Making Courtesy Common

When Kathy Perini became principal of Emperor Elementary School eight years ago, teachers peppered her with complaints about ill-behaved, unkind students.

These days, courteous sixth-graders at the school in San Gabriel volunteer to clean up the cafeteria and teach computer skills to younger pupils. Teachers fashion “integrity trees” to honor students’ good deeds. And youngsters formally pledge to show respect and compassion for others.

What made the difference was Values in Action, a character education program that teaches seven core ethical values, including responsibility and perseverance.

As educators and parents in the past decade have grappled with the whys of school violence and discipline problems, the teaching of values and moral principles in schools has surged in popularity.

The push--endorsed by President Bush--is coming amid what many parents, educators and politicians perceive as the collapse of common courtesy and decency in society at large. Events such as the March 5 shooting at Santana High School in suburban San Diego and the recent shutdown of SchoolRumors.com, a Web site where Southland students used explicit language to insult one another, bring the problem into sharp focus.

At least 48 states, California among them, have embraced educational standards for teaching character to students.

In a 1996 survey by the National School Boards Assn., more than three-quarters of all districts said they had adopted or planned to adopt a character education initiative.

Nationwide, more than 150 independent centers, including several in California, peddle such materials and programs.

Bush, a key proponent, advocates tripling the nearly $9 million in federal funds that schools spend annually on character education.

Yet detractors on the political right see character education as an attempt by schools to override the responsibilities of parents and churches.

Left-leaning critics, meanwhile, worry that some programs--notably Character First!, run out of Oklahoma City--flirt with evangelism and excessively stress obedience to authority figures.

“Most of the programs people are nervous about go up to the line with an approach that is too authoritarian or perhaps reflects one religion,” said Charles Haynes, senior scholar at the First Amendment Center of the Freedom Forum, a research group in Arlington, Va. But most programs, he noted, are careful to avoid overt references to religion, thereby steering clear of constitutional violations.

Another problem, skeptics say, is that some programs are superficial, with a “character word of the month” on posters and T-shirts but no true infusion of values instruction into the curriculum.

Above all, no one can answer the question that is writ large in an era when angry teenagers smuggle guns into schools: Will a steady dose of character education keep them from killing classmates?

“It’ll be a long time before we have definitive proof [on that issue],” said William Damon, an education professor at Stanford University. “I don’t think it’s going to prevent every possible incidence of school violence. Do I think it will help? Yes.”

Little reliable research exists about the effectiveness of school character programs, although at least one study suggests that full-scale initiatives can reduce aggression and boost academic achievement.

Educators have long thought that good character and good citizenship were at the core of the mission of public education.

In the early 20th century, many schools developed character education programs. By the late 1920s, however, educators had split over how best to accomplish such teaching. Some teachers required the mere memorization of morality codes, while others relied on a broader curriculum for character-building.

During the 1960s and ‘70s, character education faded. For about three decades, schools were reluctant to impose values and left it up to individual students to sort out right from wrong. Values were clarified, not taught.

The practice angered many parents, confused educators and generally “poisoned the well,” said Haynes, who is a board member of the Character Education Partnership, a nonpartisan organization that promotes such education.

“It has taken us a long time to overcome that period,” Haynes added. “But educators now realize: Yes, we do stand for civic virtues and sharing moral values such as honesty and caring.”

That many students are morally adrift was made painfully apparent by a national survey released last fall by the Josephson Institute of Ethics in Marina del Rey.

Of 8,600 students surveyed, 71% said they had cheated in the previous year; 35% said they had stolen something from a store; 68% said they had struck someone when angry, and 47% said they could get a gun if they wanted to.

Yet 96% gave themselves high marks for possessing good character.

Such findings helped prompt Bob Collins, a local district superintendent with the Los Angeles Unified School District, to adopt the Josephson Institute’s Character Counts! program, which was already in place at schools in Anaheim, Irvine, Manhattan Beach and the Antelope Valley.

Starting next school year, the program is expected to begin in many of the district’s schools in the central San Fernando Valley, the area that Collins oversees.

Teachers will offer lessons on the “six pillars of character”--trustworthiness, respect, responsibility, fairness, caring and citizenship--and coaches will promote sportsmanship to their teams.

“There are bigger things out there than getting good grades and making a lot of money,” Collins said. “These [pillars] are universal values that I think everyone can respect.”

Indeed, support for character education is coming from across the ideological spectrum, said Thomas Lickona, director of the Center for the 4th and 5th Rs (respect and responsibility) at the State University of New York in Cortland.

“In schools that are doing character ed well, there really is an effort to transform the school culture so that it becomes a civil, caring and purposeful community where all students feel safe, valued and welcomed,” Lickona said.

At Emperor Elementary, a K-6 school that is part of the Temple City Unified School District, students are some of the most vocal fans of the character education program.

Now in its seventh year, character education is woven into all subjects, from writing to physical education. One recent lesson required students to find Bush’s inaugural speech online and pull from it references to positive character traits. They then designed posters reflecting those values.

During recess, students leave backpacks untended on outdoor tables because, they say, there is no problem with theft.

Teachers at Emperor make it clear that they expect good behavior at all times.

The idea is so ingrained that teachers “don’t even have to tell us anymore,” said Monica Suarez, 11, a sixth-grader who greeted a reporter on the playground one recent morning.

“I think it has probably changed everybody’s outlook and how everybody treats people, with responsibility and respect,” said fifth-grader Samantha Harrison, 11. The lessons help her to feel more responsible at home, too.

“If my parents ask me to pick up my clothes, I don’t wait till they get mad enough to yell,” she said.

Emperor’s program, which was cited as exemplary last year by the Character Education Partnership, has improved the climate for teachers, instructors say.

“It really works. It makes working here a pleasure,” said Phyllis White, a second-grade teacher who has been at the school since 1984.

Perini, the principal, said instructors can spend more time teaching because they worry less about problem behavior.

“Our students aren’t disruptive,” Perini said. “We believe it directly impacts student achievement.”

Though a link can’t be proved, the ethnically diverse, 621-student school ranks a 10, the highest possible score, on the state’s school accountability index.

Perini said Emperor students are so accustomed to the civility at their school that they are sometimes caught unawares by the behavior of students elsewhere.

“We want them to be kind but also resilient,” Perini said. “We want to prepare them for the harsh realities of life but still build in those qualities of respect and kindness.”

*

Times staff writer Massie Ritsch in the San Fernando Valley contributed to this story.