You’ve probably heard it said often: “Money is the root of all evil.”
It was quoted again on TV today, but is it correct? If so, we should destroy all of the world’s money immediately, and give our globe a startling makeover. Why, we could do away with every vestige of crime and war simply by […]
With Italy in the news, thanks to the Winter Olympic Games, I was thinking about the possibility of character lessons we can glean from Italy. I don’t mean lessons from the athletes themselves, since I already wrote about that. I mean lessons from the Italy of days gone by – the Italy that boasted the […]
We need teachers who know character personally, and not merely by hearsay.
Experience has taught me that the best educators, professional or parents, build character well when they build first in their own lives. They study character first for themselves. That is, they do not study character primarily to get words and ideas to teach others. […]
You are interested in character education, and that’s good. I don’t know whether your interest is for yourself, for your children, or for students. Maybe it is for your community. But as I was sitting here thinking about you and your work, I began thinking about the resources you have available to you.
Character education resources […]
Have you ever stopped to think about how much character we can learn from ants? They provide a wonderful example of character, even though, strictly speaking, they are incapable of exercising moral excellence. That is reserved for humans alone, but ants can help humans learn.
Character education from the ants is especially good for children. Imagine […]
Character education is an enormous undertaking, and those educators who are wholly committed to doing it well are to be commended.
Character education involves so much more than other courses that we teach. Don’t you agree? We can teach mathematics or science or language arts 24/7, and it still is basically a course for the mind. […]
Character education involves building. The question is, “What are we building?”
Some character educators are content to raise a small, ready-made tent of simple, lightweight materials: fabric, metal pole, and rope.
Other character educators insist on constructing, from the ground up, a large mansion of strong materials: rock, concrete, brick, mortar, and steel.
Tents are, […]
Character education is a privilege – and I believe wise educators treat it as such. A wise educator is far more likely to say, “I get to teach character education” than to grumble, “I have to teach character education.”
“I get to teach” character education using character stories with interactive buttons. I “get to teach” character […]
Character education via television is the most common character education program we have these days. Virtually every young person is included, from toddler through teenager, and the cost is very low. We don’t have to find a place in busy schedules, since television is available all of the time. We don’t have to train teachers, […]
Every now and then, you read of a judge who refers to character in sentencing a criminal. It happened again recently, when a judge in California sentenced to prison a couple who used a severed finger in an attempt to extort money from a fast-food chain.
“Greed and avarice overtook this couple,” Judge Edward Davila pronounced. […]