(Excerpt from Chapter Two of the book, Traits for Success)

Thomas Jefferson is often quoted as a Founding Father of American Education. [i] At the birth of our nation, Jefferson wrote extensively about the purpose of schools in an American democracy to educate its citizens in both talent and virtue.  As required public school education became more established in the late 1800s, schools created effective routines for developing talent through academics but were never given the formal responsibility of educating students in virtue. [ii]  Instead, instruction in virtue (good character) was often assumed to be managed by a strong backbone of churches and other social institutions. The constitutional separation of Church and State, deemed critical for the fledgling American democracy, ensured that an equally distinct divide occurred between the education of children in schools (focused on talent/academics) and churches (focused on virtue/good character).

Over the past century, churches and other social institutions have gradually been marginalized as the primary conveyor of cultural values, leaving American children today with little formal education in good character. While talent continues to be developed and nurtured in schools through the reward of academic grades, there is no similar national education effort to develop and promote good character. What schools valued and rewarded a century ago is the same as today – intellectual excellence.   The smartest student in the classroom gets the rewards of the school system – letter grades that will help determine their eventual admission to college and future employment.

While success in American schools today is built on intellectual achievement (academic grades) alone, success in American life is necessarily more nuanced, determined by character as well as intellect. Indeed, the international school programs that are most successful in preparing children to solve real-world problems (suggested by PISA scores) share a compelling national moral mission.

So, virtue and good character were never considered prerequisite curricula of American education, but they have always been an underlying assumption. Yet somewhere in recent decades, there is an unmistakable reality that virtue and good character have been compromised. As American society has become more pluralistic, schools have stagnated.  Schools continue to work under a model from the early 1900s when good character was a stronger given in American culture – when children came to school equipped with a common language of character and values.

Students today come from a wide range of backgrounds and a confusing set of values. [iii] When students receive values instruction in religious or social settings, it is often looked down upon by peers – the overwhelming majority of whom have been told (implicitly) by schools that academic grades matter and that character matters less.

The American ideal seems to be shifting from a celebration of commonly shared principles of democracy to an emphasis on personal freedoms determined by each individual American. In a nation of 330 million people, the freedom to do anything each individual wants is unsustainable. It is time to define common goals and expectations in areas in which we can all agree. [iv] The two concepts, democracy and freedom, must be married together through the education of our children in a commonly shared definition of good character.

Any shift towards educating American children for good character will take a great deal of work. We have struggled in a divided education system where intellect has been rewarded in schools and virtue in churches and other social institutions for nearly two centuries. The transition to a school system steeped in the development of talent and virtue will have an immediate impact today but a longer-term impact on the health of our democracy well into the future.

The American ideal is a very inspiring story: after centuries of autocratic models of government, a country takes the step forward to govern itself by its own people. Americans need to tap into this revolutionary spirit to adjust their school system. What may have seemed impossible before (Democracy) can be done again (Education) with will and leadership from its people.

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[i] While Jefferson’s role as a Founding Father of American democracy has come into question in recent years, his consistent articulation of the importance of education in a democracy remains a seminal impact of his life and work.

[ii] When the US Constitution was written, there was desire but no funding available for the democratic ideal of education for all. As a result, school funding was left up to States until 1918 when all state governments had approved legislation that led to federal funding initiatives. In a more advanced economy, public schooling may have been federally funded from the start, developing the idea of a more national, centralized curriculum educating children for both talent and virtue.

[iii] In the past three decades, America has become an increasingly pluralistic society in which common, shared values have been questioned. But does a Hispanic parent want something different for their child than a Caucasian parent? ….or an African American parent?….or a gay parent? In the newness of pluralism, the efforts seem more focused on adults becoming more self-aware than on children being educated with common purpose.

[iv] Introduction of civics courses in the 1960s and 1970s were intended to help define “American character.” Since then, civics courses have receded due to an increasing tendency to define subgroup interests and values rather than seek out mutual points of shared interest (e.g., “civic responsibilities”).