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IEF
eNews
News on education, values and character
development
from around the world
index
of this issue index
of all articles
 Bringing
in a New Era in Character Education
William Damon, editor. 194 pages, Hoover Institution Press
(April, 2002); English; ISBN: 0817929622
Summary from the Publisher -
Education in the United States has at last ended its failed
experiment with separating the intellectual from the moral—and
schools from K–12 to college campuses are increasingly
paying attention to students' values and accepting responsibility
for students' character. But how can we bring in this new
era in character education in a way that makes the right
kind of difference to young people? What are the approaches
that will provide character education the solid foundation
necessary to sustain it now and into the future? What obstacles
in our current educational system must we overcome, and what
new opportunities can we create? This book provides a unique
perspective on what is needed to overcome the remaining impediments
and make character education an effective, lasting part of
our educational agenda.
Each chapter points out the directions that character education
must take today and offers strategies essential for making
progress in the field. The expert contributors explain, for
instance, how we can pass core values down to the younger generation
in ways that will elevate their conduct and their life goals.
They reveal why relativism has threatened the moral development
of young people in our time—and what we can do to turn
this around. And they show the critical importance of reestablishing
student morality and character as targets of higher education's
central mission.
The authors make a strong case for "moral exemplarity"—actual
human examples of moral excellence—as an effective tool
of educational practice and describe how stoic "warrior" principles
can offer a moral manner of managing one's emotions in times
of pressure. Perhaps most important, they clarify the necessity
of authority in any moral education endeavor—and
show how it is actually a powerful force for both personal
freedom and character building.
William Damon is a Hoover Institution senior fellow.
He is a professor of education and director of the Center on
Adolescence at Stanford University.
see more details at Amazon.com
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