— Josephson Institute of Ethics, 2000 and National Centers for Disease Control, 2000
School Psychologists Keynote 2003
#24
© 2003 Josephson Institute
Alcohol & Drugs
 19% of high school boys and 7% of middle
schoolers were drunk at school at least once
in the past year.
 69% of high school boys said they could get
illegal drugs if they wanted to.
 28% of 12th graders and 13% of 8th graders
had engaged in binge drinking (5 or more
drinks in a row) within the past two weeks.
 26% of high school seniors used an illicit
drug at least once a month during past year.
School Psychologists Keynote 2003
#25
© 2003 Josephson Institute
Selling Drugs
30% of all high school students
say they had been offered, sold
or given illegal drugs on school
property during the past year.
- National Centers for Disease Control 2000
School Psychologists Keynote 2003
#26
© 2003 Josephson Institute
Sex, Rape & Pregnancy
 13% of high school girls said they had
been forced to have sexual intercourse
at least once in their lives.
 16% of high school students said they
have had sexual intercourse with at
least four different partners
 14% of high school girls say they have
been pregnant at least once.
School Psychologists Keynote 2003
#27
© 2003 Josephson Institute
Suicide
8% of all high school
students said they had
attempted suicide in the
past year.
School Psychologists Keynote 2003
#28
© 2003 Josephson Institute
Theft, Cheating &
Resume Fraud

41% of high school males/35% females stole
from a store within the past year.

74% of high school students and 37% of
college students admit they cheated on an
exam at least once in the past 12 months.

42% of high school students and 34% of
females say they would lie to get or keep a job.
School Psychologists Keynote 2003
#29
© 2003 Josephson Institute
CHARACTER COUNTS! WORKS:
South Dakota Study
Students who said they:
 Broke into another's property dropped 50 percent.
 Used physical force against someone who insulted me
dropped by 33%
 Had taken something without paying fell 46 percent.
 Had drunk alcoholic beverages dropped 31 percent.
 Taken illegal drugs dropped 32 percent.
 Used a fake id dropped 56 percent.
 Defaced or vandalized property declined 46 percent.
 Cheated on an exam in school dropped 30%
 Missed class without a legitimate excuse declined 39%
 Received a detention or suspension was reduced by 28%
 Failed to get schoolwork done on time fell by 28%
School Psychologists Keynote 2003
#30
© 2003 Josephson Institute
SM
What Is
Character?
School Psychologists Keynote 2003
#31
© 2003 Josephson Institute
Uses of the
Term “Character”
When we refer to “a specific person’s character” we
are concerned with his or her personality, what kind of
person he or she is, down deep, on the inside.
Everyone has a character.
 When we refer to someone as “having character” the
term implies “good” character. To say a person has
good character is to make a moral judgment that the
person is especially worthy, virtuous, or admirable in
terms of ethical qualities.
 When we refer to “building character” we are
concerned with instilling within a person positive,
admirable and ethical traits that are associated with
good character.
School Psychologists Keynote 2003
#32

© 2003 Josephson Institute
Descriptive Definitions
 A person’s “character” refers to dispositions and habits
that determine the way that person normally responds to
desires, fears, challenges, opportunities, failures and
successes. – Michael Josephson
 Character is the sum of one’s good habits (virtues) and
bad habits (vices). These habits mark us and affect the
ways in which we respond to life’s events and challenges.
Our character is our profile of habits and dispositions to
act in certain ways. -- Tom Lickona, Eric Schaps and
Catherine Lewis
 Character refers to the complex constellation of
psychological characteristics that enable individuals to
function as competent moral agents. – Marvin
Berkowitz
School Psychologists Keynote 2003
#33
© 2003 Josephson Institute
Definitions of Good
Character
 When we talk about the character of a person we
generally do so in reference to a moral judgment about
the worthiness of a person.
 Thus, to have a good, strong, great or honorable
character is to be a person of merit, worthy of
admiration and honor.
 People of good character have the moral awareness and
strength to know the good, love the good and do the
good.
 A person is said to have good character when their
habits, dispositions and conduct reflect a deep
commitment to ethical values.
School Psychologists Keynote 2003
#34
– Michael Josephson
© 2003 Josephson Institute
Definitions of Good Character
 Good character consists of understanding,
caring about and acting upon core ethical
values. – Character Education
Partnership
 The habits of feeling, action and
judgment that comprise good character
depend on personal self-discipline and
powerful aspiration to become a good
person, all of which must be drawn from
within. – Edwin Dellatre
School Psychologists Keynote 2003
#35
© 2003 Josephson Institute
Character is
ethics in
action.
— Michael Josephson
School Psychologists Keynote 2003
#36
© 2003 Josephson Institute
Two Aspects of Ethics
DISCIPLINE
Will power and
discipline to do
what is right,
regardless of
temptations and
pressures to do
otherwise
DISCERNMENT
Ability to discern
right from
wrong, good
from evil and
propriety from
impropriety
School Psychologists Keynote 2003
#37
© 2003 Josephson Institute
The CHARACTER COUNTS!
Strategy: T.E.A.M.

