When character education comes into existence everyone agrees that it plays a significant role in the growth and development of children. While there are people who believe that this should be reinforced and taught at home, there are others who believe that character education should be incorporated into the school curriculum and then practiced at home. Thus as early childhood teachers, you need to be capable enough to prove the parents wrong and build a better future for the kids.
What Is Character Education?
Now with so much information, you must be wondering what exactly this character education is. In simple words, character education can be defined as the teaching of standards and principles of living systematically so that students of all age groups can understand and incorporate them into their daily lives.
The word character refers to the features and attributes that make up an individual and can vary from communities, religions, ethnic groups, and countries.
Ways To Build Character Education Program
Whether or not character education should be taught in schools is still debatable. But if we can agree that this should be the prime focus of schools then it will have an immediate impact on the social skills, general well-being, and work ethics of the students.
Schools and other educational institutions should include character education programs in their curriculum and structure and also special classes should be introduced to teach the importance of these virtues. Here are ways schools can ensure a proficient value education program:
Teachers and school administrators can teach fundamental values to students through documentaries, story narration, and showing pictures or videos in the classroom every week. There are a few values that can be taught regularly to the students namely honesty, kindness, respect, compassion, and empathy.
Conducting social activities in schools enables students to visualize the exceptional picture of society. Educational institutions should arrange excursions to involve students who are in need. They can also set up donation camps to raise funds for a particular cause and ask the students to spread awareness about specific social concerns.
Importance Of Character Education Of An Individual
Character education should be an integral part of the education system as it helps an individual throughout their life. Take a look at why character education is important to build a human:
1. Optimism
By teaching about character students will learn optimism which will develop their confidence and they will be able to gain success through due diligence. They will also be aware that success does not mean perfection and that they should always have an optimistic attitude toward learning.
2. Self-Control
Self-control is the ability to control one’s emotions and desires in difficult situations. Apart from being optimistic, a person must learn to control their feelings to be able to develop rational solutions in even the most challenging circumstances.
3. Responsibility
When children learn about character education, they learn to be responsible as they are required to follow a particular set of rules and regulations and schedules. They learn to take care of their basic needs and fulfill all of their requirements individually.
4. Extroversion
When students learn about virtues and life, they develop an extroverted personality as they can interact with more people during social activities. Their social skills get enhanced and boosted and they learn to communicate more freely and efficiently.
5. Social Intelligence
Social intelligence is essential for all stages as it enhances verbal and non-verbal fluency, social rules and knowledge, and how to abide by them. Moreover, character education can teach students listening skills, and empathy and play social roles efficiently.
Character Enhancement To Build A Better Individual
Character education is a vast field and has an exhaustive list of topics. Thus, teaching character education from childhood itself is the best time for entrenching the essential traits in a person so that they can be utilized actively in the later stages. As educators, if you want to build the overall personality of the child, consider pursuing Online Early Years Care & Education Courses in Malaysia to refrain from infusing just bookish knowledge.
Written By : Sanjana