Keeping in character: A time-tested solution

Abstract

A Time-Tested Solution The positive outcomes of education, the authors contend, counter such misleading pictures as the one sketched by Alfie Kohn in his February Kappan article. In the February 1997 Kappan, Alfie Kohn attacked modern character education for a myriad of alleged deficiencies. This essay constitutes our response to his criticisms. The basic structure of true for-character education relies on an approach that * is relevant for students of all ages; * has been time-tested and refined over 2,500 years; * is as responsive to today's children as it was to yesterday's; * has broad support among American citizens, including teachers and students; and * has a research base to justify its continuation. Increasing Disorder Before we turn to particulars, it is important for readers to understand exactly why we and so many other American adults are worried about the character of the nation's youth. It is not, as Kohn implies, because we dislike young people. Instead, it is because we love them and want them to stop killing and abusing themselves and one another at record rates. Statistics document the record-breaking rates of distress afflicting young Americans and form an essential backdrop for any discussion of practices. The annual rates of death of young (15- to 19-year-old) white males by homicide and suicide are at their points since national record-keeping began in 1914.(1) The rates of out-of-wedlock births to young (15- to 19-year-old) white females are also at or near their points since national record-keeping began in 1936. What's more, these high rates have occurred during an era of generally more accessible contraception, abortion, and sex education. All these indicators focus on whites - members of our most advantaged group. This suggests that the causes for the bulk of the disorder only incidentally involve poverty and race. As if we needed any more bad news, the Centers for Disease Control released an important report in February 1997. That report found that nearly three-quarters of all the murders of children in the industrialized world occur in the United States and that the U.S. has the highest rates of childhood homicide, suicide, and firearms-related deaths of any of the world's 26 richest nations.(2) All these relatively precise measures of disorder indirectly measure many other uncountable forms of profound despair, injury, and wrongdoing that affect the young. * Most murders of young persons are committed by young murderers. * Every identified young death by homicide undoubtedly subsumes many other less violent crimes, such as battery, woundings, and beatings. * Out-of-wedlock births are also indices of victimization of vulnerable females by males or of risky acts of promiscuity. * The suicides are also indicators of previously attempted suicides and other symptoms of deep depression. High school students themselves are very well situated to see what is happening among their peers. They clearly recognize that many deeply flawed contemporary education policies have enmeshed our young in a disorderly, low-demand world - a world in which many adults confuse being caring with being permissive. Recent evidence from a national sample of high school students shows that 50% of the respondents said that fail to challenge pupils to do their best, 71% said that there were too many disruptive students, 79% said that learning would improve if ensured students got their work done on time and completed their assignments, 86% said that schools should teach students the value of hard work, 71% would require after-school classes for students who get D's and F's in major subjects, 73% said requiring exit tests before graduation would cause students to learn more, and 50% said that too many students get away with being late to class or not doing their work. …