Character
Education - Integrity
by Thomas Hearn, principal
Character education integrity is vital if we expect to reap any benefit from bringing character into the curriculum. Our program should ooze integrity. I do not mean honesty, although that is tied into integrity. The integrity of our character education should be that same integrity that resides on every good list of character traits. It involves operating by the highest ethical standards. It involves doing what is best in character education, even when that best is costly or difficult.
Character education integrity is more than that, though. There is a oneness to a program that has integrity, just as there is a oneness to an individual with integrity. There is a refusal to give in to the mediocre, or to treat the program with changing degrees of enthusiasm. The value of character education will be the same today as it was yesterday. It will remain the same tomorrow. |
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Character education integrity rests squarely on the meaning of integrity itself:
Firm, undivided adherence to an objective code of moral values
When our character education program is highly valued by all involved, and those individuals remain firm and undivided in their adherence both to the teaching of moral excellence and to the outworking of that moral excellence, the effectiveness of our program will be tremendous.
Character education integrity will never be easy. A solitary parent teaching in a home school will sense that. How much more will it be difficult to have oneness and firm adherence to our moral values in a program that encompasses a large school? But this is no excuse for ignoring character education. It is no reason to back off from making it a priority. It is reason to strive toward integrity. It is reason to look at our program and see what is needed to bring it to a place of integrity.
Character education integrity and individual integrity are alike. The difference is that individual integrity benefits fewer people.
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