{"id":148,"date":"2014-07-15T14:13:15","date_gmt":"2014-07-15T22:13:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/sites.sandiego.edu\/character\/?p=148"},"modified":"2014-09-16T09:26:27","modified_gmt":"2014-09-16T17:26:27","slug":"the-character-mystery","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sites.sandiego.edu\/character\/blog\/2014\/07\/15\/the-character-mystery\/","title":{"rendered":"The “Character Mystery”"},"content":{"rendered":"

The scene: It was at break time on Thursday afternoon at the Character Development Center\u2019s 18th annual Character Matters Conference (USD).<\/em><\/p>\n

Three attendees all of whom, I found out, were to begin their first year of teaching in the fall approached me.<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cCan we ask you a question?\u201d<\/em>
\n \u201cYes, what can I do for the three of you?\u201d My thought \u00adI have to fix another parking ticket.<\/em>
\n \u201cWe are confused and puzzled,\u201d said one.<\/em>
\n \u201cWe can\u00b9t get a handle on what character is really about,\u201d said the other.<\/em>
\n \u201cI understand,\u201d I replied, \u201cA common problem among educators and others.\u201d<\/em>
\n No time for explanations at this point since we were being called back into the auditorium to hear the next conference speaker.<\/em>
\n I said quickly, \u201c Let\u2019s do this. Give me your email addresses and I will send each of you information that will take the \u201cmystery\u201d out what character and character education is really all about.\u201d<\/em>
\n I decided to write this blog and send it to them along with other character education material.<\/em><\/p>\n

Character is learned<\/strong>\u2014taught to the young by the entertainment industry, the media, the environment they live in, their peers and role models, and hopefully by parents, teachers, schools, youth agencies, and religious institutions.<\/p>\n

Character is<\/strong> about learning and practicing the virtues\/values\/traits of compassion, trust, courage, honesty, gratitude and so on. Gratitude and empathy have been identified as two essential competencies\/virtues for leaders and followers in the 21st century. I just read an article that states:<\/p>\n

\u201cStudies have repeatedly confirmed that gratitude lies at the heart of joy\u2026 (and) is the \u2018queen of the virtues.\u2019\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

Character is<\/strong> about the choices one makes (good or bad, ethical or unethical). It is about decision-making \u2013 the circumstances, the risks, the chances, the consequences, and the rewards. LouAnne Johnson, a school principal, put it this way:<\/p>\n

\u201cIf we expect children to behave in school, we must teach them to take responsibility for their behavior; but we must also teach them how to make better choices, how to develop personal ethics, and how to solve problems.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

Character is<\/strong> about relationships (strengthen or destroyed) and social skills. You have heard about or read about James Comer\u2019s work at Yale. He reminds us: \u201cWith every interaction in a school, we are either building community or destroying it.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cFar too many principals share rules with their teachers but they don\u2019t have a relationship with them. And far too many teachers don\u2019t have positive relationships with their students. So what happens? Teachers and students disengage from the mission of the school\u2026.To develop positive relationships you need to enhance communication, build trust, listen to them, make time for them, recognize them, show them you care through your actions and mentor them.\u201d
\n(NB, \u201cSoul Food Friday\u201d July 26, 2013)<\/p>\n

Positive relationships are built upon the application of such social skills as sharing, participating, following directions, listening, taking turns, etc. It also includes learning how to be a friend, how to care for others, how to be polite, respectful, courteous; how to resolve conflicts, appreciate others\u2014you can add your \u201crelationship attributes\u201d to this list.<\/p>\n

Character is<\/strong> about \u201cemotional\u201d self-discipline. In his book, Emotional Intelligence, Daniel Goleman notes that IQ accounts for about 20% of success in life while the remaining 80% is attributed to factors related to emotional intelligence. He includes such factors as self-awareness, managing emotions, empathy, understanding others, social consciousness, self-restraint, and nurturing relationships. He says this:<\/p>\n

\u201cA small investment in emotional-social development programs in schools will have a powerful influence at reducing anti-social behaviors of students.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

