The UVA voices continue to arrive! As someone who once played a role on a private school admissions team, I have enormous respect for those who do this for a living, especially at the collegiate level in a day and age of increasing competition to match students and institution. Another one of Rebecca's UVA students (Jas4bb) works in the Admissions Dept. of one of our nation's most well known universities. As she said to me in an email that included the following post, she feels "strongly about character education's role in cultivating well rounded students who contribute to society as they get older". This certainly is echoed in her response to the instructor-offerd question "What do you want to say about what our schools should be like?" which you can read below:
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"Blessings in Disguise"
Our schools understimate the importance of character education. The recent rise in school violence has reminded me that a vested interest in character education - as a standard part of curriculum is necessary to cultivate well rounded members of society. While character education can take many forms, from manners classes at dance studios to ethics courses in higher education, it is necessary to the development of the entire student. We focus so much on teaching to the SOLs and content that we often forget how strengthening
their character can influence other successes in their education.
In Kathleen Kennedy Manzo's article "Researchers Urge Broad View on How To Build Character," she investigates a pilot program at South Carroll High School in Skyesville, Maryland. This program, based on LA's Character Counts, infuses the curriculum with ethical principles, which they have found increases academic achievement and personal achievement.
I know many different agendas are pushed for education, but it seems that character education is something that cannot be sacrificed. We not only need to educate students on content, but should pick up the responsibility of educating basic morales for our influential students as well.
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Your thoughts?
I am reminded of a study I ran across a few years ago that compared 'successful' students their first year at a university vs. the 'successful' students after year one through graduation. The students who were fairing well their first year in college showed a strong correlation to their SAT scores alone, but after year one that relationship all but ended. In other words, all that 'hard work' to 'nail the SAT' earlier in life, to get the right grades, to be test-able, were of limited value once a student was a soph in college. Successful students after the first year through graduation were often defined by other deeper personality traits and social skills -- leadership, networking, hard work, etc. -- which in some ways seems to jibe with this discussion on character education/development. Or at least suggest that the full range of a human's skill set in an academic setting demands far more than a GPA at the end of the day.
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