What we have learned from life gurus like Tony Robbins and Brené Brown is that good character, confidence, and success matter in building a happy and productive life.  In fact, research has consistently supported this case that good character leads to feelings of self- worth and productivity.   Qualities like grit, positive attitude, and emotional intelligence often surpass cognitive abilities in predicting achievements in higher education, careers, and personal life. Not surprisingly, employers today value soft skills such as teamwork, communication, and ethical judgment—traits that are rooted in strong character.

We can ignore good character and allow our children’s influencers to preach the mantra that “greed is good”, that the goal of a productive life is to earn and spend the most money possible.  Or we can let our children know that we expect more from them. Teaching Traits for Success is not just about teaching good character.  It is about teaching the kind of character that will lead a student to become confident and successful.

But defining good character alone is not enough to balance out the overwhelming presence of academic grades in school.  Only by grading for good character will students get the message about the critical importance of good character in achieving both school and life success.  More about this to come…..

We welcome you to the conversation.  Please let us know that you care by liking comments, forwarding posts, or joining in our dialogue at johnzurn.com.

Coming Next Wednesday– Lessons from the Classroom: Ava

From our first posting:

“As parents and teachers, we need to reclaim our traditional role as influencers of our children – not by shouting louder than the influencers our children discover online, but by stressing ideas that are more important than fancy shoes and snappy TikTok tunes. We need to emphasize traits that everyone agrees children will honor.  We need to convince our children that the people who are most important to them have a better understanding of what it takes to be successful in life.”

John Zurn began his educational career teaching fourth, fifth, and sixth grade children in K through 8^th grade independent school settings.   He went on to serve as Head of School for three independent schools over a twenty-eight year period.   John has written a book on a comprehensive school-wide character education program which was published in 2022 and updated in 2024.  He is currently working on a book directed towards teaching Traits for Success to students in grades 4 through 8.

#charactereducation #successtraits #parentingtips #homeschooling #teachertips