Character Education: The Influence Of Character Education In Schools

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Recently, in education we have seen the call for the development of 21st Century skills to enhance the roles and responsibilities for our next generation of students. More importantly, society expects the education community to provide a safe environment for teaching and learning. Unfortunately, with the myopic focus of many educational institutions on instruction only, we have seen many organizations struggle to create environments conducive to teaching and learning. According to Losen & Gillespie (2012) over three million children, K-12, are estimated to have lost instructional “seat time” in 2009-2010 because they were suspended from school, especially with students of color.. These suspensions create negative working relationships between teachers, students and peers and leave school organizations with ineffective learning environments. In addition, according to Fusarelli and Boyd (2004) many states believe a more problematic America is emerging due to the stresses with multiculturalism and the inequalities which are transforming the character of not only American society but the school system as well. These racial and economic gaps are widening and making it difficult to develop character bridges within such a diverse population. Under those circumstances, schools will need to provide a …show more content…

There have been many attempts at defining character education and positioning it within the context of the school community. For centuries, schools and teachers have considered character development as part of their mission, but the struggle has been to define what justifies good character and its importance within the institution of teaching (Brown, 2013). In the 6th century, Confucius captured the process of character education in a

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