The following text is taken from Chapter 2 of the Smart and Good High Schools Report by Thomas Lickona, Ph.D. & Matthew Davidson, Ph.D. available at www.charactereducation.com.
Support for the Concept of Performance Character and Moral Character: Five Sources
Support for the overall two-part concept of character, as involving performance character and moral character, comes from five sources: (1) research on motivation and talent development; (2) the wisdom of the ages; (3) lives of character; (4) the practices of great character educators; and (5) the voices of high school teachers and students.
1. Research on motivation and talent development.
Studies of talent development show that performance character, including self-discipline and good work habits, is needed to develop innate ability. In their book Talented Teenagers, a 5-year longitudinal study of 200 talented adolescents, Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, Kevin Rathunde, and Samuel Whalen note that underachievement on the part of talented youth is common in fields as varied as athletics, art, science, mathematics, and music. Their research question: Why do some young people become committed to the development of their talent, while others drop out? Through their study they found that teens who more strongly persisted in developing their talent: (1) had a stronger “achievement and endurance orientation”; (2) were more likely to develop habits conducive to talent development (such as focusing on goals whether doing talent-related work or general schoolwork, being able to spend time alone, and, when they did spend time with friends, collaborating on hobbies and studying instead of simply “hanging out”); (3) had more conservative sexual attitudes than their peers; (4) were more likely to have harmonious and supportive families; (5) had more productive school experiences, including teachers who stimu- lated them, cared about their interests, and modeled enthusiastic enjoyment of their own fields of work; and (6) were more likely to experience “flow,” the experience of optimal engagement as they exercised and developed their talents.7 (See Flow: The psychology of optimal experience, for Csikszentmihalyi’s elaboration of the concept of flow8).
In short, the combination of strong performance character, supportive and challenging adults, and the capacity to take pleasure in developing their gifts maximized the likelihood that talented teens fulfilled their potential.
2. The wisdom of the ages.
Washington State University historian Richard Hooker notes that the most articulated value in Greek culture is arête, a word frequently translated as “virtue,” which Hooker claims is actually better translated as “being the best you can be” or “reaching your highest human potential.” This notion of virtue indicates support for a view of character rooted in excellence and ethics. The wisdom of the ages confirms the necessity and power of both performance character and moral character.
3. Lives of character.
If we examine lives of character, we invariably find both strong performance character and strong moral character at work. In their book, Some Do Care: Contemporary Lives of Moral Commitment, psychologists Anne Colby and William Damon profile 23 men and women of exemplary character, including religious leaders of different faiths, businessmen, physicians, teachers, heads of non – profit organizations, and leaders of social movements. Their contributions spanned civil rights, the fight against poverty, medical care, education, philanthropy, the environment, peace, and religious freedom. Reading these portraits of character, one sees again and again, the interplay of moral character and performance character: high ethical goals combined with diligence and determination in the pursuit of those goals. Colby’s and Damon’s book could have been titled, Some Do Care—And Those Who Care Most Effectively Are Very Good At What They Do. None of the noble accomplishments of these exemplars would have been possible without the mutually supportive contributions of performance character and moral character. And so it is, we suggest, in any life of character.
4. The practices of great character educators.
If we examine how great teachers or great coaches go about their craft, we find that they foster in their students both performance character and moral character—a commitment to both excellence and ethics. As a case in point, consider the legendary UCLA basketball coach, John Wooden. In the twelve seasons from 1964 to 1975, Wooden’s men’s UCLA basketball teams won ten NCAA Division I championships, including seven national championships in a row. No other coach—in basketball or any other sport— has even approached such a record of excellence. And yet Wooden never talked to his players about winning; he talked about character. The character blueprint for UCLA’s supremacy was Wooden’s famous “Pyramid of Success” (see figure on page 49), consisting of 25 values which he explicitly taught to his teams and which they, under his direction, consistently practiced. Note that these values included moral values, such as friendship, loyalty, cooperation, honesty, and reliability, as well as performance values, such as industriousness, enthusiasm, skill, team spirit, and competitive greatness. These values in action, not good recruiting or good fortune, were the distinguishing mark of UCLA basketball teams and the secret of their remarkable success.
In his memoir, Wooden wrote:
The goal in life is the same as in basketball: Make the effort to do the best you are capable of doing—in marriage, at your job, in the community, for your country. Make the effort to contribute in whatever way you can. You may do it materially or with time, ideas, or work. Making the effort to contribute is what counts. The effort is what counts in everything.
