Comments on: Grading students’ character

By: Heather Wolpert-Gawron

Heather Wolpert-Gawron — Wed, 16 Apr 2008 03:42:05 +0000

I’d also like to know if the teachers and administrators were tested. For instance, in PLC fashion, does every member of the staff believe that All Students Can Learn? This sounds like a simple question but one that can fluster those teachers who deep down believe there to be some students who are incapable. Unfortunately, this lack of character in a teacher is rarely questioned and never challenged. Issues of character are trickle down in a classroom. Give respect, get respect. Set a tone of tolerance and the students will echo it. Including character education within one’s curriculum is vitally important, as is including it in your language and conversations with students. But one cannot assess students’ characters without holding those who influence them to the same standards.

By: Deirdre Mundy

Deirdre Mundy — Sun, 13 Apr 2008 13:41:22 +0000

I’m wondering if they also bothered to break down the data by economic status… In a lot of the DC area, “poor” and “black” tend to be overlapping catagories…..

A lot of these “Character Counts” courses tend to teach middle-class values: diligence, honesty, temperence, punctuality, politeness, etc.

Of course, “Middle-Class Values” are more prominent in the… middle class! But they’re also the habits that help people get and keep good jobs, which may be why schools want to teach them.

Anyway, the problem may NOT be a “racial difference”– it could be a “socio-economic” difference. (Kids growing up in a gang situation might not put as high a value on obeying the law, for instance)

And framing the problem a “race” one will probably hurt the kids in the long run by preventing them from learning the skills and habits they need to break out of poverty…….

By: Adso of Melk

Adso of Melk — Sun, 13 Apr 2008 01:43:29 +0000

I think it’s crucial to teach ABOUT ethics, but I draw the line at “teaching ethics,” even ethics so presumably beneficial as patriotism or equality. As a parent, it is my job and the job of my church/synagogue/mosque/pagan grove/temple to instill the particular system of ethics in which my child will be raised, but as a teacher, it is NOT my job to so do.

It is my job, though, to teach students how to think — not “what,” but “how.” I think it’s crucial that teachers ask about and discuss issues of ethics for the purpose of challenging, clarifying, expanding upon, or otherwise getting students to think about the ethical views they themselves hold.

Anything else comes dangerously close to indoctrination.

By: Margo/Mom

Margo/Mom — Sat, 12 Apr 2008 22:33:26 +0000

I read through Charen’s column because I was curious what instrument was used to evaluate the ethics of the various groups. It didn’t give much information. I rather suspect that the tool may have been vulnerable to “the eye of the beholder” in it’s evaluation. In other words–are there divergent levels of ethical behavior, or divergent perceptions of the levels of divergent behavior?