The contribution of various educators, including William Holmes McGuffey, in developing a character education-based curriculum in the United States is discussed. The role of teachers in moral education of students too is described.

Mainstream conservative and liberal views are inadequate for a discourse about moral education. More appropriate methods for linking schooling and ethics are the following: (1) link ethics and morality to politics; (2) define those maxims necessary for moral adequacy; and (3) develop a radical view of authority that will transform pedagogical…

Discusses whether virtue can be taught, presenting the intellectual history of virtue and speaking to the relevance of the four cardinal virtues to a university student's life. Asserts that perhaps virtue cannot be taught, but it is something that students learn or fail to learn. Suggests that professors are responsible for providing the right…

Responds to the assumption that it is too late to teach virtue in college, noting that Aristotle considered intellectual virtue essential to the cultivation of excellence. Asserts that university education ought to embrace the cultivation of intellectual virtue in students, proposing that by helping students see the pursuit of knowledge as a…

Discusses education in virtue, inviting college professors to see themselves not as "meddlers" in students' private lives but rather as interlocutors who prompt students to examine their desires--not simply what they hope to gain, but who they hope to become as a result of their university education. Focuses on the philosophies of Plato,…

Argues that the advocate of multiculturalism as it is generally presented is rebelling against the established order and suffering from "oikophobia," a hatred of home, a frequent disease of intellectuals. The substitution of new stereotypes for traditional education must be combatted by the moderating power of thought. (SLD)

Focuses on piety and ethics in education because current debates about education for character frequently neglect the fundamental existential questions that underlie the ethical. Every school ought to be teaching certain basic existential truths about mortality and the possibility of meaning in life, including man's modest place in the universe.…

Considers what it would mean to take charity for all as a standard for governing our disagreements about scholarship, curriculum, and educational purpose. What intellectual charity should mean in a climate of multiculturalism and political correctness is explored for the university, public forum, and public school contexts. (SLD)

Traces the centrality of moral education in public schools from the 16th to the late 19th century and suggests how the past can serve to inform and to direct the present. It reviews teaching methods and curricular materials used to transmit moral values as well as the views of influential thinkers concerning moral education. (GR)

Argues for a restoration of character education in the public schools and the preparation of character educators. It details the attributes of successful character educators and offers suggestions about ways in which teacher education programs can prepare teachers for their work as character educators. (GR)

Addresses problems associated with the classical conception of "arete" (virtue), asserting that questions related to virtue, human excellence, and the good life are neither relative nor time-bound. Suggests that if one assumes that virtue can be taught, Socrates' example encourages the idea that this may be achieved most effectively…

Examines and dismantles both cognitive-developmental theory of moral education and development and the politically based radical criticisms against it. Considers the implications for moral education of Piagetian cognitive-developmental stage theory and Rawlsian ethical liberalism. Calls for a reconstructed theory based on a new, broader…

Explores the question of teaching virtue, which has been discussed for at least 2,500 years. The anonymous "Dissoi Logoi" of ancient Greece contained a series of arguments on both sides of the question, and the author concluded that virtue could be taught. Lessons are drawn for contemporary educators. (SLD)

Book IV of Plato's "Republic" offers an argument for the value of morality in its own right, and as such stands at the head of an important strand of western moral tradition. This classic text is pertinent for today's students as it was in the past. (SLD)

Reviews and compares 10 character education programs, their objectives, pedagogy, and research, revealing their highly diverse theoretical assumptions and pedagogical practices. It suggests that emerging research in the field offers the hopeful promise that theory and practice may be advanced in a systematic manner. (GR)