Character education
Education Code Section 233.5(a) states:
Each teacher shall endeavor to impress upon the minds of the pupils the principles of morality, truth, justice, patriotism, and a true comprehension of the rights, duties, and dignity of American citizenship, and the meaning of equality and human dignity, including the promotion of harmonious relations, kindness toward domestic pets and the humane treatment of living creatures, to teach them to avoid idleness, profanity, and falsehood, and to instruct them in manners and morals and the principles of a free government. (b) Each teacher is also encouraged to create and foster an environment that encourages pupils to realize their full potential and that is free from discriminatory attitudes, practices, events, or activities, in order to prevent acts of hate violence, as defined in subdivision (e) of Section 233.
Many of the hallmarks of a Schools to Watch™-Taking Center Stage program match those of good character education programs, including:
- Relationship building
- Academic rigor and respect that all students can achieve
- Celebrations of student achievement in academics, behavior, and service
- Respect for diversity and multicultural sensitivity
- Service projects
- Leadership building
- Honesty policies
In the Spotlight
Serrano Intermediate School, Saddleback Valley Unified School District
The seventh-grade teachers at Serrano integrate two character education programs into all seventh-grade science classes. Serrano’s seventh-grade science teachers cover one of those lessons each week (on Monday or Friday) for about 15-20 minutes. They chose this approach because it provides students with the information all year long, not just in one trimester. The program complements the school’s Effective Behavior Support (EBS) system that has been in place at Serrano for several years.
The character programs provide a “Teacher Integrated Resource Package” notebook that contains 34 weekly lesson plans, video segments on CDs, extension activities, and 10-point quizzes. Each teacher notebook comes with an in-service CD. The students’ agenda planners contain supplemental work sheets for each of the 34 lessons. These are integrated into the planner in front of each weekly calendar (students are required to purchase the planners in September). Some of the lesson topics are character, goals, principles, emotional bank account, being proactive, vision, mission, priorities, genuine listening, and win-win thinking.
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