National Character Week 2006 is October 15 to 21, the third week of October.
Wouldn’t it be wonderful if every school in your area celebrated the entire week? Wouldn’t it be great if employers in your town decided to focus on character for one week? Wouldn’t it be amazing if politicians decided, for that one week so close to U.S. congressional elections, to do their best to exercise moral excellence in every way?
Schools talk about character, and many have character education listed in their curricula, but will your school focus on character building from October 15 through 21? Both Democratic and Republican presidents have, in the past, signed proclamations about character week. Congress and most state governors have done the same. But this year, when that week arrives, will they get personally involved in the exercise of character? When you vote, will you vote based on character? If you live in a nation other than the United States, will you demand that your politicians exercise character?
What differences would we see if National Character Week 2006 was truly celebrated?
We would see adults who meant business about character building. We would see them ordering books such as Character and Courage for their own self-education. We would see them reading character-centered material in preparation for the week, and during the week. We would see them make changes in their personal lives as they learned the importance and the benefits of character. They would take time to develop convictions, and then have the courage of those convictions.
In colleges, at the tertiary level, we would see professors stop in their tracks to give recognition to character building. We would see them weave character study into their individual disciplines. We would see them recommend non-fiction character books to their students, assign study in such books, and discuss the concepts during that week.
At the secondary level, we would see teachers introduce more mature students to non-fiction character books. We would see them assign reading in those books, or read them as a class. We would see those teachers use professional character education lesson plans as they taught each book’s ideas. We would see teachers entice slightly younger secondary students with purpose written character-building fiction.
Preschool and early elementary grades would enjoy character books written for 3 to 8 year olds, while teachers enjoyed the accompanying character education lesson plans.
Upper elementary students would revel in the character books written for 9 to 11 year olds, while their teachers also benefited from the character education lesson plans.
National Character Week 2006 is October 15 to 21. What will you do to celebrate? Will you benefit from this opportunity? If you are a parent or teacher, will you come away from National Character Week with children who are more responsible and respectful; more honest and compassionate; more loving and self-controlled? I believe this week of special attention to character can be a powerful, life-changing 168 hours.
That’s the view from my chair. What’s your view?