CharacterEducationWhatisit3-4-01pg2

Character Education: What is it? (page 2)

One thing that educators in many states have complained about is that when the federal government gets involved in programs, they want to force them to follow federal guidelines rather than allow localities to do as they wish. They require a quid pro quo. The federal attitude of �if you want the money, do as we say� is and always has been prevelant as long as the federal government has been involved in funding local education. It may be better to cut the education budget, add the money to the tax cut in congress, and let the local and state governments run their own schools. In light of the reality that the federal government will not get out of education, block grants to promote these programs may be the best alternative. Give the states the money, tell them what programs they should use it for, and let the states and local governments use the money and apply it how they see fit in their states and cities.

The concepts of character education are not new. The attempt to universalize the core values is new. The core values of these programs is one that has much in common with major religions, thus it can support the lessons of religion, without having to promote religion. They also support most major moral systems that have been developed in western and eastern thought. As many of these values can be found in Confucianism as can be found in Christianity. That universality of these core values may be the key to its acceptance in schools and its support by parents. However, it cannot be stressed enough that this control of those core values must remain at the local level. They are similar enough that they will cross over state lines, and different enough that they should not be condensed or expanded by the federal government for the sake of sameness. As explained in other articles at the Global Freedom Institute, now is the time to implement these core values in order to make American life what it should be.
                                                                                                         --GFI 3/4/01

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Other Resources on Character Education:

Center for Learning
Character Counts
Character Education Homepage
Character Education Institute
Character Education Partnership
Character Education Pages
Character Resources
Community of Caring
The Communitarian Network
Ethics Resources Center
Heartwood Institute
Jefferson Center for Character Education
Josephson Institute of Ethics
Separation of School and State Alliance