Month: August 2018

IL school examines JROTC’s positive impacts on student character, community

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Illinois’ Elgin Area School District U-46 is weighing the benefits and drawbacks of launching a Junior Reserve Officers Training Corps program, something local veterans strongly support.

“The primary goal of the program is to motivate young people to be better citizens,” Craig Essick, Elgin American Legion commander and former police officer, told the Daily Herald. “We cannot think of a better goal for U-46 students as they pursue an education and learn the true meaning of citizenship and service to our communities.”

U-46 could join several other suburban Chicago school districts that already have Air Force, Army, or Navy JROTC programs. Those programs are overseen by certified instructors and military officers who guide students to develop life skills, discipline, organization, confidence, and leadership abilities. JROTC students also learn about the military, history, international law, current events, aerodynamics and physical sciences through a variety of activities, from flying with local flying clubs to academic, marksmanship and robotics teams, according to the news site.

“There are some kids who just may not be athletes, or science club doesn’t spark them,” said Jeff Morse, a Desert Shield veteran who has taught the Navy JROTC program at Northwest Suburban High School for 24 years. “But they get into ROTC and they find something they can be good at, and it just changes them. It’s got something to offer to just about anyone with any background.”

Much of the program centers on character and service, West Aurora High School Air Force JROTC Lt. Col. Erik Pettyjohn said.

“We do have high expectations of behavior,” said Pettyjohn, who teaches aerospace science. “It offers a lot of structure. We basically use Air Force customs and traditions to instill good character, honesty, integrity, service and excellence. …

“A lot of time students won’t get that type of instruction, mentorship in other areas,” he told the Daily Herald.

Carter Bell, the retired Army major who runs Waukegan High School’s 100-year-old Army JROTC program, stressed the program’s benefit to the community. Waukegan’s 600 student cadets – the second-largest program in the nation – help with park clean ups, guide 5K races, serve at pancake breakfasts, and volunteer at parent-teacher conferences, among many other things, he said.

“The purpose of a leader is to serve others,” Bell said. “Last year, we contributed over 5,000 hours of community service to Waukegan. High school (Army) ROTC cadets contributed more than 7 million hours of community service to the nation.”

Researchers at the Institute for Advanced Studies in Culture point to the importance of a “thick” and “dense” moral culture like the JROTC in “The Content of Their Character,” a summary of research into character education in a wide variety of schools.

Through numerous interviews and observations, researchers noted “the source and setting for moral and civic education matter – that the ‘thickness’ of cultural endowments and the ‘density’ of moral community within which those endowments find expression are significant in the formation of personal and public virtue in children.”

The U.S. Army website provides more details about the benefits of the ROTC program, and military service in general, including ways students can secure financial assistance to pursue a college degree while still in high school.

Back-to-school rally draws community together for backpack give-away, lessons on school safety

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Alachua County Public Schools’ annual backpack give-away has a new theme this year: “See Something, Say Something, Do Something.”

The Florida school district’s 19th annual Stop the Violence/Back to School Rally at Santa Fe College centered on a new program for area schools this year that officials hope will help students respond to emergency situations, and active school shooters, in particular, The Gainesville Sun reports.

The event – sponsored by People Against Violence Enterprises, Alachua County Public Schools, Meridian Behavioral Healthcare, as well as other area businesses and community groups – introduced students to the ALICE (Alert, Lockdown, Inform, Counter, Evade) method to keep them safe, with the promise of additional training for students and staff during the first week of school.

“We are going to teach your kids to fight back as a last resort,” Andrew Davis, a school resource deputy with the Alachua County Sheriff’s Office told those who attended.

Officials doled out 2,500 backpacks filled with school supplies, and shared information about school calendars, supply lists, free- and reduced-price lunches, and after-school opportunities. But Gainesville Police Department Chief Tony Jones said a major goal was to compel students to do the right thing, and inform police if they’re aware of threats to their school or classmates.

