Two Upcoming Issues This blog is a work in progress, as is my involvement in the character education conversation. My entries on two favorite issues are works in progress as well. I plan to write more on them in the future but hesitate to publish too much too soon. Once it’s out there it’s hard to get it back so I want to do a little research and get it right.

The two issues are the “achievement gap,” and the relationship between knowledge and character.

The “achievement gap” is the gap between the test scores of middle and upper class, mostly white, mostly suburban students, and the test scores of low-income, mostly black and Hispanic, urban and rural students. It corresponds to the future income gap between these groups and the more general social gap that signifies quality of life. It has become the primary focus of many education reform projects.

The relationship between character and knowledge is the engine of most character education programs. Achievement via test scores is the measuring stick for schools these days and the impact of character education on this achievement provides the data that justifies most programs.

Conventional wisdom about the achievement gap says that the gap exists as a symptom of other societal ills: poverty, the breakdown of family, racism, employment opportunities, etc. There are already lots of very smart, highly motivated and well funded reformers attacking the problem from this angle, so I’m exploring another perspective. What if the achievement gap is not a symptom, but a cause of societal ills?

I think of the achievement gap as an expression of our apparent, collective intention to keep our society segmented. In other words, it’s a shell game that the well-to-do know how to win. Perhaps our educational system has become a mechanism for maintaining the divisions in our society (other mechanisms might include white-flight from cities creating, middle class, mostly white suburbs and consumption taxes that disproportionately affect low-income individuals on items such as alcohol, cigarettes and gasoline).

Our society did not change immediately after the Civil Rights Act was signed. We took down the “whites only” signs from the drinking fountains but then we developed new and less obvious ways to segregate groups. Our schools became the filters for separating socio-economic classes. We now subject our children to excessive, punitive “standardized” tests and draw conclusions that justify and exacerbate the separation between groups. And when we try to close the gap by increasing achievement on the low end, it only opens further at the other end with changes in educational “standards” and learning objectives.

So what do we do about it? I have no idea. If my upside-down perspective holds water one possible approach could be to de-emphasize standardized tests in schools serving low-income families. Stop trying to hit the moving target of “achievement” and focus on something we can control: the growth in character of our low-income students. I’m not advocating ignoring academics; I’m just saying we take the more deliberate route toward achievement by encouraging the expression of good character, thereby creating life long, responsible, independent learners.

As for the relationship between character and knowledge the current debate revolves around which comes first. Do kids pressed to acquire knowledge develop character as they learn to understand the world and themselves, or do kids who focus on character first thereby unlock their abilities to acquire knowledge?

The current debate favors the knowledge first approach. Character education programs are supplements to knowledge based curricula and usually rank far behind standard electives such as physical education and music and art classes. Certain studies tell us that students with good grades and those who are involved in positive extra-curricular activities are less likely to steal, cheat or lie. But the studies really do not show which came first, the good grades or the good character.

Sometimes this relationship is seen as a chicken and egg problem. Which came first, knowledge or character, is a conundrum that seems pointless to even try to untangle. Obviously they are correlated, but how?

I try to take a similar approach to this problem as I do with the achievement gap. I advocate for the less popular perspective, that character comes before knowledge. I believe that most high achievers perform well academically because they have been encouraged to express good character in the past and rely on their character during academic pursuits. So, by encouraging character in all of our students we can drastically improve the academic performance of every child.

Both of these issues are huge topics that I will get back to later. If anyone has any input on either issue it would be appreciated.