Education and Character Building

An article on a related topic "Building Character to Build Nations" was published in the News.

Julie Reuben's book: The Making of the Modern University: Intellectual transformation and the marginalization of morality. Shows how the mission of character building was abandoned by universities in the USA and its bad effects. Summary of book given here: [link]

New York Times’s Sunday Magazine in its education issue has very informative title story on the factors causing academic excellence and good life. Traditional measure of success like IQ test is not good predictor of geting into college and leading a fulfilling life for high school students. Their is more to success then good test score. Two Schools in New York try to inculcate traits, which are good predictor of success and balance life. These traits are based on the research of Martin Seligman, Professor of Psychology and director of Positive Psychology center at University of Pennsylvania. The list included some we think of as traditional noble traits, like bravery, citizenship, fairness, wisdom and integrity; others that veer into the emotional realm, like love, humor, zest and appreciation of beauty; and still others that are more concerned with day-to-day human interactions: social intelligence (the ability to recognize interpersonal dynamics and adapt quickly to different social situations), kindness, self-regulation, gratitude.[link]

The dominant philosophy of selfishness, formulated by Fritz Perls inn the Gestalt Prayer, and its damaging half truths, are discussed here: [link]

The FINNISH model should be studied in detail. One Link is: