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Children need to bond with adults as well as with other children. The motivation to learn and to be a good person, a person of character, comes from forming caring attachments to others. If children do not think or feel the people in their lives respect and care about them, they are not likely to be open to anything those people attempt to teach them about values. Simply living the values we understand and believe in will model such values for the children in our lives.
Take the time to explain to children that their success and happiness depend on who they are inside. They need to live by what they believe in and be true to themselves. It is not about what they have or their appearance. As teachers, care givers or mentors, we need to make every moment a learning moment by rewarding positive behavior and good choices with praise and acknowledgement and also by imposing fair and consistent consequences when discouraging negative behavior and poor choices. Encourage the children in your life to live up to what they believe in all their thoughts and behaviors. Advocate for good character by living it, sharing it with and teaching it to those around you. Everything we do and don't do sends a message about our character and the values important to us. We have a big responsibility when it comes to the children in our lives. It is not always easy to do as we say. When we slip, however, we need to act the way we would want our children to act when they do not do as they say--take responsibility, be accountable, apologize and promise to do better next time.
There are more and more character education programs being developed in schools across the country. These programs include the school, community and, most importantly, the care givers of the children. These programs are a more-formalized plan of what already goes on in the schools on a day-to-day basis. This makes it easier for teachers, administration and government to see the impact it has on issues that typically face our youth. Some issues are: bullying, school violence, peer pressure, drug/alcohol use, teen pregnancy and academic success. Literature shows that character education is an essential part of efforts to develop civic virtue and moral character in our country's youth.
Reasons to support the need for character education include the continuation of young people hurting themselves and each other, the decline in student behavior and academic performance, the lack of civil communities, the rise in antisocial behavior (violence, disrespect for parents, teachers and peers), the lack of responsibility and productivity, and the increased need for disciplinarian and counseling resources.
Character education means understanding core values, living by them, caring about them and acting upon them. By doing this, you teach those that follow. The benefits of character development include strengthening the conscience and awareness of making a good choice, promoting respect for differences in opinion or culture, increasing personal responsibility for choices, helping children be aware of how their choices affect themselves and others, helping children understand ethics and morality, facilitating home and school working together, increasing teacher support and admiration, living true to who you are and what you believe in, and changing habits and lives forever.
It is simply good teaching and counseling when we model good values, when we teach character and when we offer children opportunities to look at these influences for themselves. It increases the chances of our character education succeeding. When we teach something new directly, a certain amount may be remembered. When we demonstrate, show, create an understanding and give a personal meaning for what we are teaching, a greater amount is absorbed and retained.