Issue 13
FALL 2008 NEWS BRIEF CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT CENTER School of Leadership & Education Sciences
What’s Happening at the Center New On-Line Courses For the first time since the Center has offered on-line character education courses, there are two sections of the fall course on instructional strategies. One section includes 12 educators taking the course for graduate or professional development units, and is taught by CJ and Tricia McGinty, a teacher/counselor in the Chula Vista School District. The second section is offered to 19 U.S. Air Force Academy staff members who are taking the course for professional development units leading towards a specialist certificate in character development. This course is team taught by George Reed, Leadership Studies Department, and Ed.
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In October, Ed talked to St. Vincent’s School parent group on the topic “Why Character Matters at Home and at School.” Ed presented a paper at the Annual Conference of the International Society for Military Ethics held on campus, January 29 and 30. The title of his presentation was “Do Character Development Programs Really Work? Moving from Foundations to Findings in a Wider (Non-military) Context.” Ed also made a presentation (“The Lincoln’s: Scenes of a Marriage”) celebrating President Lincoln’s 200th Anniversary at the Division of Continuing Education’s University of the Third Age Program. Innovation Middle School: Ed and CJ visited this new school to discuss character education efforts with principal, Harlan Klein, and observed students and teachers engaged in using technology in the instructional program.
UPCOMING CONFERENCES The Center is offering three 2009 Summer Conferences: TEACHER EDUCATORS CONFERENCE: “Infusing Peace and Character Education in Teacher Education Programs” Monday, June 29 and Tuesday, June 30 (9:00am-3:00pm) at Hill Hall. The two-day conference will feature guest speakers along with 24 proposal presentations (12 each day). A conference proceedings booklet will be published. CHARACTER MATTERS CONFERENCE (For educators/parents/others in P-12 schools): “Teaching for Social-Emotional-Character Development” Tuesday, June 30 and Wednesday July 1 (8:30am to 3:00pm) at Hill Hall. EXPLORING SPIRITUALITY IN SPORTS One-Day Symposium on Monday, July 13 (8:00am to 3:30pm).
Special points of interest: Story from Chris Robinson, mother of one of our essay contest winners:
As a parent at Toler, I expect my children to learn, but I really didn't expect that I would also learn such amazing lessons...I was dropping off my daughter and came a little early so I had a seat on the planter box...three little boys came out of the office holding the U.S. flag to raise onto the flag pole...really cute little boys but I was a little disturbed at first because all of the boys were speaking Spanish in a very animated way. I am a very patriotic person and had never seen anyone handling the flag who was not speaking English so it was strange to me. I watched them begin to attach the flag to the pulley. They were still laughing and joking with each other in Spanish, and I was still feeling really strange about that. The flag was folded into a triangle, each boy had a corner. They were doing a really terrific job, then one boy accidentally dropped his corner of the flag. The tallest one caught it before it touched the ground and said quite loudly in English "Do NOT let OUR flag touch the ground! Have some respect." It was suddenly clear that these boys really did care about the U.S. flag, "their" flag. I felt like crying because I realized that I had been so narrow minded. The boys taught me that patriotism has nothing to do with language....
Templeton Grant: A grant proposal was sent to this Foundation seeking support for the 2009 Character Matters Essay Contest. Peace & Character Handbook: CJ, Ed and two teachers, who earned specialist certificates in character development, are writing the draft of a handbook on peace and character education for teachers in grades 1-5. The draft handbook will be field tested in the spring by ten elementary school teachers. The project is a result of a grant from the Shinnyo-en Foundation.
Information about the Character Development Center is for SOLES faculty, staff and administration, and other USD personnel