G.I.V.E. Get Involved, Volunteer in Education

Character We've Got It!

By Robert E. Miller, Parents' Source, January 20, 2001.

Each day, it seems we hear news reports about the breakdown of civility, an onslaught of mean-spiritedness, and alarming statistics about drug use. Such stories occasionally originate in our own community, even though we like to think of ourselves as being somewhat insulated from the turmoil of the rest of the nation. Many people have reached the conclusion that we, as a nation, have stepped away from strongly accentuating character traits, and are now seeing the negative impact on our society.

Character Education, which started as a grassroots effort, is now growing in popularity and sweeping the nation. Ephrata, Pennsylvania, a small town located in a residential and farming community of Northeastern Lancaster County, has proactively taken steps to ensure they have a "Healthy Community".

An all-volunteer group, called "Partners for Healthier Tomorrows", became aware that many people around the country are involved in Character Development and Education. Beginning in January of 1999, we began a comprehensive, all-inclusive program that the entire community has enthusiastically embraced and endorsed!

The goal of the program has been to promote certain character traits extensively, using all educational opportunities and media forms to emphasize specific character traits, on a monthly basis. Our reasoning was that if our youth heard a consistent message in school, at sports practice, on television, in youth organizations, church and on signs around the community, over a long period of time, the message would become evident.

First, we recruited a group of community-minded individuals who would act as directors and implement the character education program. Following a community wide rally held in October of 1998, with over three hundred people in attendance, "Character, We've Got It!" was born. Following the initial rally, forty members from all demographics in our community came together to identify and define twelve character traits they thought would best depict the characteristics our area wished to exemplify. It is important to note that the criteria set for developing this list of character traits had to be accepted by people of all faiths, beliefs, cultures and socioeconomic backgrounds.

As a result of our efforts, the following actions have been taken:

• The Ephrata Area School Board enacted Character Education as one of the nine major goals and objectives of the district for 1999. All of the teachers are finding their own unique ways to implement Character Education into their curriculum.
• Local churches became involved by dedicating at least one message per month to the character trait, and a Sunday School Curriculum committee writes up materials that can be used by Sunday School teachers in the community.
• The Girl and Boy Scouts emphasize the character traits at their meetings, and the local Girl Scout Council has created and adopted a program whereby girls can earn a Character Patch.
• Posters are printed and distributed monthly throughout the community to businesses, stores, schools, churches and civic organizations, clearly defining the character trait of the month.
• The local newspaper publishes articles about people who exemplify the trait of the month.
• The local cable station created commercials articulating each of the twelve traits that are aired on twenty-two (22) cable networks.
• Many local businesses, use changeable sign in front of their establishments to spotlight the character trait of the month.
• We worked with well-known children's entertainer, Steven Courtney to develop custom made cassette tapes of music and stories that exemplify the character traits. The tapes are distributed free of charge to second and fourth grade students.

Communities that have implemented Character Education in the school system alone have noticed a decrease in drug and alcohol abuse, teen pregnancy, violence and truancy. Homework completion has increased, and students are taking more personal responsibility.

Kim Schlemmer, Principal of the Highland Elementary School in the Ephrata School District, tells us "Character Education is inherent in all good teaching. Our 'Character, We've Got It!' program is not a separate curriculum, but rather it is one that integrates the monthly themes into all areas of our daily instruction. This ongoing school-community relationship can offer nothing less than every support in developing strong, positive character traits in all of our students."

Over the last decade or so "wars" have been proclaimed on teen pregnancy, dropping out, drugs, and most recently violence. The trouble with such campaigns is that they come too late, after the targeted problem has reached epidemic proportions and taken firm root in the lives of our young people. They are crisis intervention, the equivalent of solving a problem by sending an ambulance to the rescue rather than giving an inoculation that would ward off the disease in the first place. Instead of more such "wars," what we need is to follow the logic of prevention and offer our children the skills for facing life that will increase their chances of avoiding these fates.

As a society, we have not concerned ourselves with making sure every child is taught the essentials of handling anger or resolving conflicts positively, nor have we considered that we should teach empathy, impulse control, and other fundamentals of emotional competence. By leaving the emotional lessons children learn to chance, we risk largely wasting the window of opportunity presented by the slow maturation of the brain to help children cultivate a healthy emotional repertoire.

"Partners for Healthier Tomorrow" hopes other communities will see the importance of Character Education, follow in the footsteps of Ephrata, and catch the vision of this valuable type of initiative. Of course no program, including this one, is an answer to every problem, but we must ask ourselves: Shouldn't we be teaching these most essential skills for life to every child - now more than ever?

Robert Miller is Chariman of the Character Education Program and Treasurer of "Partners for Healthier Tomorrows." He can be reached at 717-733-6006, ext. 107, or rem1954@yahoo.com

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