Customer Reviews

Educating for Character: How Our Schools Can Teach Respect and Responsibility

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This book is very utilitarian, but it DOES need a little booster shot. To really understand what the author is telling you, read Norman Thomas Remick's "WEST POINT" as a companion book that gives "EDUCATING FOR CHARACTER" a solid philosophical foundation based on the sound principles practiced at the world's premier school for teaching character and leadership, West Point. This fine piece of work by the author becomes 5 star reading, learning, and enjoyment.

This 1992 book is the "grandfather" of all the books in character education. Lickona compiles his experience in moral and ethical education, along with many, many examples from classrooms and schools. Thus, this is an especially teacher-friendly book.

The theory is not expressed as clearly as it is in Ryan and Bohlin's Building Character in Schools, but Lickona's work is far more practical. A teacher or parent will get more from this book. I really loved his section on nine kinds of cooperative learning. In a way, his book is a combination of useful techniques in classroom-based moral philosophy and core moral knowledge applied to real-life youngsters who need the teacher's (and parents') perspectives to arrive at moral soundness.

Lickona thinks it is necessary to infuse moral training into all that the school does. He is flexible enough, however, to note that not all schools and not all faculty can support an infusion model. As a result, he is very practical about what individual teachers in their classrooms can do. This is a primary strength of the book.

I hope you enjoy this book.

Indispensable! Superb analysis of the issues involved in schools helping to raise moral young people. Lickona's lists of classroom and schoolwide strategies are without peer. Chock full (and I do mean chock full) of heartening, motivating examples of schools doing everything from simple service to elaborate projects involving the whole community. Written with a warm, sensible quality. This book is a classic of immense influence, read by educators and parents worldwide. It deserves to be.

As a teacher Likona's Educating for Character gives down to earth, applicable strategies to use in any classroom. He soundly supports a case for all of us to use character education in our classrooms, and also parents and the community to be involved. Likona uses background information and statistics, as well as evidence of teachers and others who have successfully implemented character education in their classrooms. In this day and age of increased violence in our youth this is a must have book for all educators.

I really enjoyed this book. It gives you insight on different Character learning strategies that you can use as a teacher or even for your school. It can also be used for in any fields that deals with people. The book is an easy read.

I hope this helped.

CStrong

I hold this book up as a must read at every one of my workshops. It is filled with dozens of useful, practical, and doable ideas. It shows teachers how to promote and teach the values necessary for our children's moral development. His twelve point program offers practical strategies designed to help parents, teachers and communities work together to form a decent and humane society. Educating for Character received a 1992 Christopher Award "for affirming the highest values of the human spirit."

Pulling together random and unrelated quotes does not a moral philosophy make! Lickona makes ridiculous statements such as "Schools should teach values." Any educator worth his/her salt is aware that education is a value-laden enterprise. Schools do teach values - they are implicit in the curriculum. The issue for Lickona is that educators are not employing the methods of pedagogy that he believes are most appropriate to communicate the conservative, religious values that he believes need to be incorporated in the classroom. Indeed, moral education requires attention -- but the cultivation of character is certainly much more complex that Lickona conveys.

Pulling together random and unrelated quotes does not a moral philosophy make! Lickona makes ridiculous statements such as "Schools should teach values." Any educator worth his/her salt is aware that education is a value-laden enterprise. Schools do teach values - they are implicit in the curriculum. The issue for Lickona is that educators are not employing the methods of pedagogy that he believes are most appropriate to communicate the conservative, religious values that he believes need to be incorporated in the classroom. Indeed, moral education requires attention -- but the cultivation of character is certainly much more complex that Lickona conveys.

Mr. Lickona has done an outstanding job at expressing himself and his beliefs at a time when the this country is morally corrupt. Thanks for a job well done.