Character Education Speech by Representative Dean Urdahl

"Thank you for the opportunity to speak to you again and for all the effort that you put into character education.

I taught for 35 years at New London-Spicer. Part of that time, we had a character education curriculum centering on building relationships and building character. I remember a unit we had on anger management. The slogan was, "Think about it, talk about it, try to work it out."

I went over this lesson diligently. Then, the next week, one of my students reported late to class.

"What happened?" I asked.

"Fighting." he said. I was disappointed. Apparently my message hadn't gotten through.

"Didn't you remember the slogan?" I inquired.

"Sure," he answered. "I thought about it, we talked about it, and then I hit him."

It doesn't always work but it is important that we try. Character Education is a national movement. Among its goals is to foster ethical, responsible and caring young people by modeling and teaching good character through an emphasis on universal values that we all share.

There are core, ethical values such as respect for self and others, responsibility, integrity and self-discipline that must be addressed. Character Education provides long-term solutions that address moral, ethical and academic issues that are of growing concern about our society and the safety of our schools.

Critical issues such as student absenteeism, discipline problems, drug abuse, gang violence, teen pregnancy and poor academic performance can all be influenced by the positive values integrated into Character Education curriculum.

There are many approaches to this. I'm not here to say that one is better than the others. I'm familiar with “Changing Lives,” which is based in my hometown of Litchfield. The Character Counts approach stresses Six Pillars that I think are worth reviewing today.

Trustworthiness, Respect, Responsibility, Fairness, Caring, and Citizenship.

As a former Social Studies teacher let me emphasize citizenship. A definite relationship exists between Character Education and Citizenship Education. This country needs people who are involved in their communities: from just helping out a neighbor to running for office. Simply caring about what goes on around us is critical and never minimize the importance of one vote.

Character education is more important today than ever. We live in a society that has not been taught basic moral values. The value of life and property, the value of respect and honesty. We constantly see in the news that character is set aside for the feeling of the moment. Anger, jealousy, hatred and selfishness are instead placed center stage and acted upon. The time has come to bring character to the forefront again and raise the moral values we have as a society and as individuals.

Let me conclude with this quote: "I believe life is a series of near misses. A lot of what we ascribe to luck is not luck at all. It's seizing the day and accepting responsibility for your future. It's seeing what other people don't see and pursuing that vision." (Howard Schultz)

Because of character education, I am convinced that you have the tools to accept that responsibility for the future and that your vision is seen through clearer eyes. Thank you."