“I want you to be safe this school year,” he said. “If you see something, say something.”

“This lets us set the stage for stopping violence in schools,” school board chairman Gunnar Paulson told the news site. “What could be more appropriate than talking about this right now?”

Parents who attended seemed to agree, with some recalling how the event made an impact on them as youngsters in the school system.

“I’m here because it’s important to teach our children about how to stop the violence in our schools and neighborhoods,” said 29-year-old Julianne Williams, whose two children will attend Lawton Chiles Elementary School in 2018. “I probably came here every year when I was in school to get backpacks, and now I’m bringing my children.”

The August rally drew many students and parents, as well as a wide variety of local leaders, from elected officials or those running for office to school leaders, parent-teacher groups, school vendors and others.

James Davison Hunter, founder of the Institute for Advanced Studies in Culture, pointed to the importance of school practices and connections to the community in “The Content of Their Character,” an analysis of character education in a variety of different schools.

“How a school is organized, the course structure and classroom practices, the relationship between school and outside civic institutions – all these matter in the moral and civic formation of the child,” he wrote.

The ALICE Training Institute website offers additional details on the methods this organizations uses in K-12 schools to prepare students and staff for the worst.

“Families and communities expect schools to keep their children safe from all threats including human-caused emergencies such as crimes of violence,” according to the site. “In collaboration with local government and community stakeholders, schools can take steps to plan and prepare to mitigate these threats. Every school Emergency Operating Procedure should include courses of action that will describe how students and staff can most effectively respond to an active shooter situation to minimize the loss of life, and teach and train on these practices.”

 

New WA civics standards raise concerns about political bias

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Ed Pole, Washington state resident and member of The Olympian newspaper’s Board of Contributors, wants parents and educators to weigh in on the state’s new civics standards to ensure they’re not implemented with a political agenda.

In a recent editorial, Pole outlined new civics requirements under SHB 1896, approved by the state legislature last year, and concerns about how schools will frame the discussion. The bill requires students to earn half a credit in high school civics to graduate, and it states lessons should cover all levels of government, state and U.S. constitutions, and current electoral issues, as well as values and “character traits” defined in the state education code.

Students must pass a U.S. citizenship test, and the new law also calls for the Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction to develop training materials and learning opportunities for educators across the state.

Pole wrote:

At first blush this seems like a good bill, benign or even admirable. A bit of reflation reveals a note of caution. The content of these courses and materials should be of concern. The character traits are ones that almost all would support. However, no mention is made of natural law nor English common law – both of which the United States is founded. Will issues such as the Second Amendment, citizenship, speech, and federal versus state powers be discussed in a politically neutral manner? Will the 9th and 10th Amendments even be discussed? (I consider them the most important and most neglected of the first 10.)

I am disturbed that the content of the courses and the education of the teachers will have little input from the public, especially parents. Given the nature of education courses at universities over the last 20 to 30 years, the content of the courses are likely to be politically skewed. I fear group rather than individual identity is likely to be the focus, and group rights rather than individual rights will take precedence. I’m concerned that hierarchy and power will be blamed for wrongs rather than individual actions.

Pole concluded by calling on parents to dig into how the new civics curriculum will be implemented in their child’s school, to examine information and materials on the state website, and to take action to ensure the new requirements accomplish what they’re designed to do: educate students about how government works, and their obligations as good citizens.

The call to action is in itself a lesson in civics – one that speaks to the importance of connecting with communities for truly effective education.

Sociologist James Davison Hunter, founder of the Institute for Advanced Studies in Culture, wrote in “The Tragedy of Moral Education”:

Individuals are social creatures inextricably embedded in their communities. As such, their identity, their most meaningful relationships, and their morality can only develop from a healthy connection to the social fabric of which they are a part.

Educators focused on teaching civics through strong connections to their communities can find a wide variety of resources at the Center for Civic Education, which provides “teacher links” for everything from authentic assessment, civic education organizations, and historical documents, to lesson plans, national standards, and public policy.

