A resolution to depend on

By QAROL PRICE

Like no other month, January is about keeping promises. Yes, naturally, what comes to mind is the question of how well we keep (or do not keep) our newly minted New Year’s resolutions.

It is the time when we resolve to adopt nobler habits, like, say, bettering our mind by reading more or vowing to volunteer more time or money to worthy causes. (My husband, Bob, is still working on the one about eating pizza only once a month.)

But wait, January is about keeping promises for another reason, particularly for those who are residents of Johnston County! Keeping promises is a way of being dependable, and it just so happens that Johnston County Public Schools has been featuring “dependability” as January’s character trait of the month for more than 20 years.

Many, if not most, residents of Johnston County have children or grandchildren in the public school system; yet I’d be willing to bet that most have gone years without being prompted to pay much mind to these lofty concepts of character and virtue.

Don’t be ashamed, you are in good company. During my 14 years as an instructional assistant with JCPS, whenever I asked teachers, administrators, and board members if they knew which character trait was being featured in any given month, they were stumped every time!

Even though JCPS signals the importance of character building by devoting a whole month to a character trait, character is not actually an official part of the curriculum. There is not a person or department in charge of character education. Heck, a list of the character traits could not even be found on the school system’s website until I mentioned it to a board member who quickly arranged to have the list posted.

If you look it up, you will find it residing awkwardly on the Public Information page without reference to which trait is assigned to which month. I do not want to disparage the school system when, as I have seen from the inside, they get a lot of things right.

I am merely making a point that I believe is very critical to the well-being of our children and our society. The subject of character has been fading to a very weak signal in our children’s schooling during a time when ethics and integrity are rapidly disintegrating from the culture.

We need to be innovative and intentional about how we impart values and character to our children. To that end, I am hoping that this column, as it will cover the JCPS character traits by the month, will be instrumental in promoting a community dialogue based on something that we can all get behind – the thing that can unite us, no matter our differences of race, politics, religion, gender, sexual orientation or what have you.

The more we pay attention to and demonstrate virtuous character, the better it will flourish. Can we depend on you?

Qarol Price is a writer and educator. She has taught philosophy to children in Johnston County Public Schools and in Harlem in New York City. She is a resident of Selma.