Changes in Children's Characters
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"The end of education is character." Sathya Sai Baba |
There are so many ways of defining 'values education' that to come up with a single list of criteria is quite challenging. However, as suggested in the quotation above, one of the fundamental reasons for values education is to develop character. Therefore, for this research, we have selected 'character' as the desired outcome, and have adopted the criteria of a person of character suggested by Anoos (2001, p.122):
- an honest person (truth),
- a person with a sense of duties and obligations of the position, whatever it may be (right action),
- a person who tells the truth (truth),
- a person who gives others their due (love),
- a person considerate to the weak (nonviolence, compassion),
- a person who has principles and stands by them (right action),
- a person not too elated by good fortune and not too depressed by bad (peace),
- a person who is loyal (surrender),
- a person who can be trusted (unity of thought, word and deed).
A rubric was developed based on these criteria. This acticles report an analysis of positive changes in children's characters, as measured by this rubric. after having participated in SSEHV activities in their mainstream schools in China.
