Educate for Character

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One problem becoming increasingly evident in the public schools of America is the general lack of positive character development in our youth. Multiple influences contribute to the education of character. There is moral education. There is ethical training. There is religious education. Psychological, sociological, economical, and political influences can all be seen as being influential in the development or lack of moral development.

Public education overall receives and “F” instead of an “A” in character development. Much parental pressure is to accept the anti-social behavior of their children and often public education caves in to it. Seeking to be inclusive public education has taken away the religious and moral underpinnings that once were very much part of public education, and has left a void, which is not being otherwise filled. In fact, much of the school environment has become degenerative. In working with character development, it is to go up or down, not just to stay neutral!

When I was a lad and we got our TV in 1949 or 50, I recall arguing that various things had to be true, because I had observed it on TV, which was very stupid. But just think how the various types of media have increased and how the so much perversion and misinformation conveyed has even more multiplied since that time!

The media sets the stage in all kinds of ways, and it is the schools’ job to educate the youth to learn how to discern and relate to it, to see and value the positive, and to reject the negative. This focus entails cultivating discernment and values in the students. It should be the public school’s mission to not just teach objective truth but to cultivate character, positive character in the youth, rather than just attempt to keep character in neutral.

What is character? There are various ways in which to understand the concept of “character.” One definition of character is “the aggregate of features and traits that form the individual nature of some person or things,” which is an objective definition, but which really says nothing, as any characteristic could be classified as “character.” Character seen in the objective context can be applied to any characteristic of an individual, whether it is ultimately positive or negative. But there are other focuses that are more subjective, which describes it as the “moral, ethical qualities such as honesty and courage.” In seeking to be politically correct, positive moral and ethical values have gone by the wayside!

Back in the late 1950s, when I served in the military, we had required character guidance classes, which the chaplain taught, and the classes at least had the influence of encouraging the development of respect, responsibility, integrity, perseverance, courage, justice, and discipline, at least in some degree. It was to be free of religious indoctrination, but to keep character development free of moral, civil, and religious values is most impossible, as these tend to overlap!

Negative life-styles often in the form of peer pressure are promoted throughout much of the social network or the environment in which public education takes place. A case in point involves a young girl who had basically positive values cultivated in her from your family upbringing. But she was doing poorly in public school, and she felt she didn’t fit into it. She was shocked to find that all the students were conversing about oral sex as they conversed at the lunch table. When she shared this with her mother she was taken out and put into a private school, where she is now very happy and doing very well academically. But some will say, “It is not the school’s job to address moral questions.”

Under the Truman and Eisenhower administrations there was an attempt to cultivate positive character development in all areas of our national life. America led the world in academics. But times have changed! Eisenhower, a devoted Presbyterian, said: “There is nothing wrong with America that faith, love of freedom, intelligence, and energy of her citizens cannot cure.” In our time we have added to Eisenhower’s idea the statement, “my rights,” without regard for responsibility, even when the concept short-circuits the whole process. Plus, the faith part has been taken out of public education, a part that should be at the heartbeat!

The public schools cannot legislate morality, but character development should not be ignored in the schooling. The need for character guidance needs to be part of education, even or maybe especially public education. We need to find ways to foster ethical, responsible, moral, and caring young people by modeling good character though the emphasis of positive core values; be they ethical, moral, religious, or civil.

It has been said that: “The character of Jesus has not only been the highest pattern of virtue, but the strongest incentive to its practice, and has exerted so deep an influence that it may be truly said that the simple record of his three years of active life had done more to regenerate and soften mankind than all the disquisitions of philosophers and the exhortations of moralists.” But why is the influence of Jesus to be ignored, even denigrated by some in public education? It is sad that about the only way that the name “Jesus Christ” is used in many schools today is as a profanity!

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by Joe Renfro, Ed.D., Radio Evangelist, Retired Teacher and Pastor, Box 751, Lavonia, Georgia 30553, 706-356-4173, joerenfro@windstream.net

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