Character education

I read with great interest your editorial of April 2, which discussed the character education program that has been implemented in the Strafford schools. I thought it might be of some interest to you and your readers what the Scott County R-6 Schools has done and is planning to do in regards to character education.

As you know, character education is not new. Teachers have been instilling the Golden Rule in students as long as there has been teacher-student interaction. Schools across the country are now developing new approaches to character education that are much more formal, purposeful and systematic. As you suggested in your editorial and is also acknowledged by the Character Education Partnership, a nonprofit nonpartisan coalition of organizations and individuals who promotes the character building effort, "each student's ethical development is as essential to the school mission as academic learning."

In September of this school year, the principals and Board of Education staff attended a character education workshop on the campus of Southeast Missouri State University to assist administrators in enhancing the program in their buildings.

In October, the Comprehensive School Improvement Committee (CSIP) met and revised the CSIP Plan. The plan more formally addresses character education in the following goal: "Encourage students to be civic-minded, self-directed and capable of leading."

As a district, we have planned to incorporate character education into the school setting. Some of the ways in which we plan to do this will be words of the month in district calendar and on signs in all the buildings. Each building is reviewing and strengthening its character education plan for next year.

More than a plan, your newspaper ran a front page article on Aug. 3, 2001, highlighting the character education program being implemented at Morehouse Elementary by Principal Jeff Williams and his staff. Additionally, the other schools in the R-6 District participate in and encourage programs that teach good manners, common courtesy and school rules.

Members of the Middle School staff will be attending the Character Education Conference in St. Louis in July. The staff is discussing implementing the Character Plus or Character Counts program and feels the program will be an asset to the Middle School program.

In a recent article in "Education Week," Eric Schaps, who is president of the Character Education Partnership, and others, suggested that, "... the best forms of character education are those that enlist students as active, influential participants in creating a caring and just environment in the classroom and in the school at large. The challenge is for the school to become a microcosm in which students practice age-appropriate versions of the roles they must face later in life, and deal with the related problems and complications. The goal is a total school culture in which all people in the school, including teachers, administrators and support staff, as well as students, treat one another with kindness and respect." That is where Sikeston Public Schools is intending to go in its character education effort.

Sincerely,

Stephen J. Borgsmiller,

Superintendent,

Scott County R-6 School District