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Colonial Character Education
Character education started during the Colonial era in America. It was based on Protestant values, which reflected the majority of society (Nucci, Narvaez, & Krettenauer, 2014). Schools taught values from Christianity and parents demanded their children to learn the moral and religious content of the bible. By 1776, all the textbooks had the Christian values in 100 percent of the content (Mulkey, 1997). Teachers believed punishment was a good thing because it taught them to follow the rules. -
McGuffey Readers
William Holmes McGuffey created his first publication of the McGuffey Readers, which was the first series of textbooks in the U.S. that increasingly challenged readers with each volume. They were used to teach vocabulary, spelling and phonics. The McGuffey Readers also focused on moral values, as the stories focused on being a good citizen. This came from McGuffey's background as a Presbyterian and he was a conservative theological teacher (Lynch, 2016). -
Felix Adler's The Moral Instruction of Children
Felix Adler wrote The Moral Instruction of Children that emphasized not using religion as part of teaching moral values to children. As a Jewish person, Adler promoted ethical culture by using fairy tale stories to teach young children about character and older students learn about democracy and freedom, as well as examine issues of poverty, race, and equality (Stallones, 2015). -
John Dewey
John Dewey wrote Democracy and Education, in which he believes that in order for children to become productive citizens, they must be educated for obedience and responsibility. Educating moral character should be taught within the curriculum and be involved in real-life issues (Nucci et al., 2014). -
Jean Piaget
Jean Piaget wrote The Moral Judgement of the Child, in which describes two types of moral reasoning: heterotonomous and autonomous. Heterotonomous morality is based on respecting the rules and authority. Consequences are accepted and fairness is obeying and following the order of society. Autonomous morality is based on mutual respect and promotes equality among everyone. Following the rules comes with flexibility and solutions for consequences are viewed as fair (Nucci et al, 2014). -
Lawrence Kohlberg
Lawrence Kohlberg developed his theory of moral cognition and development. According to Kohlberg, there are three models, which include moral stages, moral types, and social-moral atmosphere levels. In the moral stages, there are six stages in which people develop moral reasoning. For moral types, there are heterotonomy and autonomy. The concept of moral atmosphere is the community's moral culture where the group develops moral values for the individual (Nucci, et al., 2014). -
U.S. Department of Education Partnership in Character Education Program
From 1995-2001 the U.S. Department of Education provided funding to promote character education across America. It promoted several topics including shared responsibility and helping children to become responsible citizens. They developed programs, interventions, and projects to help children to become respectful and responsible citizens, including The What Works Clearinghouse program and Evaluating Character Education Interventions (U.S. Department of Education, n.d.). -
Angela Duckworth-Grit
Angela Duckworth wrote a New York Times best seller, Grit: The Power of Passion and Perseverance, which explains that to be successful and develop character doesn't come from outstanding talent but from a person's passion and persistence she calls grit. In order to have grit, you don't need a high IQ, but to be self-disciplined, hard working, and be committed to what you are doing to be successful. Overcoming adversity leads to strong character (Duckworth 2016).
