Character education that excites young children!
Character education in many elementary schools bores children. It affects them in the same way that Freshman History affected my friends from college and me. We promised that no one could make the story more boring than our teacher did. On special occasions, however, the professor changed the subject. He employed a teaching method that turned bland into exciting in an instant. That same method can turn character education into a topic that excites young children. In fact, character education teachers can make young children beg more if they regularly use the method our college professor saved for special occasions.
Teachers can easily transform today’s blah into tomorrow’s glow.
Today is blah
Character education lesson plans often start with the usual boring teaching method of our college history teacher.
The teacher speaks. In this case, the teacher talks about character education. Teachers take free character education lesson plans wherever they can find them and follow instructions like these found on the Internet:
· Talk about what respect sounds like.
· Talk to students about what respect looks like.
Talk about respectful facial expressions.
· Talk about the tone of voice that shows respect.
· Talk to students about respectful body language.
Character education teachers talk and talk and talk. As they talk, young children react as we usually did in college history class. They take boring positions, wishing the topic didn’t exist.
Most young children, like many college freshmen, have not yet developed the skills necessary to learn by the speaking teacher method. They didn’t learn to walk by having Mom talk to them about what walking looks like. They did not learn to speak by having their father explain what it sounds like to speak. Talking didn’t teach them to go to the bathroom either. However, character education lesson plans urge the teacher to talk, and talk, and talk.
“After you have explained,” continue with the character education lesson plans as above, “discuss respect with your students.”
The teacher discusses. Our university professor also tried. After talking about history, he tried to strike up a conversation with us. Many of us, woken up from conversation-induced cat naps, weren’t ready or able to participate in the discussion.
Children ages three to eight will no longer be ready to discuss character education after their talk with the teacher. Did they learn to walk, talk, and feed themselves by talking about it with their parents? No. Despite that, character education lesson plans urge the teacher to argue – and argue – and argue.
This approach is boring for any age. It’s blah, and no one enjoys character upbringing blah.
Bling of tomorrow
Character education lesson plans can be changed overnight if teachers are willing. If you are a character education teacher and you really care about your students, you can make that change happen. How?
Introduce our history teacher’s “special occasions” method and the blah transforms into glitter. The story catches the light, shines, and becomes desirable.
What method can produce such a transformation? What secret weapon made the story exciting on special occasions?
· Did you show a video? No. I could have, but history videos can be just as tedious as history lectures.
· Did you ask us to represent historical moments? No. We were bored with the historical figures as I had presented them, and we would not have had the mood for role-playing games.
Our college professor used a storybook.
Imagine it. Our history teacher read a storybook on special occasions. He did not look for just any book and tried to extract the story from it. He used a book that was written with a purpose to express the precise story in an easy-to-swallow format. The book was an ambrosia for students who saw history as a dull and lifeless subject. We loved stories like the one about Colón who started that way.
“On September 9, 1492, when the last land fell below the horizon, Christopher Columbus began keeping two records. One record, which he kept secret, was an actual estimate of his bearing and distance. The other was a falsified account. of the ship’s trajectory. Written place so that the crew would not be scared when sailing so far from land “. Source: Samuel E. Morison, Christopher Columbus (Boston: Mentor, 1955), p. 36.
We get excited about history when it is packaged in story format, and character education excites young children when packaged in stories written with a purpose.
Tried and true technique
Stories have long been considered a tried and true technique for presenting information. The technique has proven to be especially good and desirable for use with young children. Stories help them learn and remember valuable information.
Visit a famous Internet bookseller, type in the word “potty” and what do you find? You will find dozens of books that use stories to teach young children how to use the bathroom and stop using diapers. Look for books on “brushing your teeth” and you will get similar results. Type “swim” and a duckling named Stewie will teach you water safety.
Stories written for the express purpose of teaching a specific topic (written for a specific purpose) employ a method that has been used since ancient times, because it works!
Conclution
The character education that young children are excited about is based on books. Books allow children to filter stories through their own imaginations and identify with characters as they learn high moral values. Books make character education more desirable and more memorable than any other vehicle the teacher can use.