Pathway for Character Education

The School for Ethical Education advocates a clearly articulated pathway to promote ethics and character education for schools or any agency that works with children/youth. Stepping stones on this path include:

• Affirmation by the school community of an explicit character-education mission with ongoing support from an active leadership committee,
• Identification of core ethical values (performance and moral) as defined with a vocabulary of character by the school community (including administrators, teachers, parents and students),
• Creation of a school environment where students recognize they are safe, belong and have the ability to make a meaningful contribution to the community,
• Integration of character vocabulary into the moral discipline of the school and its activities with specific attention the development of intrinsic motivation in support of respectful/civil behavior, fair conflict resolution and academic integrity,
• Integration of a vocabulary of character within existing curricula to advance higher-order ethical reasoning,
• Cultivation of age-appropriate student leadership and responsibility,
• Promotion of community and service-learning opportunities,
• Celebration of student and community examples of positive character,
• Organization of on-going professional development that supports comprehensive character education and recognizes the cognitive, affective and behavioral dimensions of character,
• Reflection about and evaluation of character-education practices.

Ethics in action creates character