Character Matters: How to Help Our Children Develop Good Judgment, Integrity, and Other Essential Virtues

As a graduate student going into the field of school counseling, I found this book extremely interesting and useful. Of all the books I have been assigned to read for classes, this one is by far the best. The ideas and activities Thomas Lickona has come up with for building character and morality in students is phenominal. His ideas are so creative yet simple at the same time. They are also realistic and very diverse for all ages. If you are in the field of education, a parent, or someone just interested in this topic, this book is a MUST! I believe if all educators looked at character education the way Thomas Lickona does we could make a positive difference in our children today.

Our school's Site Based Team is in the process of doing something related to Dr. Lickona's book "Character Matters" that we think is exciting. Organized around the "book club" theme, we have been promoting the book as something we think is worth having parents and staff read. Since June of last year, we have sold close to 160 copies of the book; we also have a set of five available to borrow from the school library. This endeavor will culminate with an evening with Dr. Lickona in November, where he facilitates a book talk and takes questions from the audience. We're expecting in excess of 200 parents and educators in attendance, and are quite excited to see where this takes us in our character education initiative. As we were with his previous work, "Raising Good Children", we are indebted to Dr. Lickona for his commitment to promoting good character. Robert Storrier, Principal Enders Road Elementary School, Manlius, NY

Our school district began a Character Education initiative three years ago. I am the Coordinator of the project. We knew from the beginning that we wanted to include our entire community but were not sure where to begin. I was fortunate enough to learn about Dr. Tom Lickona's book, Character Matters. After reading the book, I was even more committed to our project. We purchased a book for every employee to read and have used Dr. Lickona's teachings through this book, as a step-by-step guide in implementing Character in Action in Wisconsin. After our first year, we made the decision to host a two-day Character Education Conference for all educators in the Midwest. Dr. Lickona was one of our keynote speakers AND every conference participant received Character Matters in their conference bag. It was the best gift we could give to other educators wanting to know more about character education. I highly recommend this book to anyone, educator, parent or community leader, who is striving to make a difference in our world and wishes to do so the right way!

I wish this book would be required reading for every school administrator, teacher, and parent. I have been a public school educator for 25 years. I am also a parent and a grandparent. I found this book to be extremely refreshing in a time where "No Child Left Behind" has taken us too far in the wrong direction. Yes, we want to set high academic expectations for our children and yes, we do want accountability. But what good are high test scores if there is more cheating, dishonesty, cynicism, and disrespect for others? This book, along with many others on Character Education, is a call back to common sense in education: Let's not only raise our expectations for academic achievement, but also for honesty, integrity, responsibility, work ethic, and respect for others. The current NCLB legislation (with its emphasis on high stakes testing) has taken the focus away from educating the whole child. Current education research shows this is not best practice; this is not in the best interest of the child or of our society! This book provides inspiration and hope for educating the whole child. It provides many practical suggestions and ideas for making our homes, schools, and communities a much more civil place to live and learn. If educators, legislators, and parents would read this book and put it's ideas into practice, we would be making a positive difference!

This book comes at a critical time in our society- it has wonderful ideas and strategies that can be readily applied to school settings- forming partnerships with parents and teachers is especially helpful!