Character Education

Character education loosely refers to teaching children in a manner that imparts one or more positive character qualities—such as to make them moral, civic, good, well mannered, non-bullying, healthy, critical, successful, traditional, compliant socially acceptable. Concepts that now and in the past have fallen under this term include social and emotional learning, moral reasoning, cognitive development, life skills education, health education, violence prevention, critical thinking, ethical reasoning, and conflict resolution and mediation. Some consider many of these failed programs, i.e., religious education, moral education, and values clarification.

Today, dozens of character education programs take place in, or vie for adoption by schools and businesses. Some are commercial, some non-profit, and many are uniquely devised by states, or by districts and schools. These programs commonly provide a list of principles, pillars, values or virtues that are memorized or provide the basis of themed activities. It is commonly claimed that the values included in any particular list are universally recognized. 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. There is also no common or standard means for assessing, implementing or evaluating programs.