Kingston City School District - Students Are Our Most Valuable Asset

Character Education

Eleven Principles of Character Education

There is no single script for effective character education, but there are some important basic principles. The following eleven principles serve as criteria that schools and other groups can use to plan a character education effort and to evaluate available character education programs, books, and curriculum resources.

Character education promotes core ethical values as the basis of character.
"Character" must be comprehensively defined to include thinking, feeling, and behavior.
Effective character education requires an intentional, proactive, and comprehensive approach that promotes the core values in all phases of school life.
The school must be a caring community.
To develop character, students need opportunities for moral action.
Effective character education includes a meaningful and challenging academic curriculum that respects all learners and helps them succeed.
Character education should strive to develop students' intrinsic motivation.
The school staff must become a learning and moral community in which all share responsibility for character education and attempt to adhere to the same core values that guide the education of students.
Character education requires moral leadership from both staff and students.
The school must recruit parents and community members as full partners in the character-building effort.
Evaluation of character education should assess the character of the school; the school staff's functioning as character educators, and the extent to which student's manifest good character.