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This is a thought-provoking question. I guess that I'm not totally sure I
know how you (or your state?) define character education. Does that mean we
just help them determine what is right or wrong as we now perceive it or are
we helping them to learn to think for the future through consideration of the
blizzard of new ideas and technologies that they will have to face? Brave
New World comes to mind. I spend a lot time asking questions of them
regarding their beliefs and the future as I lay the groundwork for going back
to the classics later in the term. One of the basic tenets of BNW flies in
the face of most their thinking. Many of them believe that all they seek is
happiness. BNW demonstrates that happiness as an end in itself is not
worthwhile. Do the classics make them happy as popular culture and the
entertainment industry does? If not, why not? Can they find the intrinsic
value in these works that so many others have found or are they just
mutterings from (mostly) dead white guys who really don't understand what's
going on right now? We talk a lot about the human condition and from that
springs self-analysis. Is that character education?

• Next message: Sukatunkb@aol.com: "Re: Question"
• Previous message: Sukatunkb@aol.com: "Re: Question"
• Maybe in reply to: Barbara Patch: "Character Education through Literature and Language Arts"
• Next in thread: Betsy Scheidemantel: "Re: Character Education through Literature and Language Arts"
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