ReachOut volunteer Tom Akhgar looks deeper into ReachOut's mission to teach character.
When I first encountered the term ‘Character Education’ and began to discuss it with friends, common preconceptions arose. Conversations centred on whether Character Education was about changing innate traits of who we are, and trying to change ourpersonalities. Common arguments were ‘What’s the point!? How can we change our character!?’ and ‘How can we change our personalities or the general nature of who we are?’
‘What’s the point!? How can we change our character!?’
Character Education, as defined by the Jubilee Centre for Character and Virtues, is about focusing on what is ethically important in situations, acting for the right reason with the aim of developing good sense or practical wisdom: the capacity to choose intelligently between alternatives. Resilience, tenacity and self-regulation are some of the characteristics that are hoped to be harnessed, similar to ReachOut's character values Fairness, Self-Control, Good Judgement and Staying Power.
So is the aim of Character Education to change the core characteristics of a person, and If so how far can it go? Can it mitigate perceived less desirable character traits, such as anxiety or negativity? Traits which are perhaps a product of nature as opposed to nurture, but which play an important role in an individual’s ability to overcome failure and rejection, and weaken their strength of mind and ability to carry on.
Last month in the spectator Toby Young wrote an article on ‘why schools can’t teach character’ arguing that character was predominately a product of genetics. Here he looked to The Marshmallow Test, an experiment by the psychologist Walter Mischel which took place during the 1960’s. In this experiment children were asked to forego eating a marshmallow for a given period of time, and promised two at the end of an allotted time if they managed to resist. Shockingly, there was a strong correlation between the children who went on to become successful and prosperous adults, and their ability to wait for two marshmallows in their youth.
Though the test alone seems quite persuasive, in his book ‘The Marshmallow Test: Mastering Self- control’, Mischel has expanded upon this and has suggested that an individual can learn, through mental mechanisms, to manage self-control and develop will power and resilience. Here he indicates that a distinction can be made between a hot response to stimuli controlled by a part of the brain called the limbic system, and a cool response led by the pre-frontal cortex which is responsible for more ‘resistible’temptations.
The idea is that you can coach yourself to think a certain way depending on which part of the brain you activate. For instance you may have a craving for a chocolate; a way to manage this temptation is to focus on the size and colour, which, in this instance is the cool response, rather than concentrating on the taste and pleasure, which is the hot response. Through this and other processes, which Mischel expands upon in supplementary studies, Mischel suggests that you can strategize and develop a sense of staying power, he argues that this approach can apply to a variety of challenges in everyday life in order to manage stress and pursue a variety of goals more effectively.
The way we think and how we approach life vastly impacts the outward character that we portray, and also the way we approach challenges in life.
This idea of a strategy of thinking, or the perspective we can take when we look at the world and social situations, is something that is embodied in Character Education. The way we think and how we approach life vastly impacts the outward character that we portray, and also the way we approach challenges in life. An anecdotal example of this can be seen from last month’s Character Conference (available on character.org). In one lesson a distinction is made between a fixed mind-set, one that sees intelligence or ability as a fixed trait, and a positive growth mind-set, which looks at intelligence as an ability that can be developed. These mind-sets often operate in for example six areas that can make up an important part of the way in which a person’s character is expressed. These include: goals, view of effort, challenge seeking, response to setbacks, response to criticism and views of others success. Through contrasting the two mind-sets we can see how different a persons outward expression of Character can be.
Positive growth mind-set - a goal is a chance to learn
The positive growth mind-set may, for example, look at a goal as a chance to learn and grow, rather than seeking an opportunity to simply look smart, and face the possibility of being wrong, perceived as stupid when not understanding a principle or concept. The latter would be typical of the fixed mind-set.
The positive mind-set will perceive view of effort as a positive rather than negative, with a lack luster approach to it, perhaps grounded in the belief that if you are not naturally good at something then what is the point at grinding away at it.
Challenge Seeking, would be seen as a positive access to an opportunity rather than negatively, perhaps even avoiding it through fear of failure.
The Response to Setbacks focuses on being Resilient rather than Helpless. To think of the available options and focus on alternatives, weighing up the appropriate action rather than being too quick to write oneself off before all the possible options have been assessed, thought about pragmatically or even revisited after reflection.
Response To Criticism is to be seen as an opportunity to learn and take on constructive feedback rather than being defensive and closed. Perhaps even argumentative in the response to constructive criticism.
Lastly a View of Others Success, be it in the classroom or at work may be a Lesson and Inspiration. Perhaps even an opportunity for networking and improving interpersonal skills. This can be contrasted with a fixed mindset that would look at others success and see it as a threat and something to be envious about. This is a very limiting perspective and will also lead to a lack of opportunity for collaboration and gaining from team work.
We are naturally programmed to think a certain way, and have a knee jerk response to some things. However, thoroughly thinking situations through and engaging with them practically, perhaps for example following the positive growth mindset, may result in an improvement in character. We may not be able to change what we instinctively think, but what matters is how we negate negative characteristics that hamper an individual’s potential, characteristics which manifest themselves in response to life’s experiencesand challenges. The key values of Character Education lie in the potential that the concept has to change a person’s outlook on life which may ultimately lead to a more positive and rewarding existence.
