Character education seeks to raise values and grades
Rutgers houses statewide center for character education initiatives
Archived article from Oct 20, 2003
By Robin Warshaw
When playground fun at the Bartle School in Highland Park disintegrates into arguments or social conflicts, the “Keep Calm Force” swings into action. These superheroes coach the children who are having a hard time, helping them calm down and resolve disputes in positive ways.
In real life, the members of the “Keep Calm Force” are everyday fourth- and fifth-graders. They apply skills they learned through character education, a national movement that promotes the intentional teaching of core ethical values to develop childrens’ social, emotional and moral functioning.
Highland Park is one of 10 state school districts — including Newark, Paterson, Jersey City, Woodbridge and Cape May — receiving funds, program planning assistance and technical support from the New Jersey Center for Character Education (NJCCE). The NJCCE was created last year when New Jersey became one of only five states to receive a $2 million, four-year grant from the U.S. Department of Education for a statewide center to foster character education initiatives in public and nonpublic schools.
Housed on the Livingston campus at the Center for Applied Psychology in the Graduate School of Applied and Professional Psychology, the NJCCE helps schools improve academic success and promotes social competency by creating nurturing environments, infusing positive values into the curriculum and teaching youngsters to be respectful, altruistic and responsible individuals.
“If kids are anxious, scared or alienated, they aren’t going to learn well. You want to create an atmosphere where learning is promoted, not feelings of inadequacy and conflict,” says Philip M. Brown, NJCCE director. Brown, who previously directed a state Department of Education initiative on character education, acknowledges that public educators sometimes shy away from using the word “moral” to describe their instructional mission. But, he contends, “values are core to our democratic society” and concepts of a good and civil community cross all religious and political boundaries.
Brown calls the placement of the NJCCE at the Graduate School of Applied and Professional Psychology “a wonderful fit,” since the school was the nation’s first program to offer a Psy.D. degree. “The university brings enriched resources to draw on,” he says, noting that the Center for Effective School Practices, the Center for Media Studies and several faculty members have been key NJCCE supporters from the outset. One of those faculty, Maurice J. Elias, a professor of psychology and authority on social and emotional learning programs, is thrilled about having the character education center at Rutgers. “We are positioned to become a national leader in the field,” Elias says, adding that both practice and research will be advanced here.
Character education teaches specific skills and strategies to children, chiefly in elementary and middle schools. They learn what words to use to describe an emotion, how to tell an adult when something is wrong, and ways to problem-solve disagreements. “By the time you get to the high school level, if you haven’t done this work already, it becomes much more difficult,” Brown adds.
Once dismissed by some as simply a nice idea, there’s evidence that character education improves children’s academic performance by making the school climate friendlier and reducing discipline problems. Recent research conducted by Keisha A. Mitchell, as part of her Rutgers dissertation work, found that teaching social and emotional learning to 282 third-graders in a New Jersey urban community resulted in greater school success for those children.
At the Bartle School, aspects of character education have been taught for about 10 years. Third-graders gain readiness skills for good social decision-making; fourth-graders learn specific steps to take. In fifth grade, children apply their character-education knowledge; sixth-graders engage in peer mediation. “The kids now have concrete skills. We don’t leave it up to chance,” says guidance counselor Victoria Poedubicky. Results are measured by reduced disciplinary referrals.
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