In 2011 we launched our Character Education School Assembly. We believe character education is critical to a child’s future success.
This was the subject of a recent New York Times article. If you only read one article this week, this is the one you need to read.
The article features David Levin, co-founder of Kipp Charter Schools. Their mission was to get 75% of their students, who were from low-income families, to graduate from a four year college.
Although they fell short of their goal initially, they made some interesting observations. From the article:
As Levin watched the progress of those KIPP alumni, he noticed something curious: the students who persisted in college were not necessarily the ones who had excelled academically at KIPP; they were the ones with exceptional character strengths, like optimism and persistence and social intelligence. They were the ones who were able to recover from a bad grade and resolve to do better next time; to bounce back from a fight with their parents; to resist the urge to go out to the movies and stay home and study instead; to persuade professors to give them extra help after class. Those skills weren’t enough on their own to earn students a B.A., Levin knew. But for young people without the benefit of a lot of family resources, without the kind of safety net that their wealthier peers enjoyed, they seemed an indispensable part of making it to graduation day.
Wow… Just… Wow…
In other words being able to get an “A” on a report card wasn’t as significant to a child’s success as their character was!
The article goes on to talk about how students who excel academically often struggle after leaving school. They haven’t learned to recover from failure.
Here’s another interesting quote:
They found that at both schools, I.Q. was the better predictor of scores on statewide achievement tests, but measures of self-control were more reliable indicators of report-card grades.
With school funding tied to state tests, more and more schools have become laser-focused on test results. At what cost though?
Our schools are supposed to help students succeed. If good character is the best indicator of success, then shouldn’t we incentivize our schools to focus on character building? Isn’t that more important than an arbitrary test?
