Due to the eroding family composition of American families today and other important variables contributing to children's lack of social skills and inappropriate behaviors, the implementation of a Character Education curriculum is a greater need in schools today. This need is much more pressing than during the middle of the last century. Some…

This document contains practical suggestions for moral education which, although tentative, are based to a considerable extent on classroom experimentation. There are three main sections. The first suggests a series of mini-courses to be incorporated in the school curriculum. It deals with personal and social values in general, human relations,…

This document explores the way in which courage, as a central virtue, and friendship, as a valued human state, have a significant place within the view of the education of character. Education of character is determined to bridge the gap between moral judgment and moral action. This paper has five sections. First, the need for character education…

This paper addresses the pros and cons educators may encounter if they are involved in a character education program. Those supporting a character education program offer the following reasons: (1) decline of a traditional family structure; (2) erosion of the values system of key institutions; (3) the position of schools as the second most…

Growing public concern with student discipline, increases in student suicide rates, homicides, and high pregnancy rates of teenage girls are causing educators to give renewed attention to the concept of "character development" in public education. (MD)

This paper offers suggestions for structural changes needed in the classroom to develop the moral side of students' lives. Curriculum designs often do not translate into moral behavior. A more systemic and philosophically pedagogical interest in moral development must begin to pervade classrooms in order to make them places where student ethical…

Discusses the role of conscience in moral decisions and several approaches to moral education. Indicates that moral development is an interactive process between children and their environment and that empathy, delayed gratification, and the courage to withstand social pressure must be encouraged in the moral education of youth. (MAB)

Offers a critical analysis of Kohlberg's moral development theory. Claims that the theory misses a level of operative structures and needs to have its stage descriptions revised. Concludes by considering instructional implications. (Author/JDH)

This paper examines the research literature on character education and advocates its inclusion in the public school curriculum. Research indicates a connection between a lack of moral and ethical development and destructive behavior among children. Sections of the paper include: (1) Introduction; (2) "The American Moral Heritage"; (3)…

Finds that eighth grade students in Facing History and Ourselves classrooms show increases in relationship maturity and decreases in racist attitudes and self-reported fighting behavior relative to comparison students. Reports that the gains made by Facing History students in moral reasoning and in civic attitudes and participation were not…

Children in five second grade classrooms were exposed to an educational intervention designed to facilitate their moral development. Compared to a control group, they showed statistically significant growth in the following variables: role taking, intentionality, positive justice, punishment and donating behavior. Correlational analyses revealed…

This book claims that morality is a two-way street, and adolescent students learn by watching teachers. It argues that schools should incorporate morality as a pivotal tool in education, noting that the American school is an exhausting, inefficient, and often dehumanizing place of work for teenagers and their elders. Students learn not just from…

Lawrence Kohlberg's empirical research does not, in itself, justify the claim that his higher stages of moral development are more adequately moral than lower stages; consequently, using Kohlbergian interventions to promote student development through these stages is unjustified. Empirical research, while necessary for planning and executing…

This paper reports on a study to investigate measurement of moral reasoning with respect to age. Additional potential influencing factors, including ethnicity, gender, and influence of early environmental factors, also have been included for analysis in this study. Twenty-seven nontraditional students participating in a new student orientation…

Reports on experiments that examined the extent to which children's moral orientation is affected by the gender of characters experiencing a dilemma in children's literature. Children often responded to the character's dilemma by expressing a concern for others (care orientation) or focusing on issues of rights and justice (rights orientation).…