“There is certain minimal morality and character that can and should be part of school: not cheating, not lying”

On the way to taking my eldest son to school this morning I asked him,

“Does your teacher ever discuss character with your class?”

He innocently said,

“No Baba, we don’t talk about characters much!”

I corrected him saying,

“No, I mean does she talk about good behavior, and lying, things like that? Does she explain that these are bad things”

Again he innocently says,

“No Baba, all she does is teach!”

This points at this item from a different level all together. My son saw a discussion on lying and being kind as a completely different as teaching! This is what I mean by implementing teaching into the curriculum because then perhaps the children will grow up associating this practices with public conduct and society.

I think you are right that many schools expect the parents to be the sole “character issues educator” of their children. But there is much to be said for how character is built in different areas of life and if the values the parents strive to teach at home are not valued and reinforced when the child is outside of the home it makes it harder. There is certain minimal morality and character that can and should be part of school: not cheating, not lying, not gossiping, not tattling, telling the truth, admitting mistakes, asking for help, defending the wronged – these are just some examples. These are things that a student can see applied in a practical manner within the classroom and the school and will go a long way to helping to support the values that their parents are also teaching them at home. We have to remember that each person our child deals with regularly and sustained (such as other students, teachers, principals etc) have a dramatic impact on the child. If we could all feel the level of responsibility that we have to those children in our care, if we cared as much about them as we do our own children, though in a slightly different way, we would naturally be teaching them good character. It’s when we don’t want to get into teaching character that we are most often inadvertedly teaching bad character!