Is Character Education is more important today?

Is Character Education is more important today than ever? We’ve become a society that has not been taught basic moral values. We constantly see in the news that character is set aside for the feeling of the moment. Anger, jealousy, hatred, and selfishness are instead placed center stage and acted upon. The time has come to bring character to the forefront again and raise the moral values we have as a society, and as individuals. Is it to late to start teaching character? No, No matter what the circumstances, or who is involved, everyone can benefit from character education. Both children and adults will see positive changes in their lives when this character education program is followed. With it, we have a working society of self-controlled, respectful individuals, who think before they act and consider the consequences of their actions before deciding what direction those actions will take. Students will then make the right choices.

The idea of introducing citizenship in middle school in my opinion is more important than a core curriculum requirement. The understanding of citizenship for middle school students will help students develop a perceptive of what it means to be a responsible member of a community. Many students do not correlate their own behaviors and how it affects their own community. The lessons within the unit will help students to reflect on their own ideologies of citizenship. Also the lesson plans will force students to think about how they can change their behavior to become better citizen in their own communities.

Citizenship education helps students understand what it means to fit in to communities. Citizenship education engages students because it provides students an opportunity to reflect on their own experiences. Teaching citizenship to our students in the middle schools will ensure that students can contribute to the quality of life in their communities.

Citizenship education is needed to help recreate the equilibrium that citizenship and community mean the same to all within the community. As middle school student move forward in their academic careers many aspects of life will be revealed to them. Racism, sexism, peer acceptance, religion, and crime are a few issues that middle school students will deal with in their communities. Also many communities are filled with poverty, drug abuse, and apathy towards education and these are the very communities that many of our students will come from. Students who understand the meaning of what a good citizen is will learn to become more tolerant, understanding, and sympathetic to other people and their individual needs. Students will realize that they have rights and responsibilities as citizens in their communities, which could lead to better opportunities for the students and their communities.

The personal, cognitive, and social development of students are the focal point of middle school communities; citizenship education must be included for the future of our students. As a teacher I want my students in my social studies class to have the knowledge, skills, and understanding of what a good citizen can accomplish. I want students to want a better future, appreciate different cultures, and develop a social conscious that helps them make better decisions that will result in non violent solutions.

There is no uncertainty that there must be some form of citizenship education. Students are given basic information about citizenship without being given opportunities to apply lesson learned in the real world. As a future social studies teacher it is important to teach the idea of citizenship in a lecture but it’s more important to show students how becoming a good citizen can change their future and their communities’ future as well.

The reason I choose this topic of citizenship education is that it is fun and informative for the students. It is a great way for students to participate in their own education progress. The activities in the unit plan will require the students to become more engage in the activities and truly apply the lessons learned from the activities in their own communities. Most of the activities will be revolved around literacy and discussion groups. This will help students who may not do well in their English class get another opportunity to develop writing skills without the pressure of writing being the focal point of the activity.

The activities in the unit allow the students to learn, and understand the concept of being a good citizen. The final activity offers a service learning piece for the students to enjoy. I do not think students can fully understand a concept without applying the lesson learned in the classroom to real life situation. I want my students to be emotionally vested in the opportunity to help someone, and become a good citizen in their communities. The service learning activity will give many students a chance to be apart of a new environment where everyone is making good choices for themselves and the community. The activity will also require students to synthesis all of the information they have learned in the unit, and put it together to formulate their own idea of what a good citizen can do for a community. This will help them when reflecting on the experiences of the service learning piece, because they will be able to connect the lessons in the classroom to their behavior in their community.