History of Character Education - Kelsey Marin

Horace Mann was a strong supporter of universal education, which is an education that should be free to all students in society. Horace believed that character should be a main focus for education which requires materials and support for the teachers on how to teach it (Watz, 2011).

McGuffy, a college professor, discussed how values or morality and education were inseparable. He felt the need to understand each student on a personal and compassionate basis. His belief was character education would be seen through the society's health and happiness. He created a specific system for teachers to use in the development of student reading. Students were learning to read while also acquiring moral growth, (Watz, 2011).

John Dewey, a pioneer in education believed that a Childs moral character should develop in school in a natural way and on their own. He stated that character should embrace all the purposes, desires, and habits that affect human conduct (Pietig, 2006).

People wondered if public schools could support the moral teaching that was acceptable to the public. Catholic schools asked for funding because public schools based moral teaching on the Bible, which led to Bibles being banned from public schools (Mulkey, 2013).

This time was called the moral dilemma discussion or moral reasoning. Kohlberg changed the source of moral behavior by introducing a new theory such as teaching kids good habits or established moral truths. He saw no need for textbooks and his thoughts aligned with civil libertarians. (Edmonson, Tatman & Slate, 2009).

The 1960's was a revival of character education after its decline. The movement of "values clarification" was headed by Louis Rath. Teachers were to help students learn how to clarify their own values rather than teach values at all (AhkamArifin, 2017).

Funded by the U.S. Department of Education's Office of Special Education Programs (OSEP) and the Office of Elementary and Secondary Education (OESE) PBIS was created to support schools in implementing a multi-tiered approach to social, emotional, and behavioral supports. (Positive Behavioral Interventions & Supports, 2019).

In 1987 Michael Josephson established Character Counts, a nonprofit organization that provides character education framework which braids character education into other programs.

In 1992, The National Research Council reported the U.S is the most violent amongst industrialized nations. The Character Education Movement was to instill students with moral values or virtues. "Good human qualities that transcend time and culture" (AhkamArifin, 2017).

The JROTC looks at school’s once traditional mission to add in and include character and morals in the lives of students. They created programs in secondary schools that shows character can be taught. JROTC students nationwide attend school more, graduate at a higher rate, behave better, drop out less, and earn higher grade point averages. (Edmonson, Tatman & Slate, 2009)