The Cornerstone to building good character

New Zealand finds itself in desperate need of a moral reformation that will only be brought about by attending to the character development of our children, writes Stuart Crosson.

As a father of three school-age boys, one of the most important responsibilities I have is to encourage these boys to grow into men of good character; or as Celia Lashlie puts it in her book He'll be OK: growing gorgeous boys into good men. All parents have a God-given responsibility to raise their children in a way that allows them to flourish and find their rightful place in the world. I believe cultivating good character lies at the heart of this calling.

If we ignore character development in our young people and focus solely on areas of knowledge acquisition, skill development or economic productivity, we run the risk of moral train wrecks. The recent court case of Ewan MacDonald, the two homicides on the Kapiti Coast and the boy-racers in Christchurch killing bystanders, all point to young men who have lost their moral compass.

In recent weeks I have come across a small, yet significant, movement in New Zealand schools that has heartened me greatly which focuses on character development. It is called "Cornerstone Values" and is being practised in some primary schools in Dunedin.

They include George Street Normal, Musselburgh and Fairfield Primary Schools. We might well ask the question, "who decides what represents good character?"

The Cornerstone model is based on research done by C. S. Lewis (of Narnia fame), who studied human civilisations including Greek, Roman, Egyptian, Indian, etc, and discerned eight basic character traits common to all societies. These were respect, responsibility, honesty and truthfulness, consideration for others, compassion, kindness, obedience (to rightful authority) and duty (obligation).

The Cornerstone model was developed in an Invercargill school in the early 1990s and fits well within the New Zealand public school curriculum and its requirement to teach values to our children. All schools teach some form of values, but they often appear to take on the political and philosophical influences of our post-modern culture and are quite selective in their approach. Some of the values the New Zealand curriculum guides our schools into teaching include curiosity, diversity, ecology, and so on.

It does not take a genius to realise that behaviour in our classrooms has deteriorated in recent decades. Disrespectful and violent behaviour has become widespread in New Zealand schools. What teachers and the wider community struggle to find are ways that will improve this bad behaviour and prepare our children for adulthood. Research does however suggest that schools that have implemented Cornerstone Values, with its emphasis on character development, are producing very positive results.

To look to our schools as the primary avenue for character development is not the whole story. There are at least three other environments for this vital task. Churches have, for 2000 years, taken a lead in promoting good character. It could be argued that the declining influence of Sunday School exposure to New Zealand children has negatively impacted behaviour in "Monday school".

Voluntary societies, such as Girl Guides, Boys Brigade (Iconz), Girls Brigade, and Boy Scouts, can and have contributed to the raising of our children in healthy ways. However, the primary environment for character development has always been, and must continue to be, the home - mum and dad passing on to their children, consciously and unconsciously, the deep matters that allow us to get on with one another and the world. When good character is lost to a generation, what gets passed on is not always helpful.

Last week, a friend of mine told me how someone had broken the jaw of a workmate who was minding their own business in a restaurant in the Octagon. What allows someone to do such an unprovoked and malicious act of violence in our city?

New Zealand, along with many other Western societies, finds itself in desperate need of a moral reformation that will only be brought about by attending to the character development of our children. Appealing to "my rights" and "my freedoms" and to other culturally and politically motivated "values", cannot be allowed to be the dominant cry in our classrooms and homes. There are deeper and more objective currents that shape our character, and these must be rediscovered. As the Apostle Paul wrote, "In my inner being I delight in God's law".

If you are a mum or dad, a teacher or a coach, perhaps a question you might want to consider is: "What type of character are you helping to form in the children you love?"

- Stuart Crosson is the vicar of St Matthew's Anglican Church, Dunedin.

 

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