Article Link: http://exchangepress.com/article/character-education-seeing-a-bigger-picture/5016041/
The first public schools (supported by tax money) in this country were those in the Massachusetts Colony. These schools were created to teach children how to read, so that they could read the Bible, and thus resist the temptation of Satan. In fact the acts �" in 1642 and 1647 �" created to fund these schools were called “Ye Old Deluder Satan Act” (Uphoff, 1997). Many educational reformers, from Fredrich Froebel and Rudolf Steiner (Waldof), to the free schools of the 1970s and Reggio Emilia, were motivated by the need to provide the spiritual and inspirational nature of education and development. Even today, public schools in many countries, such as England and Brazil, carefully integrate religious moral teachings within the overall school philosophy. I remember the Anglican services that proceeded my day of English schooling; in Brazil morals are taught, beginning in early childhood, through an almost universal acceptance of Catholic beliefs, ritual, and practices (Salgarelo, 2004).According to Wiles and Bondi (1999), one of the purposes of Taiwan’s education is to teach eight moral virtues; the first of China’s educational purposes is, “to develop good moral character” (78). Even most U.S. public school mission statements include, “developing good citizens,” as ...