Character attributes

Dear families,

Martin Luther King Jr. so eloquently stated that "intelligence plus character - that is the goal of true education." While the focus of our education system is to help children develop the critical academic and thinking skills they will need to strive in our increasingly competitive economy, an added goal should also be to help children develop the character attributes they will need to succeed. The Toronto District School Board is now focusing on ensuring that children are taught character attributes as part of their learning programs in schools. These include kindness, cooperation, empathy, perseverance, and fairness, to name a few.

As with all academic skills, teaching children these character attributes needs to be a joint effort between the home and school. As a parent/caregiver, it may be daunting to think of how to instill these attributes in children. Researchers agree that the best way to help children learn these attributes is to model these attributes for them. Talk to them about what it means to have empathy, spend a day at food bank to teach them about kindness, and talk to them about behaviors that display these attributes. Teach by example to show children what these attributes look like in day-to-day life.

Finally, researchers agree that it is important to begin teaching children these character attributes early on in their lives. Unarguably, children need to be empowered with the academic and critical thinking skills in order to succeed. However, they also need to develop the character traits to work with people successfully and to understand how to live a happy, honorable life.

As always, if you have any questions or comments, please don't hesitate to let me know.

Keenjal

Comments

[Syerah]

Welcome back Keenjal!! We missed you. It's great to see you back with your wisdom and insightful posts.

Syerah

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