Talk:Foundations and Assessment of Education/Edition 1/Foundations Table of Contents/Chapter 12/12.5.1

Reader Responses
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I agree with the author regarding the responsibility of educators to teach ethics or character education in the classroom. Many students are not brought up in a good environment which limits exposure to positive character traits. Teachers are "substitute" parents and are challenged with preparing students academically as well as ethically. At the elementary level, schools often pick a character education word for the month. Students share reflective moments during morning announcements and the guidance counselor focuses classroom lessons on the monthly topic. I believe that teaching children about ethics or character education is most effective when it is a cooperative effort between school staff and parents. As educators, we need to recognize when we need to pick up the slack. Acrow005 (talk) 00:12, 6 August 2009 (UTC)

I agree with the author's opinion. Teachers should teach ethics in the classroom because it is something that many students are not going to receive at home. Often times, and in bad situations, teachers act as "substitute parents" to their students, so what better environment to teach ethics? Learning about ethics and character should always be a group effort during class time, to cause the students to think about the topic at hand. Sbutl016 (talk) 18:05, 6 August 2009 (UTC)

Character education is and should be a vital part to any curriculum. It can be taught by the examples and consistency of any good teacher. In addition, it should and can be taught separately. We need to teach children respect, trustworthiness, teamwork, and all the critical elements of being an honest, decent citizen. We live in such a counterculture that our values have completely slipped. We used to understand consequences and were held accountable for our choices. Now it seems we live in such a liberal society that everything, good and bad, simply is dismissed as free will. We ignore bullying and harassment in schools because we are so overwhelmed by making sure our students know all the required test materials. I say…what good are SOL’s if our students have not been taught not to cheat. I understand this seems a stretch. However, we are a society that accepts anything and everything. We have kids that are horribly mean to each other. We accept it as part of their growing. Is it really? Can we not teach our children better? Abitt002 (talk) 17:03, 7 August 2009 (UTC)

My mom once told me that students spend almost the same amount of time, if not more, with their teachers than they do with their actual parents. Which is why it is important that a teacher and curriculum should be incorporating ethics and character education. While a perfect world would have the parents teach vital lessons of caring and respect, we unfortunately do not live in such a world. And I do not think that a teacher should become a parent for each child that walks through the door, however, I do think that as a powerful and influential authority figure in their lives, educators should instill character education within their curriculum. Another aspect that I liked in this article was parental involvement, because I am a firm believer of getting the parents involved as much as possible. Once a child leaves the classroom, it becomes their responsibility to keep the learning ongoing and engaging. Not every parent is going to this, however, schools should help those who want to this by having parent education nights like the author suggested. Adart001 (talk) 18:09, 8 August 2009 (UTC)