Coles Notes on Finding Common Ground: Character Development in Ontario School, K-12
April 2, 2013
I read “Finding Common Ground: Character Development in Ontario School, K-12” by the Ministry of Education and I want to share my Coles notes of the document.
“Character Development is the deliberate effort to nurture the universal attributes upon which schools and communities find consensus (Page 3).”
Character Development is a shared responsibility between parents, teachers, and the community but primarily falls upon the parents and families. In order for us to develop the character of our students, they MUST be involved.
The whole school needs to make this a priority otherwise it will not work. You have probably been in schools where the whole school works together and puts character development as THE most important thing being taught. On the other hand, you get a feeling at other schools, when the administration and the teachers do not value character development and the students know that they can get away with certain behaviours with certain staff. You can see the difference in the students and feel the difference in the school.
Character development needs to be integrated into the curriculum and everything we do at school in order for it to be effective.
With Ontario’s diverse population we need to teach our students to find the common ground between different groups. Finding something in common can help the students understand and feel closer to the other group and hopefully they will form friendships.
The kinds of character development that is focused on in this document are:Citizenship, being Fair, Respect, Trust, Responsibility, Optimism, Perseverance, Honesty, Integrity, and Empathy.
Some resources I have found to help you teach Character Development are:
