Creating a Caring Community

Character growth and moral vitality are fostered as much from interpersonal interactions as from individual efforts. Indeed, the fundamental energy for character development comes from the context of social relationships. Heart expands and grows with feelings of satisfaction and self-confidence through fulfilling ethical obligations, norms and duties to others. Learning how to successfully interact with others is a constant but essential challenge. A deficit in these skills leaves children at a distinct disadvantage.1 Research suggests that social and emotional learning is one of the missing pieces of educational reform.2

The second life goal-loving relationships and family-highlights the relational nature of character development. Learning to relate well, as a younger to an elder and as peers, is the foundation for success in marriage, adult friendships and professional settings. The primary training-ground for the life skills of good relationships is the family. For this reason, many of the most promising character education practices focus on creating a family-like atmosphere in school, thus reinforcing in a school setting the competencies that should naturally be fostered in a good home.

A Caring Community

The Child Development Project considers that learning takes place most effectively in a school setting of a caring community.3 A caring community in the school that begins with faculty and staff development bears fruit by helping students know each other, care about each other, and feel a sense of belonging and responsibility towards each other. Where positive school spirit is lacking, students can be quite cruel to each other, even when they esteem the teacher. Such a climate is not only antithetical to character development, it also has a negative effect on academic performance, since students are inhibited by fear of ridicule and abuse by their peers. An atmosphere of rapport and positive regard among classmates, on the other hand, is naturally conducive to best efforts and helps prevent many behavior problems.

Fostering Caring among Peers

Regularly changing seat neighbors, pairing different students up for projects, and creating opportunities for students to talk about themselves assists students in getting to know and be concerned about each other. Some teachers have students interview each other for biographical information. This can consist of asking the derivation of their name, their dreams, their heroes or heroines, etc.4

Hal Urban asks his students through partner interviews to explore questions such as: "What's something good that has happened to you recently?" "Is there someone in the class right now you could say something positive about?" "What is something you are thankful for?"5 Debbie Wilcox fosters respect and kindness among her fifth grade students in Johnson City, New York, by gathering them in a circle three times a week and inviting them to express something appreciative about what a classmate did.6 Efforts like these encourage a positive peer culture, which has a powerful influence on student conduct, as well as promoting character competency in relationship building.

Fostering moral community means intervening when students harass each other. It is promoted by showing tolerance of and fostering empathy for students who are different from each other. The teacher models this by discouraging disparaging discourse among students and valuing each student's unique contribution to the classroom and school community.7

1H. Stephen Glenn and Jane Nelson, Raising Self-reliant Children in a Self-Indulgent World (Rocklin, CA: Prima, 1989), p. 155.

2Maurice J. Elias, et al., Promoting Social and Emotional Learning (Alexandria, VA: Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development, 1997).

3"The Child Development Project: A Brief Summary of the Project and Findings from Three Evaluation Studies," (Oakland, CA: Developmental Studies Center, 1998).

4Lori S. Wiley, Comprehensive Character-Building Classroom (DeBray, FL: Longwood, 1998), p. 83.

5Lickona, "Becoming a School of Character," p. 8.

6Thomas Lickona, Educating for Character (New York: Bantam Books, 1991), p. 99.

7Lickona, Educating for Character, p. 100.