IN schools shift from punitive to restorative student discipline

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A new state law is forcing Indiana schools to adopt a restorative justice approach to student discipline, with the underlying goal of reducing disproportional suspensions and discipline of minority students.

It’s a move aimed at shifting from a punitive system that removes offending students from the classroom to one that encourages kids to work through their issues, and some are welcoming the change.

The Herald-Bulletin Editorial Board in Anderson, Indiana recently published an op-ed highlighting how the new approach has improved learning in Anderson Community Schools, and why it’s optimistic restorative justice can have a positive impact in other districts, as well.

The board wrote:

Over the past decade, many Indiana school have gotten better at dealing with problem students without resorting to suspensions and expulsions.

Anderson Community Schools is an example. Such discipline used to be practically rampant at ACS.

The district reported 8,313 in-school suspensions and 179 expulsions for the 2011-12 school year. In a school system of about 7,000 students, the suspension rate was particularly alarming – more than a suspension per student.

ACS officials made a commitment a few years ago to figure out ways to keep troubled students in the system so that they continue to learn. As a result, suspensions fell to 3,500 and expulsions to 23 during the 2015-16 academic year.

District officials accomplished the feat through new alternative school options, “a redistribution of administrative resources,” and better support programs for students, according to the board.

A new state law will require all Indiana schools to adopt similar, less punitive, strategies for student discipline that reduce suspensions of minority students, limit involvement of local police, and crack down on bullying and cyberbullying. The new law also requires districts to report to the state on the impact of positive discipline in schools.

“With a new school year about to begin, it’s incumbent on all school districts … to give kids a fresh start and to take advantage of resources to help disruptive students continue their education while addressing their behavioral problems,” according to The Herald-Bulletin.

The effectiveness of restorative justice practices in Indiana or elsewhere draws on what scholars refer to as “moral autonomy.”

James Davison Hunter, founder of the Institute for Advanced Studies in Culture, wrote in the “The Death of Character” that moral autonomy is an individual’s capacity to freely make ethical decisions, because “controlled behavior cannot be moral behavior, for it removes the element of discretion and judgement.”

Restorative justice aims to give students the moral autonomy to do the right thing, rather than simply punish them for doing the wrong thing.

The blog Academike – “a platform to publish legal research papers” – offers a deeper look at the “Reformative Theory of Punishment” that’s becoming increasingly popular in both schools and criminal justice systems across the country.

 

‘Making Caring Common’ urges more focus on character in college admissions

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Students in many schools are loading up their schedules with academics, sports, extracurricular activities, and volunteer work, with the ultimate goal of impressing college admissions officers at top colleges.

But some believe that while the competitive environment is driving achievement, engagement and community service, students are pursuing “success” for the wrong reasons, and it’s creating big problems.

Laurie Wolk, educator and author of “Girls Just Want to Have Likes,” recently penned a column for U.S. News & World Report about the dynamic she’s witnessed working with parents and kids to develop social and emotional skills, and how it’s taking a toll on students that’s not always obvious.

“Studies show that teens cite doing well in school and getting into a good college as a primary source of stress, and those same studies show that many parents aren’t recognizing this,” Wolk wrote.

“A drive to overachieve has many kids hyper-focused, worried and sleep-deprived. When kids don’t have the time to have fun, socialize, sleep or just chill out, that’s when things become unhealthy. For teens, a lack of sleep has been linked to depression and suicide.”

Wolk argues adults are likely “focusing too much on college acceptance rates as a measure of success rather than our kids’ actual happiness,” which prompts the questions: “Have our kids stopped doing things simply because they enjoy them? Are too many of their after-school activities influenced by their worries about getting into college rather than whether something is the right fit for them?”

Another important question: Are students helping those in their community to pad their college resumes, or because it’s the right thing to do?