How did John Wooden instil this attitude in his basketball players? Former NBA star Bill Walton explains:
Coach Wooden taught us how to focus on one primary objective: Be the best you can in whatever endeavour you undertake. Don’t worry about the score. Don’t worry about image. Don’t worry about the opponent. It sounds easy, but it’s actually very difficult. For us, it all started with our practices at UCLA. They were non-stop action, absolutely electric and incredibly demanding, with Coach Wooden pacing up and down the sidelines barking out instructions, positive reinforcements, and appropriate maxims: “Be quick, but don’t hurry.” “Failing to prepare is preparing to fail.” “Discipline yourself and others won’t need to.” Games actually seemed like they happened in a slower gear because of the pace at which we practiced. We’d run a play perfectly in scrimmage and Coach would say, “OK, fine. Now re-set. Do it again, faster.” We’d do it again. Faster. And again. Faster. And again.
In his book, Wooden says, “Don’t measure yourself by what you’ve accomplished, but rather by what you should have accomplished with your abilities.” He then describes two UCLA basketball players who “were as successful as any players I ever coached, including those who went on to play professional basketball.” When they first tried out for the team, Wooden didn’t think they could make the grade. “However,” he says, “what I couldn’t see was what these men had on the inside.” By giving everything they had to give, both players, Conrad Burke and Doug McIntosh, eventually became starters for UCLA. “You may not have heard of them,” Wooden concludes, “but each epitomizes what I define as success in an individual. They have come close to making the most of their God-given talent.” We think the qualities John Wooden epitomized are the distinguishing mark of all great teachers and coaches. They expect their students to give their best effort and to treat others with respect, fairness, and caring. They have high standards for learning and high standards for behavior. In short, they expect and develop both performance character and moral character—excellence and ethics.
“Don’t measure yourself by what you have accomplished, but by what you should have accomplished with your abilities.”
5. The voices of high school teachers and students.
In our research, we found that many high school practitioners do not self-identify as “character educators,” at least not initially. This, we noticed, was because they tended to equate “character education” with “discussing ethics.” For example, one science teacher said, “I teach chemistry; I don’t teach character. Occasionally, I might touch on an ethical issue, but I really don’t have a lot of time for that.” However, when these same teachers began to speak about what students need to succeed in their classroom, they described character outcomes—specifically, performance character outcomes. They want students who will be able to demonstrate:
- diligence—commitment to doing a job or assignment well
- perseverance in the face of difficulty
- dependability, including the ability to do their part on a project
- responsibility for having the required supplies or materials
- orderliness in their work
- the ability to set goals and monitor progress toward the realization of those goals.
For example, the chemistry teacher we interviewed emphasized many facets of academic responsibility with her students:
I tell my students, “You’ll do better in this class if you keep an organized notebook. But it’s your responsibility to do that; I’m not going to check it. You’ll also do better on tests and in the course as a whole if you do the homework. But that’s your responsibility as well.” And I tell them that if they miss a class, a responsible student calls his or her lab partner to get the assignment.
When you get to this point in the discussion, a light bulb goes on and practitioners say, “If this is what you mean by character education, then, yes, I’m a character educator. In fact, I spend much of my time and energy trying to get these outcomes, because without these qualities of character, it is unlikely that students will be able to learn and develop in the academic disciplines.” Bingo.
“Performance character” gives high school educators a new language for describing their daily work.
“Performance character” thus gives high school educators a new character language for describing the academic endeavour of teaching and learning that is the focus of their daily work. Of course, good teachers, as they help their students develop performance character, also pay attention to moral character: how students treat the teacher, treat each other, care for classroom materials and equipment, honour expectations of honesty on tests and other work, and so on. “I run a classroom based on respect,” the above-quoted chemistry teacher said. “That includes standing for the pledge.” But our point here is that defining character to give a prominent place to performance character as well as moral character profoundly alters how secondary-level educators see character education. Character development as the pursuit of excellence in learning, not just as the fostering of ethical behaviour, is, for high school teachers, a “fit.”
In a similar way, giving performance character its due offers high school students, especially in today’s competitive environment, a new reason to pay attention to character. In one Chicago area high-achieving, middle to upper-class high school, a senior reported that fellow students had taken to saying, “If character counts, then show me what it will do for my GPA.” Now, we obviously want students to believe that character is important even if it doesn’t impact their GPA; we are obliged to be moral people even if doing the right thing is not rewarded—indeed, even if, in some situations, it costs us something. That said, however, shouldn’t educators be able to show students that character can contribute to their academic performance?
Performance character helps all students achieve the excellence of which they are capable.
The performance character-moral character distinction enables us to do that because it establishes a role for character in the realization of human excellence. Regardless of natural talent, persons who are diligent and disciplined, maintain a positive attitude, and persevere in the face of difficulty should, over time, see a positive impact on their performance indicators (and, to be sure, GPA is only one indicator and arguably less important than other measures of the quality of a student’s work). Performance character will not level the playing field; it will not guarantee that all students achieve at the same level of excellence. It will, however, act to maximize individual potential—helping all students achieve the excellence of which they are capable.
The Attribute
The Attribute is a character-based e-newsletter committed to providing a Canadian voice for the support of character development by connecting the learning community locally and globally through resources, best practice, perspectives and professional development.
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