Whether you agree that character education, a deliberate and concerted effort to enable children to grow into adults who embrace character and courage and honor, is or should be part of public education is an important question.
It is far too important a question to remain unasked.
In 1994, the APS Board of Education passed a resolution adopting character education in the APS. The resolution has never been rescinded; it is as binding today as it was the night they passed it unanimously.
Please read the resolution. Read it carefully. Point to anything that is not as true today as it was in 1994.
Should the leadership of the APS be allowed to simply turn their backs on this resolution? Should the senior-most role models in the entire APS be allowed to simply abdicate without saying a word?Resolution
To endorse and Implement Character Counts! Program in the Albuquerque Public Schools
Whereas, Albuquerque Public Schools reaffirms the need to join with other community groups to actively engage in the development and demonstration of ethical behavior among youth, adults, and
Whereas, the mission of Albuquerque Public Schools is to provide learners of all ages the skills and knowledge needed to become successful and productive members of a dynamic society, and
Whereas, the Albuquerque Public Schools recognizes that students in our schools are more likely now than in the past to experience family disintegration, homicide, drug use, teen age pregnancy, dishonesty, suicide, and strong messages from media and society that undermine home teaching of ethical values, and
Whereas, the Albuquerque Public Schools recognizes that no single community institution can instill ethical behavior in youth and adults if it is acting without the support of other institutions and groups, and
Whereas, the Albuquerque Public Schools recognizes the important role played by teachers and other adults in school settings in modeling good character for young people
NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED;
1. That the Albuquerque Public Schools endorses the Aspen Declaration on Character Education, link, as well as the Character Counts! Program as ways to develop character based on six core ethical values; trustworthiness, respect, responsibility , fairness, caring and citizenship;
2. That the Albuquerque Public Schools will enter into community-wide discussions with other institutions and groups to reach agreements about the role of each in promoting ethical behavior among young people, and adults in various aspects of life;
3. That the Albuquerque Public Schools is committed to creating models of ethical behavior among all adults who serve students and schools;
4. That the core curriculum should continue to give explicit attention to character development as an ongoing art of school instruction; (emphasis added)
5. That materials, teaching methods, partnerships, and services to support school programs shall be selected, in part, for their capacity to support the development of character among youth and adults;
6. That all schools examine school curriculum and practices to identify and extend opportunities for developing character, especially through the utilization of violence-prevention programs, mediation training, community service programs. fair rules which are fairy enforced, democratic practices in classrooms and organizations, and extracurricular activities which help students learn and model caring and ethical behavior.
DATED this 2nd day of March, 1994
Before role models can expect students to hold themselves accountable to higher standards of conduct than their own, shouldn't they have to explain to them, in words any child can understand,
why students are expected to model (honest accountability to) and promote the Pillars of Character Counts!, link, and school board members and the superintendent are not.The school board and senior administration employ a publicly funded private police force, a Praetorian Guard if ever there were, to use their uniforms and badges and guns to prevent me from standing at the podium during public forum and insisting that they defend their abandonment of their obligation to model and promote honest accountability to higher standards of conduct than the law.
They wouldn't be able to get away with this without the aid and abet of Kent Walz' Journal in a coverup of an ethics and accountability scandal in the leadership of the APS.
The Journal and Paula Maes' NM Broadcasters Association affiliates; KRQE, KOAT, and KOB are willfully ignoring credible evidence of a standards and accountability crisis of high order.
Perhaps if you and enough others ask them to, the editors and news directors in the establishment media, will investigate and report upon APS administrative and executive standards and accountability; whether the standards and accountability in APS are adequate to protect the public interests in the public schools.
The press has a responsibility to inform the democracy, They have an obligation to provide a candid, forthright and honest accounting of the standards and accountability in government.
Are the standards high enough? Is the accountability swift and certain enough?
Are APS school board members and senior administrators honestly accountable to meaningful standards of conduct and competence?They are not and somebody needs to do something.
When people say "somebody should do something", mostly they mean somebody else needs do something.
And nothing gets done.
You have an opportunity to defend character education in the APS. Insist that the Journal link, KRQE link, KOAT link, and KOB link investigate and report upon the state of character education in the APS. Insist upon being told the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth.
Or you could hope that enough other people do.
I'm not saying these people are evil, but when Edmund Burke wrote;
the only thing necessary for evil to prevail in the worldthis is the evil he was writing about. You are who he was writing to.
is for good men to do nothing
Sacrifice is the currency of commitment. If one is not willing to make a sacrifice in defense of a principle, the must wonder what is their commitment to the principle in the first place. What is our commitment to the ethical development of students in the APS?
What sacrifices are the leadership of the APS willing to make to grow students in to adults who embrace character and courage and honor. Are they willing to show them what it looks like? They are not and it is up to you to hold them accountable.
One of your trusted news outlets will be the first to tell you the truth about the ethics and accountability scandal in the leadership of the APS, all the rest of them will be among the last.
4 comments:
Since 1994, Character Education has been shown to be ineffective. APS is smart to not throw good time and money after bad.
See the Wikipedia article on character education, so you are informed about what it is you're trying to defend.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Character_education
That character education has not worked anywhere to your satisfaction doesn't mean it can't work anywhere ever.
Character is taught by example; it is taught only by example. If you can't find people of character and courage to run character education efforts, to step up as honest to God role models, the effort is doomed from the start.
Character education programs that work are exactly as (un)common as leaders with real character and courage.
APS Character Counts! didn't failure because we ran out of time and money, it is a failure because we ran out of role models. There isn't one single "leader" in the entire "leadership" of the APS, who is willing to be held honestly accountable to meaningful standards of conduct and competence even for the few hours a day they expect students to model and promote honest accountability to higher standards of conduct.
If you want character educations to work, you have to start with the senior-most role models. If they abdicate, you might as well pack up the tent.
It doesn't take people long to see through hypocrisy. Do as I say, not as I do has never moved anyone, not even a child to greater moral courage. It never has; it never will.
Just because the current leadership lacks the character and courage to hold themselves honestly as role models of student standards of conduct, doesn't mean there never will be board members elected who are willing to be held accountable as role models of the standards of conduct they establish and enforce upon students. I think you are going to be surprised by the next school board election.
And finally, I wonder if have you have fully considered the consequences of just giving up on developing character in an entire generation of children.
How can that possibly be the best solution? How is that any solution.
I must add; character education will never work where there are no consequences for the lack of character.
How you "punish" misconduct says something about how seriously you take it. If you don't punish it at all, it's fair to assume you really don't care.
APS Supt Winston Brooks, when he created a student discipline rubric on middle schools, listed blatant disobedience of an adult, among the least consequential of student misconduct.
And there you have it in a nutshell.
APS Supt Winston Brooks, when he created a student discipline rubric on middle schools, listed blatant disobedience of an adult, among the least consequential of student misconduct.
OMG No wonder there is no discipline in APS classrooms. If you don't have simple obedience, you don't have anything. Hanna/Suzanna should reform this travesty. How can one teach, or learn, for that matter, if one has no control of mid school classroom?
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