米国で視察し た品格教育(Character Education)の実際(3) : セントルイスの場合

The purpose of this paper is to report our site visits of the character education.facilities and schools in St. Louis, MO, USA. In St. Louis, there are two main facilities which lead character education locally and globally. They are CHARACTERplus and Center for Character & Citizenship, which have been helping schools to establish good characters in schools and students for a long time. The authors visited these facilities and five public schools which won the National School of Character Prize awarded by the Character Education Partnership. The authors also participated in three seminars of leadership academy. Based on our site visits, the following concepts about character education were found among these schools: school leaders were trying to provide good services that build sustainable relationships throughout cross-age groups, establish cooperative learning and authentic partnerships among students, and integrate all school elements into character education. These schools were trying to provide many learning opportunities for students to behave as good leaders in their schools and communities. It was thought that the school leaders' perseverance efforts to establish sustained and caring relationship with core virtues would be one of comprehensive school reform programs.