Interestingly, our local newspaper, U-T San Diego, offered a recent column on the business pages titled \u201cEmotional intelligence: Companies find that workers with high EQ are most productive.\u201d Business types call what we do in our character education programs the \u201csoft skills.\u201d<\/p>\n

Finally, have you heard or read about 21st century skills? More than 250 researchers across 60 institutions worldwide categorized these skills into four broad categories:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Ways of thinking:<\/strong> creativity, critical thinking, problem solving, decision-making and learning;<\/li>\n
  2. Ways of working:<\/strong> communication and collaboration;<\/li>\n
  3. Tools for working:<\/strong> information and communications technology and information literacy; and<\/li>\n
  4. Skills for living in the world:<\/strong> citizenship, life and career, and personal and social responsibility.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    It seems to me that 21st century skills are calling for 21st century people of \u201ccharacter.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    The scene: It was at break time on Thursday afternoon at the Character Development Center\u2019s 18th annual Character Matters Conference (USD). Three attendees all of whom, I found out, were…Read More >><\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":306,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2882],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-148","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blog-post"],"yoast_head":"\nThe "Character Mystery" - Character Education Resource Center<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/sites.sandiego.edu\/character\/blog\/2014\/07\/15\/the-character-mystery\/\" class=\"yoast-seo-meta-tag\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" class=\"yoast-seo-meta-tag\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" class=\"yoast-seo-meta-tag\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The "Character Mystery" - Character Education Resource Center\" class=\"yoast-seo-meta-tag\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The scene: It was at break time on Thursday afternoon at the Character Development Center\u2019s 18th annual Character Matters Conference (USD). Three attendees all of whom, I found out, were...Read More >>\" class=\"yoast-seo-meta-tag\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/sites.sandiego.edu\/character\/blog\/2014\/07\/15\/the-character-mystery\/\" class=\"yoast-seo-meta-tag\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Character Education Resource Center\" class=\"yoast-seo-meta-tag\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2014-07-15T22:13:15+00:00\" class=\"yoast-seo-meta-tag\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2014-09-16T17:26:27+00:00\" class=\"yoast-seo-meta-tag\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Dr. DeRoche\" class=\"yoast-seo-meta-tag\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" class=\"yoast-seo-meta-tag\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" class=\"yoast-seo-meta-tag\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Dr. DeRoche\" class=\"yoast-seo-meta-tag\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" class=\"yoast-seo-meta-tag\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" class=\"yoast-seo-meta-tag\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sites.sandiego.edu\/character\/blog\/2014\/07\/15\/the-character-mystery\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sites.sandiego.edu\/character\/blog\/2014\/07\/15\/the-character-mystery\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Dr. DeRoche\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sites.sandiego.edu\/character\/#\/schema\/person\/f38ef4bee8707a8c1a85ae506004b3b3\"},\"headline\":\"The “Character Mystery”\",\"datePublished\":\"2014-07-15T22:13:15+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2014-09-16T17:26:27+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sites.sandiego.edu\/character\/blog\/2014\/07\/15\/the-character-mystery\/\"},\"wordCount\":723,\"commentCount\":0,\"articleSection\":[\"Blog Post\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/sites.sandiego.edu\/character\/blog\/2014\/07\/15\/the-character-mystery\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sites.sandiego.edu\/character\/blog\/2014\/07\/15\/the-character-mystery\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/sites.sandiego.edu\/character\/blog\/2014\/07\/15\/the-character-mystery\/\",\"name\":\"The \\\"Character Mystery\\\" - Character Education Resource Center\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sites.sandiego.edu\/character\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2014-07-15T22:13:15+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2014-09-16T17:26:27+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sites.sandiego.edu\/character\/#\/schema\/person\/f38ef4bee8707a8c1a85ae506004b3b3\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sites.sandiego.edu\/character\/blog\/2014\/07\/15\/the-character-mystery\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/sites.sandiego.edu\/character\/blog\/2014\/07\/15\/the-character-mystery\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sites.sandiego.edu\/character\/blog\/2014\/07\/15\/the-character-mystery\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/sites.sandiego.edu\/character\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"The “Character Mystery”\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sites.sandiego.edu\/character\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/sites.sandiego.edu\/character\/\",\"name\":\"Character Education Resource Center\",\"description\":\"\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/sites.sandiego.edu\/character\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sites.sandiego.edu\/character\/#\/schema\/person\/f38ef4bee8707a8c1a85ae506004b3b3\",\"name\":\"Dr. DeRoche\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/sites.sandiego.edu\/character\/blog\/author\/ed-deroche_deroche\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"The \"Character Mystery\" - Character Education Resource Center","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/sites.sandiego.edu\/character\/blog\/2014\/07\/15\/the-character-mystery\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"The \"Character Mystery\" - Character Education Resource Center","og_description":"The scene: It was at break time on Thursday afternoon at the Character Development Center\u2019s 18th annual Character Matters Conference (USD). Three attendees all of whom, I found out, were...Read More >>","og_url":"https:\/\/sites.sandiego.edu\/character\/blog\/2014\/07\/15\/the-character-mystery\/","og_site_name":"Character Education Resource Center","article_published_time":"2014-07-15T22:13:15+00:00","article_modified_time":"2014-09-16T17:26:27+00:00","author":"Dr. DeRoche","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Dr. DeRoche","Est. reading time":"4 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/sites.sandiego.edu\/character\/blog\/2014\/07\/15\/the-character-mystery\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/sites.sandiego.edu\/character\/blog\/2014\/07\/15\/the-character-mystery\/"},"author":{"name":"Dr. DeRoche","@id":"https:\/\/sites.sandiego.edu\/character\/#\/schema\/person\/f38ef4bee8707a8c1a85ae506004b3b3"},"headline":"The “Character Mystery”","datePublished":"2014-07-15T22:13:15+00:00","dateModified":"2014-09-16T17:26:27+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/sites.sandiego.edu\/character\/blog\/2014\/07\/15\/the-character-mystery\/"},"wordCount":723,"commentCount":0,"articleSection":["Blog Post"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/sites.sandiego.edu\/character\/blog\/2014\/07\/15\/the-character-mystery\/#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/sites.sandiego.edu\/character\/blog\/2014\/07\/15\/the-character-mystery\/","url":"https:\/\/sites.sandiego.edu\/character\/blog\/2014\/07\/15\/the-character-mystery\/","name":"The \"Character Mystery\" - Character Education Resource Center","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/sites.sandiego.edu\/character\/#website"},"datePublished":"2014-07-15T22:13:15+00:00","dateModified":"2014-09-16T17:26:27+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/sites.sandiego.edu\/character\/#\/schema\/person\/f38ef4bee8707a8c1a85ae506004b3b3"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/sites.sandiego.edu\/character\/blog\/2014\/07\/15\/the-character-mystery\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/sites.sandiego.edu\/character\/blog\/2014\/07\/15\/the-character-mystery\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/sites.sandiego.edu\/character\/blog\/2014\/07\/15\/the-character-mystery\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/sites.sandiego.edu\/character\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"The “Character Mystery”"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/sites.sandiego.edu\/character\/#website","url":"https:\/\/sites.sandiego.edu\/character\/","name":"Character Education Resource Center","description":"","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/sites.sandiego.edu\/character\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/sites.sandiego.edu\/character\/#\/schema\/person\/f38ef4bee8707a8c1a85ae506004b3b3","name":"Dr. DeRoche","url":"https:\/\/sites.sandiego.edu\/character\/blog\/author\/ed-deroche_deroche\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.sandiego.edu\/character\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/148","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.sandiego.edu\/character\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.sandiego.edu\/character\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.sandiego.edu\/character\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/306"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.sandiego.edu\/character\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=148"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sites.sandiego.edu\/character\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/148\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.sandiego.edu\/character\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=148"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.sandiego.edu\/character\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=148"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.sandiego.edu\/character\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=148"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}