When I first encountered the term ‘Character Education’ and began to discuss it with friends, common preconceptions arose. Conversations centred on whether Character Education was about changing innate traits of who we are, and trying to change ourpersonalities. Common arguments were ‘What’s the point!? How can we change our character!?’ and ‘How can we change our personalities or the general nature of who we are?’
‘What’s the point!? How can we change our character!?’
Character Education, as defined by the Jubilee Centre for Character and Virtues, is about focusing on what is ethically important in situations, acting for the right reason with the aim of developing good sense or practical wisdom: the capacity to choose intelligently between alternatives. Resilience, tenacity and self-regulation are some of the characteristics that are hoped to be harnessed, similar to ReachOut's character values Fairness, Self-Control, Good Judgement and Staying Power.
So is the aim of Character Education to change the core characteristics of a person, and If so how far can it go? Can it mitigate perceived less desirable character traits, such as anxiety or negativity? Traits which are perhaps a product of nature as opposed to nurture, but which play an important role in an individual’s ability to overcome failure and rejection, and weaken their strength of mind and ability to carry on.
Last month in the spectator Toby Young wrote an article on ‘why schools can’t teach character’ arguing that character was predominately a product of genetics. Here he looked to The Marshmallow Test, an experiment by the psychologist Walter Mischel which took place during the 1960’s. In this experiment children were asked to forego eating a marshmallow for a given period of time, and promised two at the end of an allotted time if they managed to resist. Shockingly, there was a strong correlation between the children who went on to become successful and prosperous adults, and their ability to wait for two marshmallows in their youth.
Though the test alone seems quite persuasive, in his book ‘The Marshmallow Test: Mastering Self- control’, Mischel has expanded upon this and has suggested that an individual can learn, through mental mechanisms, to manage self-control and develop will power and resilience. Here he indicates that a distinction can be made between a hot response to stimuli controlled by a part of the brain called the limbic system, and a cool response led by the pre-frontal cortex which is responsible for more ‘resistible’temptations.
The idea is that you can coach yourself to think a certain way depending on which part of the brain you activate. For instance you may have a craving for a chocolate; a way to manage this temptation is to focus on the size and colour, which, in this instance is the cool response, rather than concentrating on the taste and pleasure, which is the hot response. Through this and other processes, which Mischel expands upon in supplementary studies, Mischel suggests that you can strategize and develop a sense of staying power, he argues that this approach can apply to a variety of challenges in everyday life in order to manage stress and pursue a variety of goals more effectively.
The way we think and how we approach life vastly impacts the outward character that we portray, and also the way we approach challenges in life.
This idea of a strategy of thinking, or the perspective we can take when we look at the world and social situations, is something that is embodied in Character Education. The way we think and how we approach life vastly impacts the outward character that we portray, and also the way we approach challenges in life. An anecdotal example of this can be seen from last month’s Character Conference (available on character.org). In one lesson a distinction is made between a fixed mind-set, one that sees intelligence or ability as a fixed trait, and a positive growth mind-set, which looks at intelligence as an ability that can be developed. These mind-sets often operate in for example six areas that can make up an important part of the way in which a person’s character is expressed. These include: goals, view of effort, challenge seeking, response to setbacks, response to criticism and views of others success. Through contrasting the two mind-sets we can see how different a persons outward expression of Character can be.
Positive growth mind-set - a goal is a chance to learn
The positive growth mind-set may, for example, look at a goal as a chance to learn and grow, rather than seeking an opportunity to simply look smart, and face the possibility of being wrong, perceived as stupid when not understanding a principle or concept. The latter would be typical of the fixed mind-set.
The positive mind-set will perceive view of effort as a positive rather than negative, with a lack luster approach to it, perhaps grounded in the belief that if you are not naturally good at something then what is the point at grinding away at it.
Challenge Seeking, would be seen as a positive access to an opportunity rather than negatively, perhaps even avoiding it through fear of failure.
The Response to Setbacks focuses on being Resilient rather than Helpless. To think of the available options and focus on alternatives, weighing up the appropriate action rather than being too quick to write oneself off before all the possible options have been assessed, thought about pragmatically or even revisited after reflection.
Response To Criticism is to be seen as an opportunity to learn and take on constructive feedback rather than being defensive and closed. Perhaps even argumentative in the response to constructive criticism.
Lastly a View of Others Success, be it in the classroom or at work may be a Lesson and Inspiration. Perhaps even an opportunity for networking and improving interpersonal skills. This can be contrasted with a fixed mindset that would look at others success and see it as a threat and something to be envious about. This is a very limiting perspective and will also lead to a lack of opportunity for collaboration and gaining from team work.
We are naturally programmed to think a certain way, and have a knee jerk response to some things. However, thoroughly thinking situations through and engaging with them practically, perhaps for example following the positive growth mindset, may result in an improvement in character. We may not be able to change what we instinctively think, but what matters is how we negate negative characteristics that hamper an individual’s potential, characteristics which manifest themselves in response to life’s experiencesand challenges. The key values of Character Education lie in the potential that the concept has to change a person’s outlook on life which may ultimately lead to a more positive and rewarding existence.
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