by Teacher’s Point of View
“What do you think about this Character Counts program? Do you feel it’s helping you meet the State CCT standards any better than you were already doing on your own (prior to three years ago when CC came in)? Are you seeing an appreciable difference in the children’s behavior as a result of Character Counts?
There has been acceptable and unacceptable classroom behavior since I was a student (back in the days of Moses). Teachers never needed a program like CC before. What has changed nowadays and do you feel that whatever it is that has changed, CC thoroughly addresses it?”- Newcomer
I think it’s important to think of CC as just one tool to help us create an ideal atmosphere for learning. In the same way a new math book does not equal a new curriculum (just a different tool), CC does not equal different behavioral expectations, just a different way to get them across. There are a few things I like about the program that improves on conditions.
First, it adds consistency throughout the school. All teachers are using the same language when dealing with children. In math, if everyone is effectively teaching, but covering different topics and using different curriculum, it would be inefficient and confuse the kids. I see character development in a similar way. This program aims to coordinate all of our efforts and add consistency to cut down on confusion and make the instruction for efficient.
Second, students are able to see that the whole school has taken ownership in helping to develop them, not just their classroom teacher. Students in a group may have 2 teachers out of their grade level and a teachers assistant facilitating their activities. They see the community effort in building character.
“If one key reason for introducing this program is to curb a bullying problem, how does this program attempt to do that?”- Newcomer
By developing students’ abilities to think of others, show respect, and take responsibility, you hope to have kids think before acting in a bullying manner. Will this automatically happen due to this program for every kid? No. But I think it will help. It also will help with the bullying issue in another way. When someone is being bullied, there are almost always onlookers. We hope to encourage others to actively advocate for kids being teased or bullied.
I think the CCT addresses more than just classroom behavior. Here are some examples:
2.3 Providing explicit instruction about social skills to develop students’ social competence3 and
responsible and ethical behavior by using a continuum of proactive strategies4 that may be
individualized to student needs;
I feel the above standard takes a community to truly reach. This is what CC does. It builds a school community consistently advocating for the same atmosphere and environment. Custodians, bus drivers, cafeteriea workers, teachers, TAs. are all invited to the opening ceremony to introduce this program. Kids need to see it takes a community to truly create an atmosphere of caring and respect. Hopefully, this will even translate into better classroom behavior, but that’s not the only goal.
“If Character Counts is just a name and curriculum for something that you’ve been teaching your classes all along, then what do you think? Does it take up more time than it’s worth if it teaches values that you emphasize in your classroom anyway? You don’t have to answer me directly or publicly on that. It’s not my intention to put you on the spot here. But I think it’s a question that the school Admin should be asking all of their teachers after 3 years of implementing this program. Are the teachers seeing success with this program? Is it more trouble than it’s worth? Is it worth tweeking and sticking with it?”- Newcomer
I agree. Those are questions we have to ask ourselves all the time. We may find this program is not worth the time. A program may come along that we like better. These are all possibilities. For right now, I think it’s better than what we had, for the reasons I listed above.
I also like that it gives kids another adult in the school they can build a rapport with and go to if they need. If for some reason they don’t feel like they can talk to their classroom teacher about a tough issue, maybe they’ll feel comfortable talking to their CC facilitator. Facilitators are their to advocate for the kids, just like the teachers are. This group gives kids a voice to be heard (the CC chats), and an avenue to constructively complain if they feel the need to.
“Not that anyone’s asking me, but I still say that teacheing kids how to resolve their conflicts by talking their way through them would be a better use of time. Conflict resolution is a measureable skill that can be taught and will have a direct effect on behavior. In elementary aged kids especially, you know as well as I do that you’re working with an age group that grasps concrete concepts much easier and quicker than they grasp abstract concepts. To me a concrete skill that can be role-played would be easier to teach than a value such as “respect” or “caring”. Such values can be more subjective and even though kids will “get” what they mean, putting it into action requires a few more behavioral steps.”- Newcomer
I feel as strongly as you do about the benefits of conflict resolution. It seems as though you’re under the belief that this is not part of the CC curriculum. It actually is. We’ve had many discussions and participated in my activities around the concept of productive conflict resolution.
Sorry if I didn’t get to all your questions. I’m trying to finish this before I have to leave for work for you. I wouldn’t want to be late. That would be the height of irony: “Teacher shows up late to class due to explaining benefits of character development such as responsibility.” 
Thank you for being such a positive contributer to this discussion. It’s good to discuss issues such as these with an open mind and a common respect.
