Do you recall doing something you didn’t really want to while growing up, but had to because your parents told you it would “build character”? This could be anything from joining the boy/girl scouts, volunteering to help the elderly or donating your old toys. If your answer is yes, you have been through a “character building” experience, even if you didn’t realize it at the time.

According to the Headmasters’ and Headmistresses’ Conference (HMC), “a professional association of heads of the world’s leading independent schools” in the United Kingdom, the term “character” comes from the Greek word kharasso, which means “I engrave”. In other words, character is a distinguishing quality that is imprinted on us as we go through life — and this usually happens when we leave our comfort zones.

Because school is the first social structure children encounter, it is a great place for them to learn the foundations for growing into respectful, honest and genuine adults from their teachers, who serve as role models and beacons of good character.

However, on the other side is a school of thought that believes character education should not be expected to be a quick fix for deviant student behavior.

Writing in the European Journal of Educational Research (2012), researchers Alex Agboola and Kaun Chen Tsai found that “the character of a student is shaped by an environment beyond the scope of educational settings”, such as familial, social and cultural environments.

Developing character was the result of a “dynamic interplay between internal determinants and external influences in order for positive growth to occur”, they wrote, citing a separate 2006 study by L.B. Gallien and L. Jackson. They also wrote that “character education was more effective under the condition of encouraging students with good character traits which also are ‘legitimized, modeled and reinforced by school and teachers’ [Romanowski, 2005, p. 17].”

At any rate, there is no doubt that schools — good schools, to be exact — play a significant role in building their students’ character. Character development experts believe that with ongoing guidance, good character can be cultivated in people and, in the end, benefit the communities in which they live. The power of character can address problems related to the “decline of civility”.

“Character development depends on three types of environment, namely the home, school and peer group. But school plays a more important part in overcoming shortfalls in character development than the other two environments, for it aims to instill discipline and right values,” Mohamed Ghouse Nasuruddin, a professor at Universiti Sains Malaysia’s School of the Arts, wrote in a New Straits Times opinion article.

Pillars of character

The Josephson Institute of Ethics, a nonprofit organization in California working “to improve the ethical quality of society”, has defined its Six Pillars of Character®: trustworthiness, respect, responsibility, fairness, caring and citizenship. These pillars are the main ethical values that guide the choices we make and they all complement each other. This means that being trustworthy isn’t enough on its own — we also need the five other pillars.

A University of Portland blog provides ways for teachers to integrate character development into action plans and activities in the classroom, based on the above six pillars. One way is to encourage students to come up with their own personal slogans on each pillar, focusing on a single pillar per month. Self-respect and respect for others will follow from the strong foundation of respect that is developed in the classroom, and likewise, children will learn the concept of a caring community from a firm classroom foundation of inclusivity.

Since ethical values are more effective when instilled at a young age, many schools have turned to providing personal character-building experiences for children as young as 4. At this developmental stage, children are beginning to cooperate with other children and negotiate solutions to conflicts as they explore new experiences.

“It is important to understand a child’s abilities to know, feel and convey these moral values into action when they are at a younger age as a way of enhancing a child’s life and learning,” Dr. Connie Lum, the head of the Chinese Language Curriculum at Singapore’s NTUC First Campus, said as quoted on Asianparent.

As the founder of the Chinese Character Building Program for students between 4 and 6 years at the early childhood education service cooperative, Dr. Lum believes that values are very important and are the key to a person and his/her future, academic skills aside. The curriculum she recommends emphasizes core values such as respect, responsibility, honesty and care, and aims to instill these values in children.

Cost of character

According to Character.org, an American NGO devoted to fostering character development in communities, 95 percent of Americans believe that the decline of civility is linked to an increase in violence, bullying and discrimination. It also reports that United States companies lose US$400 billion annually to internal fraud. These are all losses that comprise the “cost of character”, and why the organization — consisting of educators, business leaders and researchers — works to validate and certify character initiatives in schools across the US and internationally.

Countries around the world are realizing the importance of having the right vision in building character and resilience.

UK Education Secretary Damian Hinds announced in early February the formation of an advisory group to draw up recommendations for developing “character and resilience” in students and new character “benchmarks” to measure school performance, reported Schools Week.

Singapore has had a syllabus in place since 2014 on character and citizenship education, which builds respect, responsibility, resilience, integrity, care and harmony — six core values that have been identified as fundamental for a person to posses good character and be a useful citizen.

“Our education system must [...] nurture Singapore citizens of good character, so that everyone has the moral resolve to withstand an uncertain future, and a strong sense of responsibility to contribute of Singapore and the well-being of fellow Singaporeans,” wrote then-education minister Heng Swee Keat in a document made public by Singapore’s Ministry of Education.

Experts agree that character building is part of a meaningful educational process in which students continuously discover and rediscover their relationships with others and within the community.

As Nasaruddin aptly put it in his New Straits Times piece, “[Character development] also gives us the opportunity to see the world in a grain of sand, and heaven in a wild flower, as well as equipping ourselves with the resolve to take the road less travelled.”

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Good schools play a crucial role in character building

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