Berkeley Elementary School recognized as outstanding

South Carolina Department of Education
Published: February 20, 2009

Three public schools have been recognized for demonstrating outstanding school climate and academic performance. The 2009 South Carolina Schools of Character are Berkeley Elementary School in Moncks Corner, Blythewood Middle School in Blythewood and Pineview Elementary School in West Columbia.

The schools will represent South Carolina as nominees for the National School of Character awards program. This year’s national winning practices will be featured in the Character Education Partnership’s annual National Schools of Character publication and on the CEP website.

“The development of good character traits is critical to helping our students become productive citizens,” said State Superintendent of Education Jim Rex. “I congratulate these schools and their communities for working so hard to promote character education. They are models for other schools in the state, and we wish them well in the national competition.”

Character education has been in existence for more than eight years at Berkeley Elementary with the Terrific Kids character education program sponsored by the local Kiwanis organization. The school district utilizes the Second Step Program that teaches children how to resolve conflicts. The school community has developed a matrix of peaceful behaviors that are defined and modeled continuously. Over the past two years, the school has developed the Peaceful School concept that gives students the opportunity to be peacemakers. Students are taught the differences between “Amazing Choices” and “Disappointing Choices.” Character words are used in songs, in skits and in the school’s morning news show. Students recite a peace pledge every day, and guidance counselors conduct lessons based on the character words.

At Blythewood Middle School, character education has become a natural part of daily life. The T.E.A.M. approach is used to teach core ethical values and positive life skills, enforce reasonable rules based on shared values, advocate for the common good and model the behavior of good citizens. Students volunteer to become peer ambassadors to welcome new students, serve as peer mediators and serve on Student Council as decision makers who help put the school’s values into action. Students who display good character and positive life skills are recognized during Character Award Breakfasts, and character is an underlying theme of school ceremonies, such as Awards Day and eighth-grade graduation.

The character education program begun at Pineview Elementary School eight years ago focuses on respect, responsibility, honesty, cooperation, friendship, thankfulness, kindness, citizenship and perseverance. The school defines “character” comprehensively to include thinking, feeling and behavior, and students communicate these through journal writing assignments, artwork displays, general recess time and collaborative group work. A “Book Buddy” program is designed for older students to mentor younger students. The school’s Ackerman Award of Character recognizes a fifth-grade student who has had an outstanding tenure at school. The award recipient is recognized at the end of the year during an awards assembly program, receives a savings bond and has his or her name engraved on a plaque in the school’s foyer.

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Flag Comment Posted by Hifi on February 23, 2009 at 6:46 pm

There's no evidence that character education is effective. I am continually baffled at how character education - which on the surface of it sounds great - can win funding and accolades while never demonstrating evidence of either need or results. Is all that is required for adoption is a slick marketing campaign to the politicians and school boards in order to acquire popular support (complete with entreaties to emotional and fear issues and a healthy dose of language from pop psychology and a wink to Christian religion) and then you are done? Who could object to "character education", right? The adoption of character education in our community should be seriously questioned. Research on the subject has yet to turn up one peer-reviewed study demonstrating any scientifically validated need for or result from character education programs. On the other hand, flaws in the "research" showing "correlations" are well documented. There is really no excuse for a reputable study to not have been conducted at this point - especially, when considering that character education has no basis in accepted educational theory in the first place. Such a dearth of validity makes it hard to just give it the benefit of the doubt. What's worse, the actual peer reviewed studies that have been done, show character education programs to be not only ineffectual, but "negatively correlated" with results! Today's character education would seem to fall right in line with a string of similarly flawed and famously failed school programs: "religious education", "moral education", "values education"... However, not to be deterred by lack of results, character education programs abound, forging ahead - each trotting out entirely different lists of politically-entangled core values and means for implementing them! Their dissensions from one another's goals and criticisms of each other is enlightening. Certainly, it is unfortunate for the entire field that there is no valid psychological definition of "character". The term has no clinical meaning; which probably also explains why there can be no way to measure if an individual has a deficit of it, or if a school program can improve it. If there was anything quantifiable, one might be able to judge the benefit of one approach over the other - or any benefit at all. It is telling, perhaps, that the one thing these competing programs all agree on is that the end goal is the child or employee's compliance with authority and conformity with conservative values. Is that how we wish to define the greatness of America's "national character" these days? What about the spirit of inquiry, independence and innovation that defines the true character of a great nation? On the much-lauded "Magic School Bus" TV show, the class slogan is "Take Chances, Make Mistakes. Get Messy!", just the opposite of the stated goals on character education lists. Sure, on the face of it, who wouldn't be in favor of something as grand sounding as character education? Yet, slick marketing aside, is that enough to justify exposing our children to such an unknown, ideologically-driven quantity? Even if character education could be proven to achieve its aims, public education has no business taking the culture wars to children. What should schools be focusing on as root causes, instead? The best academic minds in the business recommend that the schools' focus should be to ensure a fair, well-funded educational environment; provide solid, verifiable facts; develop the critical thinking skills to separate the "angles" and hype from the truth; and let students decide for themselves what kind of society they want for themselves. In sum, character education sure sounds good - if only it worked. Isn't it time for some real investigative reporting into the claims of character education, instead of all the cheerleading? ----------------- A 2007 report released under the auspices of the U.S. Department of Education found that vast majority of character education programs have failed to prove their effectiveness. http://ies.ed.gov/ncee/wwc/reports/character_education/topic/ ----------------- For essays and references, please see http://members.cox.net/patriotismforall/character_ed_links.html Anthologized in "Taking Sides: Issues in Educational Practice", 2008 McGraw-Hill/CLS ----------------- "The virtue in most request is conformity." Ralph Waldo Emerson, 1841. ----------------- "Teachers and schools tend to mistake good behavior for good character. What they prize is docility, suggestibility; the child who will do what he is told; or even better, the child who will do what is wanted without even having to be told. They value most in children what children least value in themselves. small wonder that their effort to build character is such a failure; they don't know it when they see it." How Children Fail, John Holt

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Berkeley Elementary School recognized as outstanding

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