How to Create Focused, Extraordinary Character Education Strategies

Creating focused, extraordinary character education strategies is simple once you grasp a few key ideas.

To achieve success with your character education lessons and character education lesson plans, your lists of character traits and whatever else you wish to teach, remember one thing:

Character education strategies need to be

1. simple,
2. emotionally charged,
3. believable,
4. easy to understand,
5. memorable,
6. easy to act upon and
7. so surprising to kids that it sticks in their memories unconsciously.

The big question is how do you teach character traits following the above guidelines?

Whether you're a mom setting out to teach character traits or a school district wanting to implement new strategies because your kids are failing miserably in simple decency, the answer is the same.

And you may not like it, you may stop reading, and leave.

That's OK. You have no choice but to

teach by example: if the teachers teaching character education lesson and character traits don’t walk their talk and aren't respected by the kids they're teaching, kids won't learn.

Kids need to hear stories about the character education lessons and character traits you’re teaching before they’ll remember them.

Kids need to feel the trait somehow to the core of their being so there’s a reason to remember it that’s emotional, not just intellectual rubbage.

The examples of stories must be credible.

Like the CEO of Southwest airlines, you must keep in mind what your one, overriding, key life character trait is you wish kids to live with from each lesson.

What is the single message you want kids to gain from each of the character education lessons and lesson plans and character building exercises they do?

Keep it simple.

Remember Bill Clinton. "It's the economy, stupid."

Choose a simple, overriding, emotionally charged result you wish to achieve with each of your character education strategies and base each lesson plan on that one trait.

Pick just one theme or character trait you wish kids to learn each week or each month.

Set a maximum number of traits for the year.

Choose one trait a week for 16 weeks for example.

How do I figure out the most important character traits? first, check out this list of character traits and choose from this list.

Then ask yourself the following question: what is it that every parent wants for her kids?

She wants them to be

1. happy,
2. healthy,
3. good,
4. successful,
5. and
6. loving.

And she want them to have more than she had.

So start choosing traits that produce the results you're seeking.

So character education strategies that help empower and teach kids to be happy, healthy, good, successful and loving are character education programs worth teaching that kids can use a lifetime.

The information and art found on Character Education Strategies is the property of Childrens Educational Books.