Does America's Schooling Reflect Students' Character?

I picked up the most recent issue of The Economist today and found an interesting opinion piece regarding the lack of work ethic found in today's American students when compared to their counterparts in Europe and Asia.  The author, who is unnamed, attributes America's declining scores in international achievement tests and national standarized tests to the fact that our students have a shorter school year period and shorter school days to that of European and Asian students.  Therefore, the way to boost our students' test scores, and apparent motivation to perform well in school, is to call for legislation that demands our students attend 8 hour school-days, maybe even some Saturday schools, and definitely attend school year-round if our students are to compete in a global market.

I say, phewy!  What our students need in American schools today is that of character training infused into the curriculum and daily aspect of school.  As an educator I have seen many students' lack of motivation, responsibility, and respect decline in the past decade even though Congress has pushed to integrate character education or character development within public schools.  Think of the No Child Left Behind Act and you will notice that federal and state money was spent to secure character education programs which would help raise students' productivity as well as the student achievement gap, if they learned character such as responsibility for tasks, respect for those around them (teachers, parents, students, different culture and ethnic groups, etc), and developed motivation to get the job done.

Well, many schools tried to implement character education programs but what is lacking is that the programs are not integrated into daily life but rather given a 15 minute lesson maybe one time per week in which students focus on developing a certain character trait.  If our students are to compete in a global market, I believe that a longer school day or longer school year is not necessary because if students already lack motivation to perform well on tasks and achievement tests, than why would legislators believe a longer school year would somehow motivate these kids to perform?  I believe many of our schools' problems can be solved with a strong, integrated character education program which focuses on all adults in the school community modeling what they teach: character and values!  Studies have shown that even the slightest implementation of a character education program increases student performance on tests, student attendance, and student behaviorr and decreases malbehavioral issues such as student drop-out, student crime, and student bullying.

If we want American students to succeed and compete in a global market and see their motivation increase to do so, then legislators should worry less about lengthening the amount of time spent in school, but rather focus on how well the time is currently spent in school for our students.  Teachers and school administratos should be integrating character education programs, alongside current curriculum standards, in order to properly develop character in our students.  When students have character, they will be self-motivated to perform well, behave well, become a good citizen, and participate in helping improve our country's performance in a global market.  However, students need good character role models and that really begins at home.