What is character education and development?

What is character education and development?

We live in a society that usually defines success by looking at climbing the corporate ladder, high productivity and accumulating wealth etc. On the other hand, we read almost daily on the newspaper or watch on television about selfless people who help the needy and give selflessly in time and in resources; some of us may consider this as success.

These two sides of success seem contradictory and quite often, people are confused and struggled with the questions of true success in life.

For a start, there is nothing wrong with the above including material wealth and certainly nothing wrong with having money; even lots of it. In my opinion, what seems wrong is the obsessive love of it; the love of money and materials wealth to the point of selfishness and self-centeredness.

What is success then? Is there true success?

Success must produce goodness in a person and to the society at large as well. However, it has to first reflect a person’s goodness and good character.

In today’s world, people often substitute having a prominent reputation, built upon flimsy facade, as having good character. We substitute attitude with aptitude. So much so we often miss the opportunity to mould good character traits in our young because all it matters most to many parents these days are doing well in school and scoring As. This is certainly not enough to build our next generation to head the family, the society and even the nation. We need to look seriously into character building of our children.

Character - the willingness to accept responsibility for one’s own life - is the source of which self-respect springs.

Below are at least 40 character traits that define and illustrates good qualities in a person. By being aware of these traits, a person will learn to make positive daily choices to act or react towards a situation or to people around.

1.                  ATTENTIVENESS,

2.                  AVAILABLITY

3.                  BOLDNESS

4.                  CAUTIOUSNESS

5.                  COMPASSION

6.                  CREATIVITY

7.                  DEFERENCE

8.                  DEPENDABILITY

9.                  DETERMINATION

10.              DILIGENCE

11.              DISCERNMENT

12.              DISCRETION

13.              ENTHUSIASM

14.              FLEXIBILITY

15.              FORGIVENESS

16.              GENEROSITY

17.              GRATEFULNESS

18.              HOSPITALITY

19.              HUMILITY

20.              INITIATIVE

21.              INTEGRITY

22.              LEADERSHIP

23.              LOYALTY

24.              OBEDIENCE

25.              ORDERLINESS

26.              PATIENCE

27.              PERSUASIVENESS

28.              PUNTUALITY

29.              RESOURCEFULNESS

30.              RESPECT

31.              RESPONSIBILITY

32.              SELF-CONTROL

33.              SENSITIVITY

34.              SINCERITY

35.              THOROUGHNESS

36.              THRIFTINESS

37.              TOLERANCE

38.              TRUTHFULNESS

39.              VIRTUE

40.              WISDOM