TEACH

ENFORCE

ADVOCATE

MODEL
School Psychologists Keynote 2003
#38
© 2003 Josephson Institute
Teach
 What to teach:
 Core ethical principles — “Six Pillars of Character”
 Ethical decision making strategies
 Moral commitment and courage
 Where did the “Six Pillars of Character”
come from: Aspen Declaration
 Teaching techniques and methods:
 What works/resources
 What doesn’t work
School Psychologists Keynote 2003
#39
© 2000 Josephson Institute
© 2003 Josephson Institute
Enforce
 We ask and expect participants to honor
the six core values and meet their
personal responsibilities in their conduct
in class.
 Instructors will demonstrate classroom
reinforcement techniques as they
present.
School Psychologists Keynote 2003
#40
© 2000 Josephson Institute
© 2003 Josephson Institute
Advocate
 Instructors will communicate their belief in
and commitment to the importance of the
CHARACTER COUNTS! approach and the “Six
Pillars of Character.”
 Instructors will seek to encourage and
inspire personal and organizational
commitment to teaching and modeling
good character.
School Psychologists Keynote 2003
#41
© 2000 Josephson Institute
© 2003 Josephson Institute
Model
Instructors and participants are expected to
model CHARACTER COUNTS! values and
recommended techniques during all phases
of instruction.
School Psychologists Keynote 2003
#42
© 2000 Josephson Institute
© 2003 Josephson Institute
An effective
character education
program must teach
problem solving and
critical thinking skills
to help youngsters
deal with ethical
ambiguity and
conflict so they can
make
good choices.
School Psychologists Keynote 2003
#43
© 2003 Josephson Institute
Destiny is not a matter
of chance, it is a
matter of choice.
 William Jennings Bryan
School Psychologists Keynote 2003
#44
© 2003 Josephson Institute
The quality of our
lives and the success
of our efforts in both
our personal and
professional lives will
be determined by our
choices.
School Psychologists Keynote 2003
#45
© 2003 Josephson Institute
Your life is the sum result of all the
choices you make, both consciously
and subconsciously.
If you can control the process of
choosing, you can take control of all
aspects of your life. You can find the
freedom that comes form being in
charge of yourself.
 U.S. Senator Robert F. Bennett, a member of a bi-partisan CHARACTER
COUNTS! Working Group in the Senate
School Psychologists Keynote 2003
#46
© 2003 Josephson Institute
Good Decisions Are Both
Ethical And Effective
 The moral aspect deals
with the ethical propriety
of the decision.
 The pragmatic aspect deals
with the effectiveness of the
decision.
School Psychologists Keynote 2003
#47
© 2003 Josephson Institute
Consequences
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Every decision has consequences on
the decision maker and others.
The greater the potential
consequences, the higher the stakes.
The higher the stakes, the more
need there is for careful, systematic
decision making.
School Psychologists Keynote 2003
#48
© 2003 Josephson Institute
Identifying Important
Decisions
 Bodily Harm – does the decision create a risk
of serious bodily harm?
 Emotional Harm – could the decision cause
serious emotional pain?
 Relationships – could the decision damage
important relationships?
 Reputation – could the decision undermine
reputation or seriously damage credibility?
 Goals – could the decision impede achieving
any important long-term goal?
School Psychologists Keynote 2003
#49
© 2003 Josephson Institute
Obstacles to Good Decisions

Self-interest – judgment unduly influenced by a
personal interests.
 Thoughtlessness – failure to think ahead.
 Ignorance -- insufficient knowledge of pertinent facts
or applicable rules.
 Fatigue – judgment impeded by reduced mental
acuity.
 Flawed analysis – failure to foresee actual
consequences.
 Emotions – judgment clouded by anger, fear,
resentment, hostility, guilt, grief, depression, anxiety,
jealousy, love, lust, or loneliness.
 Rationalizations – self-serving justifications to excuse
otherwise improper conduct.
School Psychologists Keynote 2003
#50
© 2003 Josephson Institute
Good Decisions Require
Discernment and Discipline
Two critical aspects of good decisions:
knowing what to do and doing it.

Discernment - the ability to evaluate
facts and potential consequences from a
practical and moral perspective.

Discipline - the strength of character to
do what should be done even when it is
costly or uncomfortable.
School Psychologists Keynote 2003
#51
© 2003 Josephson Institute
The Power to Choose
 What we say and how and when
we say it (our words).
 What we do and don’t do (our
actions).
 What we think and how we
approach life and react to
challenges (our attitudes).
School Psychologists Keynote 2003
#52
© 2003 Josephson Institute
Often we fail to “practice
what we preach” because
we rationalize
 There’s a big difference between a
rational decision and a rationalization.
 It’s rational to reason first and decide
what to do; it’s a rationalization to
invent reasons to justify what we want
to do or have already done.
 Rationalizations are essentially
dishonest.
School Psychologists Keynote 2003
#53
© 2003 Josephson Institute
WHAT YOU SHOULD
KNOW ABOUT
CHARACTER-BUILDING
School Psychologists Keynote 2003
#54
© 2003 Josephson Institute
Dimensions of
Character Education
 Social Dimension: foster attitudes,
habits and conduct that make
individuals constructive members of
society.
 Personal Dimension: foster attitudes,
habits, and conduct that help
individuals live personally meaningful
and satisfying lives.
School Psychologists Keynote 2003
#55
© 2003 Josephson Institute
FIRST THINGS FIRST
BE
HAPPY
DO GOOD
DO NO HARM
School Psychologists Keynote 2003
#56
© 2003 Josephson Institute
LAST THINGS FIRST
DO NO HARM
DO GOOD
BE
HAPPY
School Psychologists Keynote 2003
#57
© 2003 Josephson Institute