By Jim
Nicholson
The St. Louis metropolitan area is nationally recognized for leadership in the field of character education primarily due to the extensive work of CHARACTERplus, an organization originally founded in 1988 through the auspices of a concerned group of educators and business
leaders led by Sanford N. McDonnell, chairman emeritus of
McDonnell Douglas.
Character education impacts social, emotional and academic areas to become the foundation for all school reform and best practices in education. Reform has loomed large as issues are addressed that haunt many from our own recollection of some school experiences.
If you have ever witnessed rampant bullying; the tyranny of the popular few; the inadvertent official praise for students more intellectually gifted to the detriment of those to whose learning styles and developmental timetables were not the same; racial or sexist insensitivity; exclusion, inadvertent or not, of those with physical or mental handicaps or suffered from lack of attention or positive reinforcement from a teacher, then you have either witnessed or been subjected to behavior that is anathema to the goals of CHARACTERplus.
It’s important to comprehend the importance of a process that establishes community-endorsed character traits and norms for how schools shall educate. According to Director Liz Gibbons, CHARACTERplus is a process, not a program. “There are many paths to the end result,” she stresses and virtually everyone involved — students, educators, parents, administrators, bus drivers, custodians, cafeteria workers, office staff, you name it—each school has a say in how that process will be addressed on site.
There are ten components of the CHARACTERplus process: Community Participation, Character Education Policy, Defined Character Traits, Integrated Curriculum, Experiential Learning, Evaluation, Positive Adult Role Models, Professional Development, Student Leadership and Sustaining the Process. Each component is necessary to achieve the final result. Virtually anyone in business, education or the arts has participated in programs designed to improve their system. Many programs can prove successful, but lack sustainability and lose impact over time. The CHARACTERplus process is geared to making certain the gains of the program are not only maintained, but also expanded and imbedded in the culture of the system.
Currently, 42 Schools and Districts in Missouri (including all but one District in St. Louis and St. Louis County) and eight Districts in Illinois are involved in CHARACTERplus. In a quick head count, approximately 300,000 students are currently being exposed to the CHARACTERplus process and approximately 600,000 parents have less cause to worry about their child being bullied at school. The issue of school bullying is no longer presumed to be a matter-of-course ritual of peer group hazing. In the State of Illinois, anti-bullying measures are legally mandated. The Missouri Department of Education requires anti-bullying policies. From Bond County to St. Clair and from Jersey County, Illinois to Perry County, Missouri, CHARACTERplus is helping to meet these mandates.
Bullying is not the only issue addressed by the CHARACTERplus process.
Character traits commonly addressed in each participating school’s community-wide consensus process include: honesty, respect, self-esteem, patience, integrity, decision making, self discipline, problem solving, compassion, goal setting, responsibility and…well, if there’s an issue a school feels needs to be addressed, CHARCTERplus will offer the means to focus upon that concern.
The CHARACTERplus comprehensive approach finds strength in its developmental procedure. A huge piece of training occurs through workshops. Students are encouraged to participate in both experiential learning and service learning; students look at an area of need and, then, address it with a legitimate curriculum connection. For instance, a feeling that a school needs to pay more attention to concerns of senior citizens may ultimately be addressed through curriculum dealing with nutritional needs of seniors and/or the immediate history through the exploration of the lives of seniors connected with the school. Immediate face-to-face connection with people provides students with the personal ability to reflect about those people and their needs. The end result of such learning is then reflected in a solid curriculum-based activity reflected through many avenues such as writing, media, technology, or possibly by some other means. A collaborative process between educators, students, and community powers the actions taken.
Virtually everyone actively involved with the CHARACTERplus process—will ultimately be involved in a survey to provide material for data-driven decision-making and best educational practice. In 2003, the organization was awarded, two federal grants to provide a research base of documented success. Over a period of time, 22,000 surveys were completed. In addition, the area’s economy benefited from $2 million worth of federal grants.
Annually, the organization selects individual schools to highlight as Missouri Schools of Character. The chosen schools are then eligible to be recognized at a national level through the Character Education Partnership. Last year, the St. Louis area had five schools recognized as National Schools of Character. They were Lindbergh School District, Sappington Elementary, Chesterfield Elementary, Francis Howell Middle School and Valley Park Middle School. Each year in July, CHARACTERplus hosts a National Conference attended by representatives of over 800 school districts. All local districts working with the organization are awarded scholarships allowing them to participate in the National Conference.
Needless to say, such success comes at a cost and, every three years, CHARACTERplus launches a corporate campaign to provide funds to match the monetary contributions from school districts. The private and public sector funding provides for a unique dual ownership of a program, which, for twenty years, has an overwhelming record of achievement. The next campaign will launch in November and seeks to raise $700,000 in contributions, a relatively inexpensive way to positively impact the lives of virtually all of the future population of the
metropolitan area.
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