Character Education

Capital City Community Centers’ Before and After School Program features a Character Education curriculum that is changing children’s lives and prospects for future success.  Character Education is the deliberate effort to help people understand, care about, and act upon core values.  A Character Education program teaches children to judge what is right, care deeply about what is right, and then do what they believe to be right, even in the face of pressure from peers and themselves.  It engages youth in activities that make them think critically about moral and ethical questions, inspire them to become committed to moral and ethical actions, and give them ample opportunities to practice moral and ethical behavior.

• A well-developed Character Education program possesses the following qualities:
• Everything in the program is organized around the development of relationships between and among students, staff, and community.
• The program is a caring community of learners in which there is a palpable bond connecting the students, the staff, and the school.
• Social and emotional learning is emphasized as much as academic learning.
• Cooperation and collaboration among students are emphasized over co
  mpetition.
• Values such as fairness, respect, and honesty are part of everyday lessons in and out of the classroom.
• Students are given ample opportunities to practice moral behavior through activities such as service learning.
• Discipline and classroom management concentrate on problem-solving rather than rewards and punishments.
• The old model of the teacher-centered classroom is abandoned in favor of democratic classrooms where teachers and students hold class meetings to build unity, establish norms, and solve problems.

Learn more about Character Education and the Character Education Partnership

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