Featured Story

Character Talk Offers Valuable Reminders

Parent Educator Michael Josephson talks with SMES parents and faculty

Parent Educator Michael Josephson says, with the challenges of today's hectic and demanding lives, an important reminder for parents in teaching character to children starts with putting their children at the top of their priorities every day. Josephson, founder of CHARACTER COUNTS! and The Josephson Institute, visited St. Margaret's Episcopal School to speak with parents and faculty about his groundbreaking student research and character program.

Josephson says that character education begins at home with a child's family and is enhanced at school through character educational programs. "Character is not inherited it is something we must teach. We need to teach, enforce, advocate and model character. Every person that interacts with a child has the opportunity to teach character," he says.

Josephson presented his research, the 2008 Report Card on the Ethics of American Youth, conducted with high school students across the country. Positive findings included that nearly all students believe it?s important to be a person of good character and in personal relationships, trust and honesty are essential.

There were also, however, some alarming findings that the research uncovered, for example that 60 percent of students admitted to cheating on exams and that most students said they had lied about something significant to their teachers or parents in the past year.

Josephson said that it's important to teach the six pillars of character, from his Character Counts! program, and that when these are reinforced to children all else falls into place. Teaching how to model the correct ethical decisions plays an important role in turning these statistics around. He offered talking about scenarios with your children. Ask them what they would do in a situation. He said that discussions like these can be very powerful learning tools for both the children and the parents.

Parents should also know their children's friends, and friends' families. Knowing where your child is at all times and know the character of the adults that interact with their children, advises Josephson.

He asked parents to consider the model that they are setting, offering this example: "has someone ever called your home and you've told your kids to tell the caller that you are not there?" Many people engage in what they perceive as harmless, "white" lies. Josephson says, however, that we're sending a message to our children that it's okay to lie.

Bahara Stapleberg, PTF Parent Education chair said, "This was a very powerful example for me. I have become more aware of the message I'm sending to my kids, no matter what my intentions might be."

Mrs. Stapleberg, who arranged for Josephson to visit St. Margaret's as a part of the PTF Parent Education program, said that attracting speakers like this to St. Margaret's offers important reminders of what parents and teachers already know.

"This presentation and the Character Counts program help remind us what is good character. Many speakers we bring have similar messages, but each offers a different perspective that will resonate and inspire people in different ways. We can't underestimate the power and importance of being reminded what it means to instill good character in our children. It's never too much information," she said.

"The statistics were the "aha" moment for me, I don't think because our children are in private school, that we are immune to these social issues. It's critical as parents and teachers that we are very aware of the temptations our kids are going to face today and as they get older," said Stapleberg.

Parent and PTF Board Member Maggie Chang agreed, "The presentation was a reminder of two things: while character development is primarily the responsibility of the parent, it takes educators, teachers, etc. to raise a child successfully. The second: the importance of good character must be taught and constantly reinforced through positive role modeling by adults."

Janice Avalone, Lower School religious education teacher and Character Counts! coordinator says, "In our world today our children are exposed to a culture that goes against many of our moral truths. We are swimming upstream as we fight the challenging influences of media and technology. Teachers and parents have an invested part in the child and we can send a consistent message. We all need to take time to teach character to the child."

To view Michael Josephson's PowerPoint presentation from the talk, click here.

To view recent modules of the Character Counts! program underway in the Lower School, click here.

A DVD of Michael Josephson's presentation at SMES will be available to parents in the SMES Library next week.

The PTF is selling books written by Michael Josephson to help offset the cost of our speaker as well as support character education in our St. Margaret's community. Forty percent of book sales go back to the PTF to fund the speaker's program. Please contact Bahara Stapleberg, 949.697.7724 or Bahara@cox.net to purchase books.

Contact:
Anne Mack
949.661.0108 x252
949.400.2055 (mobile)
anne.mack@smes.org