I’ve seen a few articles about character recently, and a common theme is the discussion, and confusion, about what character actually is and which virtues we should encourage young people to develop. We hear about resilience and grit, hard and soft skills, sometimes British values, talk of moral and performance virtues or even friendship and excitement for learning all referred to as a part of character.
At ReachOut we believe there are four character virtues that are the key elements required for someone to be a person of good character.
At ReachOut we believe there are four character virtues that are the key elements required for someone to be a person of good character - a person who leads a good life and makes a positive contribution to society. They are the same four virtues that Plato, Aristotle, Cicero and St Thomas Aquinas wrote about as far back as 380BC and it is these four key character virtues that we need to focus on developing in our young people.
Staying Power – resilience, grit, the ability to stick at something, to honour commitments, to see tasks through to the end.
Self-Control – the ability to keep emotions in check and to choose to act (or not to act) in a certain way despite how we may feel.
Fairness – to treat others with respect and empathy, honouring rights and responsibilities, and being honest.
Good Judgement – the ability to consider consequences and make decisions that benefit both ourselves AND those affected by our choice.
Good Judgement (sometimes called Wisdom, or Phronesis by the Greeks) is almost like a ‘master’ character virtue, exercised constantly in practice of Staying Power, Self-Control and Fairness.
It’s not enough to focus on just one of these character virtues. We need to develop all four.
It’s not enough to focus on just one of these character virtues. We need to develop all four. I have no doubt that many of those involved in the recent Libor scandal would have been widely perceived as people of good character prior to their arrests, particularly with regards to Staying Power and Self-Control, but their failings in Fairness and Good Judgement led to grave consequences for many people, including themselves. We need to make sure we are helping all aspects of young people’s personal development, not just one particular facet, and I’m confident that if we can build these for key character virtues in everyone, our world will be a better place.
Hopefully we’re all agreed that this is a worthwhile pursuit. So how do we go about achieving it? Whilst character is as old as humanity, it’s recently come back to the fore in education policy, with the inevitable consequence that organisations everywhere are now talking about character as part of their work in order to secure funding. This raises concerns that some of the money invested in character education may be wasted because the recipient organisations don’t have the understanding and/or experience in this specific field required to deliver real impact.
At ReachOut we deliver one-to-one mentoring to disadvantaged young people to build character, as well as improve academic skills. We’ve been doing this for 21 years, continuously refining our methodology and service, whilst always being open to improvement and looking at what’s working elsewhere.
Character is more easily developed in younger children, but we can still improve it in older teenagers, and of course it remains a lifelong pursuit for everyone.
In my discussions with Professor James Arthur, Director of the Jubilee Centre for Character and Virtues, I’ve learnt that research shows character is both caught and taught. Professor Arthur believes character is more easily developed in younger children, but we can still improve it in older teenagers, and of course it remains a lifelong pursuit for everyone. Interestingly, recent research tells us that character is not necessarily impacted by participation in sports, despite the common perception to the contrary. More work is clearly needed to understand and challenge our ideas on how character is developed.
ReachOut has researched a range of sources over many years and combined this with our own experience to inform how we go about helping young people to build character and flourish.
We teach young people what we mean by character in a friendly, un-patronising way throughout our relationship with them, helping them to recognise it in themselves and others. Without this explicit understanding of what character is, young people are much less likely to develop it.
We encourage our young people to make an active choice to improve their character, and to improve themselves. Our mentors are critical in helping to facilitate that decision making process, the decision by a young person to try and be better.
Participation in ReachOut activities, including social action, gives young people frequent, regular opportunities to practise character virtues, in an environment where character is understood by everyone and is always in mind and conversation.
Lastly we give them opportunities to reflect on their successes and failures regularly. Reflection is critical in developing anything – without knowing where we’re going right or wrong, we can’t know what to work on.
ReachOut mentors are vital to character development in our young people.
ReachOut mentors are vital to this process at every stage. The young people spend time every week with these fantastic role models, who demonstrate by their involvement in ReachOut alone the very character virtues we espouse. Mentors provide weekly support and encouragement, helping young people to identify challenges, reflect on positives and negatives, and to keep going.
All our activities, be it Numeracy, Literacy, sports, drama, volunteering or leadership, are chosen because, with the right understanding, structure and communication, we can use them to develop character in the young people who are taking part. We try to imbue this understanding of what character is and how we develop it, as well as actually practising good character, throughout the organisation – from the Trustees and Senior Management Team, through to all the staff, our volunteer mentors, and indeed the young people themselves.
Character underpins everything we do at ReachOut.
Character at ReachOut is both caught and taught throughout. It underpins everything we do as an organisation, and that makes us who we are. It drives our mission to help make young people’s futures better. We work in some of the UK’s most disadvantaged communities, where that lack of character can be prevalent. Despite this, the fantastic stories of our young people, the positive feedback from schools and parents, and our outstanding impact data give me real confidence that ReachOut is getting it right.
