This 5 page paper discusses character education and values education, pointing out that values clarification is not the same as values education. The writer begins with data that demonstrates the need for teaching character and values in schools. the writer then explains what values education and character education are. Both are discussed with examples. The essay points out the fact that the terms are sometimes used interchangeably although there are differences. Bibliography lists 10 sources.
Name of Research Paper File: MM12_PGvalchr.rtf
Unformatted Sample Text from the Research Paper:
Drug abuse continues to dominate the attention of school administrators. In a recent study, the authors reported 115,500 incidents of theft and/or larceny on school campuses. Sixty-five percent of the
students in another study indicated that they would cheat on an exam. Thirty-six percent in the same study would lie to protect a friend who vandalized school property" (Stanford, 2001).
Polls consistently reveal that Americans believe "the United States is in moral and spiritual decline. There is a growing sense that we stand at a cultural crossroads: "We will either
begin to reverse our downward slide or else suffer continuing social and moral breakdown that may alter, perhaps irreversibly, the quality of our collective lives" (Lickona, 1996, p. 284).
Dr. Stanford reported that character education has been defined "as strategic instruction that promotes social and personal responsibility and the development of the good character traits and moral virtues that
make this possible" (2001). Character itself must include an individuals cognitive, emotional and behavioral development (Stanford, 2001). Wynne noted that there is a difference between values and character (1995). Values
education typically refers to the old values clarification approaches used a couple of decades ago (Wynne, 1995). It has become a discredited approach in terms of providing moral education to
students primarily because it was based on the supposition that youngsters inherently had values and needed only to clarify those values (Wynne, 1995). On the other hand, character formation or
character development was and is based on more traditional approaches to moral education (Wynne, 1995). In character education, teachers help children and adolescents: 1. To learn or absorb virtues (Wynne,
1995, p. 151). 2. To avoid learning bad traits or even to abandon such traits if they were already learned (Wynne, 1995, p. 151). Values education today is about helping