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Learning was secondary to virtue and was necessary but not the major role of education (Tatman, Edmonson, & Slate, 2009).
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Educators associated moral education with the ultimate success of the new democracy (Tatman, Edmonson, & Slate, 2009).
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Parents highly valued character. They expected the schools to make the children smart and good persons (Tatman, Edmonson, & Slate, 2009).
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Common schools existed for moral purpose and were to instruct in moral sensibility and good habits for the good of the new democracy (Tatman, Edmonson, & Slate, 2009)
Moral education was based on a reflexive Protestant theology (Nucci, Narvaez, & Krettenauer, 2014). -
Schools were established equally for moral and social reasons as well as academic studies (Tatman, Edmonson, & Slate, 2009).
Schools focused on teaching students to be good citizens and to have good character (Sojourner, 2012). -
Educators relied heavily on discipline while being models of good character and the adopted curriculum to instruct students the various virtues (Sojourner, 2012).
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Character education was mainly taught using the Bible which provided the instruction of moral and religious studies (Tatman, Edmonson, & Slate, 2009).
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Strong believer that character development would solve the problems of society (Huitt, 2004).
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The mission of the school should be grounded in moral education (Huitt, 2004).
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A major philosophical influence that played a large role in the restructuring of character education in the 20th century. It asserted that there is a distinct correlation between facts and values (Tatman, Edmonson, & Slate, 2009).
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Reported on the research called Character Education Inquiry. It focused on character development. Research concluded that there wasn't anything found that could be called character in the study. Everyone acts according to their own moral principle within a given situation (Nucci, Narvaez, & Krettenauer, 2014).
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Wrote Character Education book that defined what character education is and why school should teach it. Also he identified objectives of a program and how it should appear in school curriculum as well as having it as an extra curricular activity. He outlined how it should be taught in the homes and communities and how it should be assessed in the youth (Nucci, Narvaez, & Krettenauer, 2014).
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By the middle of the 20th century, confidence was beginning to erode in character education and faced a decline in schools. Educators began to shift their priorities to academic studies rather than the teachings of moral education (Tatman, Edmonson, & Slate, 2009).
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American psychologists that viewed moral education through a cognitive approach. They believed that it was compatible with liberal traditions of critical thinking instead of virtue based (Nucci, Narvaez, & Krettenauer, 2014).
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Considered the most influential of developmental theorists. He focused a person's character development from a cognitive structural perspective (Nucci, Narvaez, & Krettenauer, 2014). He believed in educating students through value awareness and self esteem lessons and not through stories in textbooks (Tatman, Edmonson, & Slate, 2009).
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Highly criticized for creating classrooms that were free of values. It relied on students developing their own reasoning processes which was based on their moral judgement. This approach moved the educators from the center of authority to the new pluralistic view that society held eliminating a set of common values (Tatman, Edmonson, & Slate, 2009).
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The late 1960's saw a the replacement of traditional character education shifting to the teachers now assisting students in clarifying their own values (Tatman, Edmonson, & Slate, 2009).
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During the 1970's a reemergence of character education occurred. Two dominant forces were the1960's approach of value clarification and moral dilemmas which shaped the education of the 70's (Tatman, Edmonson, & Slate, 2009). Kohlberg continued to argue that "the goal of moral education should be to foster students‘ development through natural stages of moral reasoning" (Sojourner, 2012).
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During the 1980's, character education was returned to the schools and by the end of the decade, the schools returned to the traditional character development models and had educators focusing on the student's everyday behaviors as opposed to their moral reasoning abilities (Tatman, Edmonson, & Slate, 2009).
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Noted that the 1990's were the beginning of a new era of character education that restores one's good character to its rightful place as the central outcome of the school's moral enterprising efforts (Tatman, Edmonson, & Slate, 2009). He also was an advocate for national awareness of the need of a comprehensive school wide character education program (Sojourner, 2012).
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Created by a coalition which was committed to promoting ―six pillars of character- trustworthiness, respect, responsibility, fairness, caring, and citizenship in schools and communities (Sojourner, 2012).
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In 1993, the Character Education Partnership (CEP) was established as a nonprofit, nonpartisan national coalition committed to putting character development at the top of the nation‘s education agenda (Sojourner, 2012).
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In most recent years, there is a variety of character education programs for our youth. Such as:
JROTC-sponsored by the military that helps build character and morals in high school students.
Social and Emotional Learning (SEL)-students learn to recognize and manage their emotions.
Service Learning-helps students develop critical thinking about moral and ethical questions (Tatman, Edmonson, & Slate, 2009).
