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KIDS OF CHARACTER 11/9/2009
The Desire To Do The Right Thing It's an interesting word, desire. Abraham Lincoln once commented about this word, saying, "Always bear in mind that our own resolution to succeed is more important than any other one thing." The spectrum of personal desire is diverse, from shallow narcissism to expansive altruism. Every personal desire brings either destructive or constructive consequences. Kids of Character can focus on character-building desires as they are led to discover the intrinsic motivation to do the right thing. One cornerstone desire for all Kids of Character is to do the right thing by caring for others. This character desire is painfully missing from the actions of many school-age children and youth in America. In a 2001 survey entitled, Ask The Children Study Youth and Violence, 1012 5th-12th graders in Colorado were asked a series of questions, including these two: "In the past month, how many times has anyone done any the following to you on purpose?"
40 % of children surveyed responded saying they had been teased, gossiped about, rejected or ignored 1-4 times; 15-20% survey indicated this had happened 5-9 times; 10-15% said they had been subjected to such experiences more than 10 times during a month. Additionally, the study included interviews with kids asking if harmful words created unsafe schools. Overwhelmingly, kids responded with an emphatic, "Yes." What does this study suggest to educators about the character value of caring? Clearly, kids must be taught to practice caring. We can't assume that kids desire to do the right thing by caring for others. The school setting needs to become a working laboratory as a caring community. Schools and their stakeholders must infuse the desire to care into the classroom curricula and school culture. Kids of Character can resolve to succeed with the desire to do the right thing. They need the experience, wisdom and guidance of parents, grandparents and classroom character educators who know that it matters to help every kid focus their character eye on caring behaviors that bring security to the lives of every child.
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