TPV,
Thank you for sticking with this discussion and being generous with the amount of information in your answers.
I find this kind of detail you’re supplying helpful and more along the lines of what I was looking for from the Admin/BOE in my earlier comments under other recent threads. In that vein, I would like to comment on something you mentioned in your third to last paragraph above. You noted that you felt I’ve been under the impression that conflict resolution isn’t being taught as part of CC. You are correct in that assumption. I did visit the CC website and didn’t spot any mention of conflict resolution there. And there’s also no sample curriculum there to view. In fact, all that I could find on the CC website was written in even more vague and general terms than what the BOE put out. All the CC site really says is that Character Counts has no set curriculum (that answers that) because it is a framework and a methodology and not an “add-on” nor an “out-of-the-box” curriculum. The only other thing I could find is a list of suggestions for school and/or classroom and group activities but apparently it isn’t mandatory that any of them be employed.
So, yes, I was completely in the dark as to whether conflict resolution skills are actively being taught through this CC program or not. I’m completely in the dark about anything specific that is being taught through this program, other than what you’ve so kindly taken the time to present at the Cafe.
One of my children is in a classroom in which the teacher employs something called the “Responsive Classroom”. I’m sure as a professional, you are already familiar with it but for any Cafe readers who may not be, here’s the link if anyone else is interested:
http://www.responsiveclassroom.org/
If you wouldn’t mind continuing this disscussion with me a bit further, I would add that to me, a classroom conducted as a “Responsive Classroom” seems to employ the Character Counts pillars anyway. Maybe not specifically as named (Trustworthiness, Citizenship, etc.), but they seem to be a natural part of a Responsive classroom framework. Would you agree with this observation and if so, wouldn’t that mean that there’s some overlap between a responsive classroom and CC? Would gradually moving toward a responsive classroom paradigm eliminate the need for CC or at least dramatically reduce the need for it in your opinion?
“Responsive Classroom” and character counts are very closely related. I think, however, that they can coexist, especially in a middle school. In the elementary school, students see one teacher most of the day. In a middle school, students interact with many more adults during the course of a day. While “responsive classroom” would work great in a classroom, a character counts framework would still be beneficial in terms of adding the consistency that I alluded to before. We’re trying to have a “responsive school”.
I don’t think there’s any reason to eliminate a program that has such positive qualities for a school as a whole community.
I also wanted to comment on what you wrote about the CC website. I agree that it’s very vague. That’s why I want to impress upon people that CC is not a curriculum, it’s a framework. It’s only a tool to meet social standards that the state and school already have in place. CC is not meant to put goals into place at the school, it’s meant to act as a tool to meet goals that have already been placed.
TPV,
I see your point. The Responsive classroom that my child is in is at WES so I was thinking of how successful it seems to be going for the classroom that I’m familiar with there. I think you’re right though. Because of the morning meeting and, it would probably be less effective in a class of students who don’t remain together all day. I think that the lower grades at WMS do mostly stick together for all of their classes, meaning there aren’t various electives for them to split up and attend. But still, with one class of students seeing an average of 3 different teachers, there’s potential for a lag in consistency.
I guess I’d have to go in and observe my kids in this CC program to really get a sense of it. My concerns come from comments from some of the children I’ve asked about it. Now I haven’t surveyed every student in the WPS schools by any means. But in general, the WES kids I’ve talked to seem to feel positively about it and view the activities and awards as “fun”. The WMS kids I’ve talked to are the ones who have commented about how boring it is. One or two of them commented that “it’s better than having to do regular work”, which I took to mean class work, as in Math, Science, etc.
I do think that the Admin/BOE should really monitor this program and survey both teachers and students; just stay on top of the fine-tuning of this program unless/until something better comes along to address bullying and other problem behaviors even better than CC does.
Newcomer,
I would agree that the WES kids tend to talk more positively about their activities. I believe that has mostly to do with the age group, not necessarily the program. Kids tend to be more positive in general at the elementary ages than they do at the middle school ages. The elementary school kids are probably, on a whole, more positive about all the aspects of school in general. That’s a major challenge of teaching middle school: getting kids excited about learning and engaged in the lessons.
I agree with your final statement as well. It’s our job as educators to continue examination of educational tools we use for effectiveness and make adjustments as we deem necessary. In fact, the CC model we use now has been ‘fine tuned’ each of the last three years. The program we’re using right now looks a lot different than 2 years ago. This is due to community, student, and educator input.