James Davison Hunter, founder of the Institute for Advanced Studies in Culture, points out how encouraging youngsters to look beyond themselves can have a profound impact on their character, and on what they define as success.

In “The Tragedy of Moral Education in America,” Hunter wrote:

For parents and other adults, the task of ‘saving our children’ means, in large part, telling children what they are being saved for. The task of educating children means teaching them the larger designs that could give form and focus to their individual aspirations, so that they can come to understand not only how to be good but why …

Wolk contends that failing to help students find a deeper purpose can have significant consequences.

“If we don’t stop encouraging kids to look for fulfillment and success in admission to a prestigious university, they may arrive at the end goal and find it wasn’t worth it,” Wolk wrote. “Or worse, they may resent all the valuable time they wasted pursuing it.”

Several universities understand the situation and are working with the Making Caring Common Project to incorporate measures of morality and character in the admissions process – the things that demonstrate a concern for others and the common good, authentic intellectual engagement and integrity and confidence.

“The new and enlightened way of evaluating our kids offers a glimmer of hope and the chance to get back to what matters most,” Wolk wrote. “If admissions offices start focusing on the meaningful, authentic and genuine aspects of a kid’s life before college, then maybe our kids can too.”

The Making Caring Common Project is an effort by the Harvard Graduate School of Education “that engages college admissions offices, high schools, parents and young people” to help the next generation develop a greater concern for others, increase equity and access for poor students, and reduce pressure of excessive achievement.

“More than 175 college admission offices, including all Ivy League colleges, have joined us in this effort,” according to project’s website. “We are now launching a nationwide initiative to advance these goals in high schools.”

Summer camps force students to put down devices and embrace nature

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Summer camps are finding creative ways to address “nature deficit disorder” among youth through a greater range of activities and specialty camps designed to help them unplug from technology and immerse themselves in nature.

Nearly half of the estimated 14 million American kids going to summer camp this year will attend Christian-focused programs, “from camps run by one or two staff people for a few dozen campers, to camps with 100-plus staffers that serve more than a thousand guests at a time,” Gregg Hunter, resident of the Christian Camp Conference Association, told Religion News.

Christan Camp Conference Association’s 860 camps will host the bulk of Christian students – an estimated 5.5 million in 2018 – at places like the Miracle Ranch horsemanship camp in Washington State, Redwood Canopy Tour zip line adventures in California, a robotics themed Character Camp targeted toward African American campers in Texas, and an all-boys Deerfoot camp that teaches outdoor skills and canoe-building in New York’s Adirondacks.

“Christian camping gives kids the opportunity to get way, clear their heads, unplug from tech and hear a message of God’s love for them,” Hunter said, adding that CCCA camps require youngsters to drop off their smartphones at registration.

“Counselors are equipped to deal with withdrawal symptoms,” he said. “But after the first day or two or three, kids are actually looking at each other and talking to each other instead of texting.”

And while some camps are expecting slightly higher numbers in 2018 than previous years, others have struggled to fill camps as youth attendance at church has declined in recent decades. With fewer students in Sunday school, Melinda Trotti said the Maine Conference of the United Church of Christ has diversified programs at its Pilgrim Lodge on Cobbosseecontee Lake to keep it in operation.

“In addition to hosting camps for families, grandparents and their grandchildren, and a camp for those 55 and over called Vintage Ventures, they have also launched Camp Pride for high school students who are gay, lesbian, transgender or transitioning,” according to Religion News.

“They come here and are not just welcomed and understood, but are affirmed,” Trotti, Pilgrim Lodge’s interim director, told the news site. “People need places where we sing together, eat together, serve food to each other and participate in worship together, especially at a time when we see increasing social media use and greater loneliness, anxiety and depression among young people.”

Research from the Institute for Advanced Studies in Culture shows many parents – whether they’re religious or not – are struggling controlling technology use at home, and they’re concerned about the negative influences it’s having on their kids.

