“We can no longer define good character as student conformity to established rules and standards.”
Welcome to Vanguard Gifted Academy’s educational blog. This is installment five in our series Educating Children for the Future. I’m Elizabeth Blaetz, Head of School and Founder of Vanguard Gifted Academy, and I’ll be discussing character and citizenship.
In prior blogs, we shared the value of creativity, the need for critical thinking skills, the importance of communication and collaboration for our students (and our future), and the need to personalize student learning based on their strengths. When you consider these factors, we can no longer define good character as student conformity to established rules and standards.
Character and citizenship are a big part of educating a child for the future and require more than the weekly or monthly character education programs most schools implement. To develop character, children need to learn who they are as individuals, what their personal strengths and challenges are, how to advocate for themselves, and strategies to accommodate their needs.
Authentic Learning Communities
As they develop their character, children must realize how their actions and desires impact the people around them, both negatively and positively. To teach these things in schools, we need to offer authentic learning communities — places where character and citizenship are part of every minute of every day. In these settings, students and teachers discuss differences rather than painting over them. Children learn that fairness doesn’t mean doing the same thing for everyone; it involves making sure everyone has the right tools to achieve and realizing the balance between individual needs and a community’s needs.
Community-Oriented Character
Most importantly, students need to understand that they have the power to make positive changes in both their character and their community. In an authentic learning community, children participate in meaningful decision-making, which allows them to experience the results of both good and poor decisions. They talk to each other about their differences so those differences do not become issues. They understand that everyone has strengths and challenges and know how to direct each other’s strengths and challenges in the group’s best interest. Everyone learns from one another's trials and successes. Children learn good leadership qualities by observing positive models and practicing both leadership skills and how to be a supportive follower. In this authentic learning community, good character offers children internal feelings of pride and motivation that reach far beyond any award or trophy.
Good Character in Action
I want to share how character and citizenship evolve in a learning environment. Chad, a boy in my class, had given an answer that another student, Dan, had wanted to share. This aggravated Dan, and as we transitioned to an outdoor activity, Dan, thinking I was out of earshot, said to Chad that he wanted to fight. Chad said no, and added that Dan didn’t know how to be a friend. Dan insisted he was a good friend and asked his best friend to agree with him. His best friend said Dan did know how to be a good friend, but he wasn’t being one now. Others who had gathered around agreed, sharing that wanting to fight was not how friends solved a problem.
I was quite proud of the way these seven-year-old children were thinking for themselves, making good decisions and molding a community member’s character. These peers made it clear that friendship was the desired trait in their community. Best of all, I didn’t ever have to say a word.
No one knows what will be happening in the world when our children grow up. But if students have learned who they are, how they fit in in their communities, and that they have the power to make a change for the better, they will all do well.
Thank you for reading. We hope that Vanguard Gifted Academy’s educational blog will continue to be a resource for you. If you have any comments or questions about what we have discussed today, please visit our website, or call us at (224)-213-0087. Join us soon for the last entry in this series as we learn how schools can better accommodate our children as they learn for the future.
If you’re interested in more education-focused content, we encourage you to check out our previous blog on communication and collaboration skills.