Who defines Character?

The definition of the word character according to dictionary.com is "the mental and moral qualities distinctive to an individual. So having character deals with mental and an individuals morals. 

As I was reading this article, which was very interesting, it made me think of the question who defines character and how is character defined. First of all, it impressed me that the headmaster, Randolph, switched office space with his secretary. Randolph began with a very good argument; "This push on tests, is missing out on some serious parts of what it means to be a successful human." I thought about his quote, and he is right. So many people, especially people like us who are studying to become successful teachers panic about taking our praxis exams, to then give different and all types of exams to our students. 

When the committee was coming up with the 24 character traits, which they got from common strengths seen to all culture and eras, two men, Seligman and Peterson wrote, "These strengths were considered to have moral valence." So these 24 characteristics that defined what character is made of, came from morals that were originally from religious laws, but ultimately represent a path to the"good life, a meaningful and fulfilling one".

Measuring the grit. 

It begins with a three minute self reflection assessment that uncovers subjects beginning in academics and ending in social intelligence. The list of 24 characteristics was narrowed down to 7. They are zest, grit, self-control, social intelligence, gratitude, optimism, and curiosity. The school thought that along with g.p.a's they should also give c.p.a's for character point average. It sounds like an amazing thing to show the parents the students process of the students character, but it seems a bit tough to grade or evaluate every student in the classroom and give them a score, the highest being 5 from the character report. My only doubt again is, if its in a high school setting, the teacher has so many students, who is the teacher who scores them? If its in the middle or elementary level its a bit easier, but in a public setting there are still so many students to keep track of. 

On the bright side, I really like the idea of teaching students the importance of character. The reason why, is because this brings out the term value. The students will get to figure out and critically think about what they value most. Values turn into action that then most possibly can turn into success if they keep valuing it and acting upon it. 

One part of the article that I really enjoyed reading was when one of the teachers was having his very first parent teacher conference on character and he had to tell the parent where the student lacked and where his strengths were. He did a great job, by first starting with an explanation and informative speech on the character project. He basically summed up that character traist=college=success.  Then he went on to the students strength and then his weakness, but instead of saying it in a very negative tone and way, he directed towards a question to the student of why does the student think he got a low score on pays attention and resists distraction. The teacher asked what the student thought was the reason for the low score (making the student aware of his own actions and reflect instead of being told by the teacher in a negative way). 

I think implementing character in the classrooms  curriculum is a great way to teach students value, because they are going to learn about their own cultural values at home; street smart values by experience; but values on what makes you a successful student is done in the classroom. All three components have values that may be similar yet may play different roles at each place.