“Many parents feel their attempts to control the home environment and to keep external influences at bay are nearly futile in the face of new communication and entertainment technologies,” according to the Institute’s “Culture of American Families” report.

Harvard University’s Derek Bok Center for Teaching and Learning takes a deeper look at “Technology and Student Distraction” by examining the advantages and disadvantages laptops, mobile devices and other electronics pose for students and teachers.

 

CA high school inducts alumni into ‘Hall of Fame’ to highlight work helping others

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A California high school is honoring alumni who are making a positive impact in their communities by inducting them into a Hall of Fame as role models students can look up to.

The Poway High School Alumni Association is hosting a Fame Recognition Dinner in August to induct three former students into its Titan Hall of Fame, a recognition for those who “exemplify the mission, goals and values of school and who have made significant contributions and achievements in academics, business, the arts, community service, public service, science or athletics,” the San Diego Union Tribune reports.

Janice Grimes, class of 1985; Jacqui Marty, class of 1986; and Justin Woodruff, class of 1996, were selected for the Titan Hall of Fame in 2018.

“To receive an honor of this magnitude from your high school, in your hometown, is profoundly humbling,” said Grimes, who now lives in Ohio. “When I received the call from (PHS Alumni Association President) Larry Ott, I was so overwhelmed I cried tears of sincere gratitude. I am deeply proud of my hometown roots and being a part of the Poway High School alumni, class of 1985.”

Grimes founded Quilts of Compassion in 1999 after receiving a quilt from a hospital pastor during a long recovery from a serious car accident, and the nonprofit has since delivered more than 90,000 hand-made quilts to folks suffering in hospitals, nursing homes, homeless shelters and disaster zones in the U.S., Guatemala, Haiti and India, according to the news site.

Grimes said “It was a daily fight to conquer the feelings of hopelessness, fear and loneliness that tried to overwhelm (me)” during the recovery from the car crash, and it was the pastor’s kindness that inspired her to spread home and encouragement to others.

“Since our first deployment, over 5,000 quilters, 60 quilt guilds and 22 quilt shops across the USA, Canada, Sweden, Germany, The Netherlands and Australia have generously donated quilts for our disaster response team efforts in communities that have been destroyed by tornadoes, flooding, hurricanes or impacted by an act of domestic terrorism,” said Grimes.

The Titan Hall of Fame is part of the moral ecosystem – schools, parents, youth groups, popular culture, peers, athletics and numerous other influences – that shape students’ character, for better or for worse. By highlighting graduates who have looked beyond themselves to help others in need, the PHSAA is sending a clear message about the values and virtues that exemplify good character.

James Davison Hunter, founder of the Institute for Advanced Studies in Culture, wrote in “The Death of Character”:

Implicit in the word ‘character is a story. It is a story about living for a purpose that is greater than the self.

The Jesuit Schools Network is another organization that clearly outlines the type of student the school system hopes to create. The “Profile of the Graduate” encourages educators to focus on developing young adults who are open to growth, intellectually competent, religious, loving and committed to justice – themes that focus on others.

The ideal Jesuit graduate “sees leadership as an opportunity for service to others and the community” as they continue “moving beyond self-interest or self-centeredness,” according to the document.

Local police, educators come together to tackle gangs, drugs, and other problems plaguing schools

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Educators and law enforcement are coming together in Carroll County, Maryland to tackle big issues in schools, from family traumas that spill into the classroom to gang activity, drug use, and sex abuse.

The Carroll County State’s Attorney’s Office recently hosted a Safe Schools Training day in late July to bring together teachers, administrators, local sheriff’s officials and the Westminster Police Department to work together on tackling the community’s most pressing issues, the Carroll County Times reports.

Carroll County State’s Attorney Brian DeLeonardo and district superintendent of school counseling Judy Klinger presented a new program called “Handle with Care,” which allows first responders to contact school officials about students who have experienced traumatic events, such as a drug overdose in their home, or domestic violence.

