Katz and the Toxic Culture of Education
One of the things that caught me about the lecture given by Katz was when he described some of the worst of the bottom 25% of students he teaches: The worst of those students have had no education of character, common decency, appropriate language, appropriate behavior. They barely know right from wrong. These are the students who are at risk of dropping out, incarceration, or abusing social welfare. In support of the problem of a lack of character education are studies by Lickona (1993) and Pala (2011). Both show that this problem needs to be addressed because it is the root of issues with learners failing in school and in life. However, in support of the other side of the argument is this study by Kohn (1997), which argues that character education does not really play a fundamental role in the shaping of education outcomes for all learners.
To me, Katz really was on target, and from my own research, it does get to the heart of the problem of education and why it has become toxic: it is precisely because we have stopped teaching the character. In fact, character education, according to numerous researchers, needs to be brought back in a big way in todays schools (Kristjansson, 2015; Lickona, 1993; Pala, 2011).
Why does this...
…as Pala (2011) and others explain, and as Katz himself shows is sorely needed. Kids are not getting that at the bottom of the ladder, and if they cannot form their character in a positive way they are not going to be able to handle lifes adversity as it arises no matter the setting. This should be the number one priority of schools going forward: character education, using the Aristotelian model that Kristjansson (2015) recommends. Then learners will actually have a sense of what it takes to rise to the challenge, to commit oneself to a task, and to make headway against all odds, and schools themselves will perform better in…
References
Kohn, A. (1997). How not to teach values: A critical look at character education. Phi deltakappan, 78, 428-439.
Kristjánsson, K. (2015). Aristotelian character education. Routledge.
Lickona, T. (1993). The return of character education. Educational leadership, 51(3), 6-11.
Pala, A. (2011). The need for character education. International Journal of Social Sciences andHumanity Studies, 3(2), 23-32.
Pappano, L. (2013). Grit and the new character education. Education Digest, 78(9), 4-9.
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