Teachers and parents spend an amazing amount of time blaming each other for the state of modern childhood, which is a little like the quarterback and the coach arguing while the other team is scoring touchdowns. The truth is that both groups want exactly the same thing. Parents want children who are responsible, resilient, kind, and capable of making good decisions. Teachers want students who show up prepared, work hard, treat others with respect, and don’t believe that “my dog ate my Chromebook” is a convincing excuse. Strip away the debates over homework, grades, and screen time, and everyone is pulling for the same outcome: raising young people with strong character.
The problem is that wishing for good character is not the same as teaching it. Schools are uniquely positioned to lead a character revolution because they are the one institution that has the sustained attention of nearly every family. Parents may disagree about politics, sports, or whether pineapple belongs on pizza, but they all send their children to school expecting them to become better human beings as well as better students. Schools already teach reading, writing, science, and mathematics with carefully designed lessons, practice, feedback, and assessment. Character deserves the same level of intentionality instead of being squeezed into an occasional assembly or a motivational poster hanging beside the drinking fountain.
It’s time to stop treating character as the “extra” subject that gets attention only after the important work is finished. Character is the important work. We would never tell students that calculus is too valuable to teach systematically, yet somehow we expect honesty, courage, perseverance, responsibility, and generosity to develop by magic. They won’t. If schools give character the same respect they give academics—and if parents enthusiastically support that effort—we can graduate young adults who not only know how to solve complex equations but also know how to solve the far more difficult problems that life inevitably throws their way.
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. We would love to hear your own “Stories From the Classroom….”.
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.”
#charactereducation #successtraits #parentingtips #homeschooling #teachertips