Improving our moral landscape via character education: an opportunity for school counselor leadership.

School counselors are uniquely positioned to promote social responsibility and good character development in all students. Although every counselor must continue to embrace diversity and respect differences in personal values, unhealthy student behaviors could be deterred by deciding on ethical values that are necessary to ensure an optimal learning environment and student achievement. Consequently, the agreed-upon, consensual values could be taught, enforced, advocated for, and modeled in a preventative and proactive manner.

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School counselors are too often confronted with the by-product of disrespectful, irresponsible, and uncaring student attitudes and behaviors. Unfortunately, many of the counseling interventions are remedial and focused on repairing the psychological damage resulting from unhealthy student choices linked to poor character that can destroy the moral landscape of an academic environment. These behaviors often include, but are not limited to, lying, stealing, cheating, bullying, violence, alcohol abuse, illicit drug use, tobacco usage, sexual promiscuity, sexually transmitted diseases, academic underachievement, and chronic dissatisfaction with life. The American School Counselor Association's National Model: A Framework for School Counseling Programs (ASCA, 2003) encourages school counselors to provide direct services to every student and take leadership roles in effecting systemic change in a school. Character education is a proactive and purposeful approach designed to create a healthy learning environment to help each student incorporate values necessary for achievement (Lickona, 1991).

THE STATUS OF OUR SCHOOLS' MORAL LANDSCAPE

Is there really a need for school counselors to clarify and advocate for values that promote good character and socially responsible behaviors? The 2002 Report Card on the Ethics of American Youth sampled 12,000 high school students across the United States and revealed the following results: (a) 74% admitted to having cheated on an exam in the past year, (b) 38% admitted to having stolen something from a store within the past year, (c) 43% believed one had to lie or cheat to get ahead in life, and (d) 95% of students believed it was important for people to be trustworthy (Josephson Institute of Ethics, 2002).

Data such as this survey signal a warning sign that our youth need help in becoming socially responsible citizens. As Brooks and Goble (1997) pointed out, "There have been repeated warnings in the past years that ethical behavior was waning. However, the prevailing response remained one of denial and acquiescence. Schools pointed at parents, parents at schools, and society in general pointed at everyone else" (p. 24).

According to Meyers (2000), schools took on driver education and let go of character education. As we lost our resolve to teach shared values, character itself waned during this period of social recession. We were left with more questions than answers. As Meyers said,

   Is there an absolute right and wrong? Are all
   cultures, and their values, moral equals? Does
   someone have a right to presume moral judgments--and
   impose them on our children?
   Should we instead merely help students wrestle
   with moral dilemmas and clarify their personal
   values? Or, despairing of any consensus,
   should we avoid the subject, leaving values,
   virtues, and character to the home?

As a result, educators and school counselors have not been encouraged and supported by their community, parents, legislators, and media to teach children how to behave.

IS IT APPROPRIATE FOR SCHOOL COUNSELORS TO ADVOCATE FOR SELECT VALUES?

One of the most challenging aspects of" being a professional school counselor is to subjugate personal opinions and values and control one's own needs, desires, and preferences to ensure that one is acting in the best interest of the student. In a social world where opinions are dispensed liberally, a similar practice in counseling can cause enormous harm, especially in a multicultural counseling relationship in which imposing one's own values can be a breeding ground for a lack of understanding and disrespect. This can lead to premature termination of the counseling relationship. The counseling profession has been seriously criticized for failing to be fully aware of the unique cultural differences and values of individuals from diverse backgrounds (Lewis, Lewis, Daniels, & D'Andrea, 1998). Competent and ethical counselors are obviously not interested in creating disciples or dependents (Kottler & Brown, 2000). Professional counselors make an ethical commitment to honor the unique values of the individual and to try to refrain from imposing personal values on their clientele (American Counseling Association, 1995).

Ironically, being value-neutral puts school counselors in a very awkward position and oftentimes confusing paradoxes. What values are appropriate to teach, enforce, advocate, and model while concurrently being sensitive to differing cultural values? The school counseling profession would benefit by developing and promoting consensual ethical values necessary to ensure a healthy school climate yet still respectful of diverse preference values.

IMPLICATIONS FOR SCHOOL COUNSELORS: IMPROVING OUR MORAL LANDSCAPE

Schools throughout the United States are experiencing the by-product of poor moral development that too often manifests in irresponsible behaviors that impede student achievement. Seemingly, professional school counselors can proactively combat unhealthy behavioral choices and their negative consequences by evaluating and adopting a character education framework. CHARACTER COUNTS! is an example of a character education initiative that professional school counselors can utilize. This model uses the "Six Pillars of Character"--including trustworthiness, respect, responsibility, fairness, caring, and citizenship--to promote good character. These ethical values were determined at a summit conference convened by the Josephson Institute of Ethics in 1992 in Aspen, Colorado. A diverse group of educators, youth leaders, and ethicists agreed unanimously that these six values were clearly central to ethical people's lives, regardless of cultural differences (Josephson Institute of Ethics, 2002).

Character education has not become a priority, in the United States until very recently but may be a primary vehicle for school counselors to embrace and to take active leadership roles in. With the help of federally subsidized grants to measure the efficacy of character education, the research measuring the ethical conduct of our youth should improve (U.S. Department of Education, 2003). Until now, much of the data yielding positive results has been anecdotal and conclusions have been made based on soft evidence. Improved research methodology utilizing randomized samples, experimental and control groups, validated instruments, and appropriate statistical analysis likely will help school counselors better understand what interventions best promote character and a healthy school climate.

CONCLUSION

According to Ryan and Bohlin (1999), there is a reawakening for the need to promote good character. The frightening statistics about crime, poor academic achievement, promiscuity, substance abuse, violence, and pervasive unhappiness among our youth are grabbing this country's attention. Preventative initiatives such as character education can help professional school counselors unite all educators to work together to promote the growth and development of every student. This is entirely consistent with the ASCA National Model (2003). Professional school counselors have the potential to be leaders in the promotion of good character and resulting improvements in social responsibility by determining agreed-upon ethical values that help reinforce useful behavioral choices. These behaviors are necessary to promote strong character, increase student achievement, and achieve a healthy school climate.

References

American Counseling Association. (1995). Code of ethics and standards of practice. Alexandria, VA: Author.

American School Counselor Association. (2003). The ASCA National Model: A framework for school counseling programs. Alexandria, VA: Author.

Brooks, B. D., & Goble, F. G. (1997). The case for character education. Northridge, CA: Studio 4 Productions.

Josephson Institute of Ethics. (2002). Report card 2002: The ethics of American youth. Marina del Rey, CA: Author.

Kottler, J. A., & Brown, R.W. (2000). Introduction to therapeutic counseling. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth.

Lewis, J. A., Lewis, M. D., Daniels, J. A., & D'Andrea, M. J. (1998). Community counseling (2nd ed.). Pacific Grove, CA: Brooks/Cole Publishing Company.

Lickona, T. (1991). Educating for character. New York: Simon & Schuster.

Meyers, D. G. (2000). The American paradox. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.

Ryan, K., & Bohlin, K. E. (1999). Building character in schools. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass Publishers.

U.S. Department of Education. (2003, September 29). Character education grants awarded [press release]. Washington, DC: Author.

Mark J. Britzman is a professor in the Counseling and Human Resource Development Department at South Dakota State University, Brookings. E-mail: [e-mail]