What is 'character'? A NewYork Times Magazine article suggests that there are two schools of thought on the issue. One emphasizes demonstrable qualities, the way character is acted out in everyday situations. Demonstrable character traits include things like zest, grit, gratitude and curiosity. These qualities are said to be good predictors of success in academia, business, and life. The other school of thought sees character as a moral quality one can possess, but which is not necessarily evident in a person at first glance. Abstract traits like bravery, integrity, and citizenship define this category. The article puts Steve Jobs, Bill Gates and other entrepreneurs into the first category, while figures like Harriet Tubman, Martin Luther King Jr. and Gandhi fall into the second.
I think the two are related. Deep moral fiber of the sort possessed by Gandhi seems like a daunting thing to teach, but perhaps smaller, concrete qualities like honesty, punctuality, following the rules are character skills that can gradually build a student up and prepare her for a life that can be lived in a deeply meaningful way.
And, if character can be broken down into a set of skills, those skills can be practiced. For me, practice has always been about muscle memory, doing a certain movement over and over until the motion becomes familiar, natural, instinctual. I played soccer in college and the way I trained was to carry a soccer ball with me, at my feet, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. I touched the ball thousands of times a day, millions times a week, and eventually, I could control the ball without conscious thought.
The basic elements of character can be built this way as well. To teach self control, we tell kids to take a deep breath and count to ten when they are angry. To teach gratitude, we tell kids to say thank you. To teach grit, we tell them to try try again, over and over. To teach zest, we sing. To teach integrity, we hold them accountable for their actions. Every time they slip up, we remind them what the proper action is.
Little by little, our students begin to do these things themselves. And just as math is learned more fully through personal experience, by handling money or having to convert grams to ounces while following a recipe, just as language is reenforced through interpersonal exchanges, character is best learned outside of the classroom. That's not to say that classroom teachers cannot teach values. On the contrary, it is extremely important for teachers to talk about character, to give character lessons and especially to model excellent character. This is the foundation of what we're trying to teach our students, but the power dynamics are necessarily one sided in a classroom. The teacher holds the knowledge and disperses it to the students. The lessons are there, but they take on more meaning when students encounter them in other areas of their lives.
The playground is a good example of a space in which students can apply the lessons they learn in the classroom. It is a dynamic and less predictable environment. Students are not as heavily supervised. They organize their own activities, set social norms for themselves, and play games according to their own rules. Character lessons inevitably either come home, or go out the window during recess. The playground is a testing ground for how the rules of the classroom apply (or don't) in real life.
This is one reason it's so important to have an engaged adult or two out on the playground reinforcing the social dynamics students have already been taught in the classroom. Playworks employees are often called coaches by the students, and that is what they are, coaches responsible for making sure kids flex their moral muscles as well as their physical ones, making sure the students repeat, over and over again the movements of good character until those motions become second nature.
I'm not saying every student will become a Gandhi, but maybe...
Wouldn't it be cool to know that we're raising a generation primed to be a force for good!
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