The communication allows school officials to keep a closer eye on those students, and to better understand why they may act out or struggle with academics and and then to intervene to provide support and service.

“I know it’s another thing for law enforcement to do, but its a pretty simple thing and it helps all of us help kids and families,” Klinger said.

“It gives us another level to intervene with the children. … If we know that child is getting some services and help, it helps prevent a future problem,” DeLeonardo added.

Local police also educated teachers about gang activity they may see in the classroom, including gang graffiti, signs of recruitment, and other behavior that may signal a student is steeped in that lifestyle.

Senior Assistant State’s Attorney Courtney Colonese asked educators to contact law enforcement when they come across red flags, and offered insight into how it might impact students at school.

“You may not see (gang activity) in terms of the way law enforcement may see some of this, but you may find out people living in the children’s home are members,” DeLeonardo said. “And you may see that influence in that child.”

The Safe Schools Training also featured updates about in new kinds of drug use, the potential impact of marijuana legalization, and ways to spot and report sexually, physically, and emotionally abused students, the Times reports.

“What you see, what you know, what you learn is huge for us, so don’t take it for granted,” Sgt. Glenn Day told educators.

The collaboration between police and school officials is a critical component of what James Davison Hunter, founder of the Institute for Advanced Studies in Culture, describes as the ideal environment for character education to flourish.

In “The Tragedy of Moral Education in American,” Hunter wrote:

Moral education can work where the community, and schools and other institutions within it, share a moral culture that is integrated and mutually reinforcing; where the social networks of adult authority are strong, unified, and consistent in articulating moral ideals and their attending virtues; and where adults maintain a ‘careful watchfulness’ over all aspects of a young person’s maturation.

More information about the Handle with Care behavior management system is available on the organization’s website, which offers trainings, webinars, a blog, and other resources for a wide variety of folks who work with youngsters.

“As national experts in the fields of verbal intervention and passive restraint, facilitating training for more than 1000 facilities Handle With Care has trained well over 100,000 practitioners working with adults and children in some of the most challenging environments in the United States, Puerto Rico, Canada and Europe,” according to the site.

 

Dan Scoggin on “Filling a school campus with purpose”

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Great Hearts is a non-profit charter school network serving 16,000 students in Arizona and Texas. Our 28 K-12 academies offer a classical program alongside robust extra-curricular programs, creating a transformative experience for our students.

We believe that the highest goal of education is for students to become good, intellectually and morally.

Having said that, it might be strange to learn that there is no “character curriculum” at Great Hearts. The character curriculum is the school itself.

This is true of every school, for better or worse. What kind of art is in the hallways? How do the kids talk to one another in the lunchroom and then in the classrooms? How do the teachers befriend each other and serve the kids?  How do we address struggle and suffering? How do we honor excellence? Is the culture of the school unified by a mission? The answers to these questions reveal the “hidden curriculum” of character in any school.

In a school the lack of a mission becomes a mission— the vacuum of time, space, and meaning is always being filled by something, often anything. If educators and school leaders don’t fill a school campus with intentional purpose it becomes filled with unintentional confusion and cultural chaos. There is no such thing as an innate, happy, peaceful state of rest for any school.

At Great Hearts we view our intentional purpose as a restoration of a way of forming the habits and the tastes of the young that was once the hallmark of producing free citizens of a republic. Far too often the liberal arts are mislabeled as something archaic, impractical, or exclusive. Classical education stands out in public education today because, as one of our valedictorians put it, others have sat down.

The essential question—what does it mean to be a human being?—is the rightful inheritance of every child to address afresh. As such, liberal education should be both free and freeing. We love being inclusive public charter schools and working to fulfill Mortimer Adler’s anti-elitist proclamation that the “best education for the best is the best education for all.” The classics are inclusive and utterly scalable, and we Americans make them exclusive or private at our peril.

