Character and Virtue Education Links

A comprehensive approach to character building in Catholic schools

Thomas Lickona’s article on the Catholic Approach to Character Education.

Character-Centered Families and Schools

An interview from Zenit in which Thomas Lickona advocates Character Education in Catholic Schools.

Our Language Our Story

Rooted in the theological and cardinal virtues, “Our Language, Our Story” provides practical tools and clear strategies to help build the character of students through the model of Jesus Christ. -From the Eastern Ontario Curriculum Cooperative.

An Overview of the Catholic Virtues (St. Clair CDSB/ICE) Catholic education strives not only for the academic excellence of all children who are entrusted into our care, but also to the holistic formation of the individual as living witness of God, educating and nurturing mind, body and spirit. In pursuing the vision of Catholic education, Catholic school boards have the unique responsibility of integrating faith into all aspects of our curriculum. At the heart of our educational purpose is character development rooted in faith – virtues education. It is foundational to who we are as Catholics and is infused in our school culture, our interactions with others and our curriculum expectations. As children develop they need to acquire certain habits of mind and character. These habits of mind and heart have been traditionally called virtues. See also Resources to Support Virtue Education.

Catholic School Board pages:

General Character Resources

How Not to Teach Values A Critical Look at Character Education

An article by educational iconoclast Alfie Kohn who accuses much of modern character education to hold a negative anthropology, be overly behaviouristic and be rooted in Catholic tradition. He calls for a wider understanding and practice of Character Education.

Character Education Partnership

Character Education Partnership is dedicated to developing young people of good character who become responsible and caring citizens. The Eleven Principles of Character Education are found on this site.

Character Counts

The most widely implemented approach to character education — embraced by thousands of schools, communities, public agencies and nonprofits, nonpartisan, nonsectarian — promotes the Six Pillars of Character: trustworthiness, respect, responsibility, fairness, caring, citizenship. The national office develops and supports local activists with training programs, special projects, materials and consulting. -website

Center for the 4th and 5th R’s

The Center conducts K-12 character education trainings, research, and evaluation and publishes The Fourth and Fifth Rs “best practices” newsletter. We define character education as the intentional integration of excellence and ethics—developing performance character (doing our best work) and moral character (doing the right thing) within an ethical learning community.-Website

Teaching children respect.

This website is primarily for parents, but includes different strategies for teaching children respect. These include an Easy child encouragement system, advice and a 1-2-3 magic parenting tactic that was introduced and is currently being used at my school.– Anna Castro

The Giraffe Project

We’re a national nonprofit that since 1984 has been moving people to stick their necks out for the common good and giving them tools to succeed. –website

Virtues Education The Virtues Project International Association is a global grassroots initiative to inspire the practice of virtues in everyday life, sparking a global revolution of kindness, justice, and integrity in more than 100 countries through Facilitators, Master Facilitators, Champions and Virtues Connections.

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