Coaching Character at Home; Strategies for Raising Responsible Teens [Paperback]

Michael D. Koehler (Author), Mike Koehler (Author), Tom Osborne (Foreword)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 2003

Character education is a hot topic. Insensitivity, self-indulgence, self-focus, materialism, sexual license, and violence corrupt our society. Role models who influence and shape our children possess a 'me first' mentality, a sense that the individual is entitled to satisfy every desire, without regard for others. Negative influences threaten to overwhelm, and parents are struggling to counter them. Today's parenting is all about character building--knowing and wanting to do the right thing, and then actually doing it.

In Coaching Character: Strategies for Raising Responsible Teens, Michael Koehler shares his program of character education based upon the Seven C's of Character. Koehler became familiar with these strategies as a young athlete and continued to use and develop them throughout his career as an educator, school administrator, and high school football coach. Koehler defines the Seven Cs as:

* Connectedness: shared enthusiasm for a common interest * Control: self-control, self-reflection, self-evaluation, and self-correction * Commitment: personal investment, complete and focused involvement * Consistency: firmness of purpose, the refusal to quit * Cooperation: the willingness to work with others, to share success and failure * Conscience: empathy for others, understanding the difference between right and wrong * Competition: the willingness to make the effort to win and to realize that this effort is more important than the outcome

Parents can use these same principles to instill character in their children, and Koehler shows parents how to do it. Coaching Character is a comprehensive guide that includes lively discussion, helpful and entertaining pointers, and sample dialogues, plus personal stories and anecdotes from Koehler's personal experience. Koehler's advice is knowledgeable, sympathetic, clear confident, practical, and time-tested.

Editorial Reviews

From Booklist

Koehler draws on his experiences as an educator, counselor, and coach to provide advice to parents on instilling good character traits in their children. Each chapter focuses on one of the seven principles Koehler advocates for building character: connectedness, control, commitment, consistency, cooperation, conscience, and competition. Koehler elaborates on each principle, using anecdotes and coaching techniques as illustration. He emphasizes the ties between developing character and discipline in sports and in life. For example, he notes how coaches use a common love of the game to build mutual respect and a sense of connectedness with players, urging parents to re-create this team approach within their families. Koehler concludes with an evaluation of 10 common myths about parenting, encouraging mothers and fathers to be active in instilling good character traits in their children. This is a particularly timely book, given the growing interest in incorporating character education as part of school curricula. Parents and teachers will appreciate this thoughtful approach to raising responsible children. Vanessa Bush
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

From the Back Cover

Build character in your teen-using techniques that work for coaches

Parents everywhere struggle to instill character in their kids - seeking ways to counteract the negative influences of our insensitive, self-indulgent, materialistic society.

Here's help from Michael Koehler, who has spent a lifetime raising, educating, and coaching kids.

Koehler knows that parents are the most important coaches kids will ever have.

And he knows what successful coaches know - that character is at the core of every winner and consistency is the key to character.

Koehler reinforces and affirms the role of parents as character builders, and shares the Seven C's of Character - strategies for success that Koehler learned as a young athlete and has used for thirty years as a parent, educator, and coach.

The Seven C's of Character can work for you, too!

* Connectedness * Control * Commitment * Consistency * Cooperation * Conscience * Competition

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 222 pages
• Publisher: Sorin Books (March 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1893732487
• ISBN-13: 978-1893732483
• Product Dimensions: 8.6 x 6.6 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 11 ounces
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,884,074 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

The grandson of famed athlete, Jim Thorpe, Mike played football for Marquette University and the University of Nebraska. He was a high school All America and eventually went on to coach at Deerfield High School, where his teams played in five state championship games. He has written scores of articles and seventeen books, most on football, coaching, and education. Mike is a Ph.D., a former university professor, and a speaker at many different venues, including the Olympic Hall of Fame, several universities, scores of high schools across the country, and different venues for the College Board. He brings a unique perspective to his work, a lifetime of first-hand experiences in education and coaching, and a set of values and beliefs that are well worth reading.