History With Character
How do we provide opportunities for students to develop their
character? History can provide great opportunities to explore character
development with its many wonderful examples of interesting people, issues,
and conflicts. Some say we study history to support and safeguard democracy
for the individual and society, others say to learn to respect diversity or
to learn from past successes and failures. Regardless of the many valued
approaches, I believe there is one simple aspect that dramatically enhances
any style. In history, this vital and often overlooked aspect is to
encourage students TO LEARN TO MAKE GOOD CHOICES!
Learning to make good choices is a part of character development and
children not only need character development, but also they actually crave
it. As a teacher, it is a daily task to help students who are struggling to
sort out issues of fairness, justice, and clarification of wrong versus right.
Learning about history is helpful, but it MUST go one step further by
allowing the students the chance to place themselves in historical
situations. The students can then weigh the options and figure out the best
choice. They must justify their choice and support it, then follow up on how
it relates to current or personal issues. This vital and overlooked step
increases learning three-fold; it promotes interest by making things more
relevant, sharpens decision-making skills, and helps builds character.
It is easy to lose the emphasis of character development in history by
becoming absorbed in the teaching of an abundance of information. Without
giving the students the opportunity to process the information and make it
relevant to their lives, the data is like seeds on hard dry ground – never
taking root and quickly blowing away. However, teachers can improve the
interest and relevancy by allowing students “to walk in the shoes” of
historical characters, face challenging problems, and learn to make smarter
choices. Along the way, students will make a little history by learning to
choose more wisely, and as a result, build their character.
– Glen Hallback