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As one of the founding fathers of the United States, Benjamin Franklin was very strong in his belief that there was a need to teach morality in public schools. He stated that morality and education were intricately related. Franklin believed that students needed to practice morality in the classroom (Watz, 2011).
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Jefferson wrote about the need for public schools. He believed that schooling in a democracry should include moral character education (Kelly, 2012).
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McGuffey developed a system of reading where students would read various forms of literature, gaining content information and moral growth. He also wrote textbooks that helped students to learn to read while developing character in areas such as patriotism, morality, and good citizenship (Watz, 2011).
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From 1837-1838 Horace Mann visited all the schools in Massachusetts. After seeing the differences between urban and rural schools, he sought to reform education to have better salaries for teachers, financial support for teacher training, an approved literature list, and a common curriculum that supported moral education (Kelly, 2012).
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Dewey believed that all subjects are to be taught with a view of each person contributing to social life. Schools were responsible for creating intellectual content, moral guidance, and social meaning. Kelly (2012) states that Dewey's way of thinking encouraged morality and growth by the immediate community of the child, which made morality more relative than before.
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Clubs such as the Boys and Girls Club, Boy Scouts, and Catholic Youth sprung up as a way to develop citizenship, vocational preparation, health, democracy, and character. The clubs encouraged lessons in social cooperation and teamwork while guided by moral behavior (Kelly, 2012).
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After WWII, racial and religious tensions caused character education to be put on the back burner. Then during the Vietnam War, there was a time of desegregation and moral education was rejected (Kelly, 2012).
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Lawrence Kohlberg's stages of moral development were also called moral reasoning or moral dilemma discussions. Students were encouraged to discuss and reason through dilemmas. Teachers were only facilitators of the discussion, they did not teach moral values (Arifin, 2017).
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A report by the National Research Council found the US to be one of the most violent countries. Thomas Lickona's Character Education hopes to instill values or virtues in students. Lickona's hope is to instill good human virtues such as wisdom, kindness, and patience (Arifin, 2017).
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Through an act of Congress, the US government agreed that there is a need for character education and funded the Partnership for Character Education Program in 1994. In 2001, the No Child Left Behind Act renewed and expanded support for character education. The Obama Administration in 2010 amended the Elementary and Secondary Education Act and rerouted funding towards character education (Kelly, 2012).