We believe a unified, coherent liberal arts education has the best chance of forming students who are happy and virtuous. The liberal arts tradition of the West allows us to confidently use terms such as virtue and truth without turning to religious doctrine. An education that assumes the reality of philosophy and forming character—just as much as it believes in the reality of chemistry, geometry, and economics—can work for our generation and within public education. In fact, public education is the rightful domain of such an approach. Like Socrates teaching in the public square in Athens, we must humbly submit that there are better and worse answers, and right and wrong answers, to how to live well and to how to pursue justice.

Character involves saying “yes” to a larger truth or beauty that encompasses and surrounds the self.  Forging character involves the moral autonomy of the individual to make free decisions on behalf of what he or she loves, to make private decisions when no one is looking, to defer desire for something they find ultimately compelling. Simply put, character is when creeds have become life convictions, when integrity becomes freedom. As the ancient Athenian statesman Pericles described the virtues of a free democracy and its citizens as, “. . . knowing the secret of happiness to be freedom, and the secret of freedom a brave heart.”

In the spirit of Pericles we named our public charter organization Great Hearts. It is a reminder to us of our heritage of freedom. But it also is a reminder to us of what we want our students to have, and who we want our students to be, as we inspire our students to fulfill their calling and prepare for the adventure ahead.

 

“Robot apocalypse” could affect character education

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A series of reports by Education Week is highlighting how automation and a possible “robot apocalypse” could impact the way schools educate students for the future, and how the outcome of many of the moral dilemmas that await the next generation will depend on how well schools instill good character.

The education site suggests that by the time today’s sixth graders are in the workforce, robots will have likely replaced many of the working and middle class jobs available today. Top economists and technology experts offer a wide range of predictions for the future, from a full-blown robot revolution to a slow integration of new technologies in a variety of sectors, and now schools are grappling with how to prepare students for the uncertain.

“What skills will today’s students need? Will the jobs available now still be around in 2030? Should every kid learn to code? What about apprenticeships, career-and-technical education, and ‘lifelong learning?’” Education Week questions. “Just as importantly, how can schools prepare children to participate in the political, civic, and moral debates stirred up by technology-driven changes?”

Futurists like Martin Ford, author of Rise of the Robots, predict many routine jobs could soon be gone, such as paralegals, radiologists, line cooks, truck drivers, tax preparers, office assistants and others.

Such “predictions tend to overgeneralize from a breakthrough at one level of engineering to quote another level of sophistication,” wrote Mike Rose in The Hedgehog Review, and tend to ignore history showing that new technologies often “draw on existing knowledge and skills, even as it might alter them.”

Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Paul Osterman, who ran the state’s workforce training programs, told Education Week that people will likely adapt with technology. And while some jobs will be lost, people will create new opportunities and new occupations in ways similar to the country’s transition from an agricultural economy to an industrial economy a century ago.

Either way, most agree students will need new skills for an unpredictable future, and will likely need a foundation in math and science, as well as other, uniquely human abilities.

“To maintain their edge, workers would also need to focus on cultivating the human qualities that robots still lack, such as creativity, empathy and abstract thinking,” Education Week reports. “And because most jobs could constantly evolve, today’s students could eventually face a make-or-break question: Can you adapt?”

That question will guide the flourishing of students after they graduate, and the answer could rest with how well schools instill good character in the classroom.

“ … Consider how deeply robots, algorithms, and digital agents are being woven into important aspects of our lives, from loan applications to dating to criminal sentencing. Will tomorrow’s citizens be thoughtful and vigilant in deciding how much control they’re willing to give to technology? Will they be able to recognize and challenge automated decision-making systems that replicate existing racial, gender, and other biases?” Education Week questions. “For all the attention to technology, the answer may have more to do with our laws, policies, and values.”

Many believe it’s especially critical for educators to help students reflect on the wise use of technology as part of a broader character formation lesson. Such lessons require intention and planning beginning with resources about character, technology, and making decisions based on good sense.

©2017 Advanced Studies in Culture

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