More Character Education from BU CAEC

Teaching Virtue

Character education is about developing virtues – universally recognized good habits and dispositions that lead students to responsible and mature adulthood. Virtue ought to be our foremost concern in educating for character. Character education is not about acquiring the right views – currently accepted attitudes about ecology, prayer in school, gender, school uniforms, politics, or ideologically charged issues.

Character education is respectful of our multi-ethnic, multireligious, and multicultural society.

Character education seeks to cultivate wisdom - the practical intelligence and moral insight we need to make good choices and lead our lives well. The curriculum can be a primary source of our shared moral wisdom. Stories, biographies, historical events, and reflections provide us with a guide to what it means to lead a good life and possess strong moral character. Schools can allow the moral themes that can be found in all subjects to surface, and we can treat these themes with as much seriousness as we treat learning how to write a paragraph or multiply fractions.

Excerpted from Building Character in Schools – Resource Guide

More Character Education from BU CAEC

Boston University's Center for the Advancement of Ethics and Character offers lessons and methodologies to help teach virtue to students.