Character Education

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Overview

Our approach to learning about virtues was inspired by Benjamin Franklin. In his autobiography, Franklin recorded his daily attempts to improve on one isolated virtue a week. He had chosen thirteen virtues on which to concentrate, and he focused on a different one every week, recording situations and his responses to them as well as his own initiatives pertaining to the particular virtue. He tried this approach because he knew that virtue is acquired through good habits, practiced daily.He felt that focusing on each one in turn would allow him to see his strengths and weaknesses in relationship to his articulated virtues. At the end of his life, Franklin was asked if he succeeded in achieving his standards, and he said no, but that he had followed his daily and weekly regimen all his life, believing through it all that "without virtue, man has no happiness in this world."

Our character education program intentionally takes as its model Franklin’s, and adapts it for the purposes of children who, along with the adults in the community, need to become life-long practitioners of virtue. Unlike Franklin’s, our schedule of virtues are on the classic, cardinal virtues.  Derived from the virtues of Justice, Wisdom, Courage, and Moderation articulated in Plato's Republic, they are termed "cardinal"  (from the Latin word for hinge)  because all other virtues "hinge" upon them. By concentrating on each virtue in turn, following a well-publicized schedule that parents should use at home and teachers use during class instruction time, children and the adults in the community focus their daily attempts to inculcate a pattern of virtuous behavior.

BFCCPS fosters virtuous behavior in a variety of ways, including:

• Curricular connections – stories and concepts are taken from history, science, and literature that shed light on a particular virtue and lead to thoughtful discussion on the choices we make and how they affect our character.
• Classroom activities and service: As Aristotle noted, we learn by doing. We become brave by performing brave acts and just by performing just acts. BFCCPS’ emphasis on service to the school and the greater community helps students practice responsibility and compassion.
• Expectations: At BFCCPS, we actively try to build an ethical community. We strive to treat each other with respect, to learn from our mistakes, and to support as we grow as individuals and as a community.

If we are successful, every member of the community will continue this pattern of focus, formally or informally, long after he or she ceases to be a member of this community. Finding both virtue and happiness through guidance is central to our mission and forms the basis of the hopes we hold for our children.

The Four Virtues

Members of the BFCCPS community strive to live a life of virtue. A virtue is acquired through "good habit." We all have habits – ways we behave over and over again. The key to living a happy life is understanding which habits are worth developing (and which we should get rid of!). Below are the classical, cardinal virtues. All other virtues "hinged" upon these four – thus we have also identified related character traits that can help us in our efforts to improve ourselves. Benjamin Franklin, the school’s namesake, chose his own set of nine similar virtues and focused on one each week, recording his accomplishments in a "little book". He recognized that character development is a life-long process – not one that ends after the 8’th grade or upon reaching "adulthood"!