Teaching students about character is important for teachers and school administrators as students often spend more time at school than at home. On top of that kids are often left home alone with no one to guide them since both parents work. Educators can have a lot of influence over kids due to this and should be helping with their character education.
Today’s modern world presents a lot of challenges for students as there are so many channels of interaction that they have to deal with from real world to the virtual world. The proliferation of information and platforms exposes our kids to things most of us never had to deal with growing up. Character education lets educators provide students the knowledge they need to avoid these pitfalls.
Character education doesn’t just help students with the challenges related to student interactions, bullying and online behavior. It can greatly help students in their classroom as well. When you teach them a sense of responsibility and personal character it carries over into their studies and how they conduct themselves in all things.
What should you work on? Below is a list of positive character traits that should be stressed in character education at schools. Use these to shape your conversations.
- Courage
- Trustworthiness, including honesty, reliability, punctuality, and loyalty
- Integrity
- Respect and courtesy
- Responsibility, including accountability and self-control
- Fairness, including justice and freedom from prejudice
- Caring, including kindness, empathy, compassion, consideration, patience, generosity, and charity
- Good citizenship, including patriotism, concern for the common good and the community, and respect for authority and the law