Urgent and most Important Thought ! : Character development of Citizens in Bharatham -

Opinion

19/10/2015

68.

Sub : Urgent and most Important Thought ! : Character development of Citizens in Bharatham -


Ref : Character education at Schools in Bharatham ! ?



All Members,

Respected family members of this great holy Nation.

Part-1.

1. Character education is an umbrella term loosely used to describe the teaching of children in a manner that will help them develop variously as moral, civic, good, mannered, behaved, non-bullying, healthy, critical, successful, traditional, compliant or socially acceptable beings.

2. Concepts that now and in the past have fallen under this term include social and emotional learning, moral reasoning and cognitive development, life skills education, health education, violence prevention, critical thinking, ethical reasoning, and conflict resolution and mediation.

3. Many of these are now considered failed programs, i.e. "religious education", "moral education", "values clarification".

4. Today, there are dozens of character education programs in, and vying for adoption by, schools and businesses.

5. Some are commercial, some non-profit and many are uniquely devised by states, districts and schools, themselves.

6. A common approach of these programs is to provide a list of principles, pillars, values or virtues, which are memorized or around which themed activities are planned.

7. It is commonly claimed that the values included in any particular list are universally recognized.

8. However, there is no agreement among the competing programs on core values (e.g., honesty, stewardship, kindness, generosity, courage, freedom, justice, equality, and respect) or even how many to list.

9. There is also no common or standard means for assessing, implementing or evaluating programs.


Part-2.

1. "Character" is one of those overarching concepts that is the subject of disciplines from philosophy to theology, from psychology to sociology—with many competing and conflicting theories.

2. Character as it relates to character education most often refers to how 'good' a person is.

3. In other words, a person who exhibits personal qualities like those a society considers desirable might be considered to have good character—and developing such personal qualities is often seen as a purpose of education.

4. However, the various proponents of character education are far from agreement as to what "good" is, or what qualities are desirable.

5. Compounding this problem is that there is no scientific definition of character.

6. Because such a concept blends personality and behavioral components, scientists have long since abandoned use of the term "character" and, instead, use the term psychological motivators to measure the behavioral predispositions of individuals.

7. With no clinically defined meaning, there is virtually no way to measure if an individual has a deficit of character, or if a school program can improve it.

8. The various terms in the lists of values that character education programs propose—even those few found in common among some programs—suffer from vague definitions.

9. This makes the need and effectiveness of character education problematic to measure.


Part-3.

In-school programs :


There is no common practice in schools in relation to the formation of pupils' character or values education. This is partly due to the many competing programs and the lack of standards in character education, but also because of how and by whom the programs are executed.

Programs are generally of four varieties :-

1.  cheer leading, 2. praise and reward, 3. define and drill, and 4. forced formality.

They may be used alone or in combination.

1) Cheer leading involves multicolored posters, banners, and bulletin boards featuring a value or virtue of the month; lively morning public-address announcements; occasional motivational assemblies; and possibly a high-profile event such as a fund-raiser for a good cause.

2) Praise-and-reward approach seeks to make virtue into habit using "positive reinforcement". Elements include "catching students being good" and praising them or giving them chits that can be exchanged for privileges or prizes. In this approach, all too often, the real significance of the students' actions is lost, as the reward or award becomes the primary focus.

3) Define-and-drill calls on students to memorize a list of values and the definition of each. Students' simple memorization of definitions seems to be equated with their development of the far more complex capacity for making moral decisions.

4) Forced-formality focuses on strict, uniform compliance with specific rules of conduct, (i.e., walking in lines, arms at one's sides), or formal forms of address ("yes sir," "no ma'am"), or other procedures deemed to promote order or respect of adults.

"These four approaches aim for quick behavioral results, rather than helping students better understand and commit to the values that are core to our society, or helping them develop the skills for putting those values into action in life's complex situations."

Generally, the most common practitioners of character education in the United States are school counselors, although there is a growing tendency to include other professionals in schools and the wider community. Depending on the program, the means of implementation may be by teachers and/or any other adults (faculty, bus drivers, cafeteria workers, maintenance staff, etc.); by storytelling, which can be through books and media; or by embedding into the classroom curriculum.

There are many theories about means, but no comparative data and no consensus in the industry as to what, if any, approach may be effective.

We will discuss more on this later ..........


Thank you for reading

JAIHIND.

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