. I must say: I'm impressed! Character building appears to be quite the hot-button issue in education that has spanned several centuries in society. (Where have I been?) On another planet apparently.
You talk about the main character a lot. Or cartoon characters or you'll say, "Boy oh boy! What a character!" but I haven't often thought - "Gee - that person has great character." Do we talk about this with our kids enough these days? We know that manners have to be taught, but what about humility, empathy, courtesy, sharing?...and I could go on and on and on. You often hear "the older set" say things like "kids these days, they ain't got no respect" only of course, they're more grammatically correct. Is this true? If so, its up to us future and current teachers to teach it better! We need to team up with parents and build us some care bears! We have DPA (Daily Physical Activity) - shouldn't we have DCB (Daily Character Building?) or does it just "pop up" organically in our core subjects - in the books we teach in Literacy block or maybe in a social studies lesson. Like those early settlers in Upper Canada. Boy they had a tough time! I bet they really relied on their neighbours help and support battling drought and scurvy and floods, etc.!
The school I'm observing in has a 'Caught Ya' program where an administrator hands out a little flyer with a student's name on it and checks a box if she spotted them or was told they had done something that shows character. And there is a large "missions and values" poster up on the hallway wall and it is repeated throughout the school on a variety of surfaces (though I didn't spot any branded coffee mugs). Is this enough? How else can we engrain these values in the students? I am curious to find out.
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