26 Sep 2006 - 19:05

know your enemy

I've been trying to cess out how exacty we came to have character education.

I think parents tend to connect it to Columbine (I know I did). But that's wrong. In fact, character education "took wing" in 1992, 7 years prior to the Columbine shootings of 1999.

Character ed tracks back to one person (the Great Man theory of history!), "ethicist" Michael Josephson. I've taken a look at some of his commentaries and the few I've seen are fine by me, as far as they go.

Michael Josephson and his Commentaries aren't the problem.

The problem is that we seem to be dealing with an unholy alliance of busybodies on the right with busybodies on the left.

Worse yet, something like 90% of the public "favors the teaching of core values." At least, they did back in 1994.

I give up.



PBS is hawking Michael Josephson's video.

Fatherhood changed everything for Michael Josephson, founder of the Josephson Institute for the Advancement of Ethics. He taught law school for 20 years and ran a successful business, but as he watched his son grow up, he began to think less about the letter of the law and more about the spirit of it. In this program with Bill Moyers, Josephson discusses the lack of ethical standards in our society and the philosophy of self-interest.

Yes, I think we can all agree on the glaring lack of ethical standards in our society.

All you have to do is have a kid, read the newspapers, and voila: lack of moral standards.

Why did none of us see this before?

And why do people like sociologists, anthropologists, economists, and historians to name a few act like it's so darn hard to know what's going on now and how what's going on now differs from what was going on before?

When it's all so obvious to you and Bill Moyers?



So....Michael Josephson. The Josephson Institute. Another edu-entrepreneur.

Michael Josephson is to character what the NCTM is to math, and can be said to be an "ethicist" in much the same way Skip Fennell can be said to be a "mathematician."

But Michael Josephson and his ideas are now fully integrated into each and every hour of my child's school day.





What Works Clearinghouse assessment character ed
Character Ed at the DOE
interview w/Michael Josephson

a brief history of character education
a first grade teacher focuses on moral decline
zero tolerance for zero tolerance
self esteem vs character ed
constructivist character ed
Michael Josephson, father of character education in U.S.

character ed in "study skills" class
character ed & shaming
Irvington character education wall calendar
Facing History and Ourselves

-- CatherineJohnson - 26 Sep 2006

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WebLogForm
Title:	know your enemy
TopicType:	WebLog
SubjectArea:	EducationResearch, IrvingtonSchools, TeachersTeachingKids
LogDate:	200609261500