16. Character
(Post 16 of 33 in my 16-hour shift for the Secular Student Alliance Blogathon.)
3:30 pm EDT
A good friend in Ohio just submitted this question:
Q: I’ve been nominated the chair of the “character committee” for my daughter’s school. Basically, the parents and teachers in the committee are going to recommend values and character education ideas to the teachers for curriculum changes. Any ideas that might be blog worthy during your blogathon?
A: Such great news! For your own background, I recommend reading A.C. Grayling’s Meditations for the Humanist: Ethics for a Secular Age, which is divided by topic into short reflections, including several on character.
A well-reviewed curriculum supplement is Barbara Lewis’s What Do You Stand For? A Guide to Building Character. There’s one for kids and one for teens, and I’ve seen glowing recommendations by educators for both. Includes individual quizzes to structure discussion and reflection.
Both Ethical Culture and UUs have developed curricular materials for character development, and both are likely to be excellent.
Finally, you might be interested in a current character ed situation brewing in the UK in the wake of the riots etc. Andrew Copson is attempting to keep the humanist voice in the debate.
Hey readers! Any other suggestions?