What you will find, Michael and Michael, is
that the exam grades and attainment you
rightly care so much about will improve,
and far more so than if you continue to
concentrate so relentlessly on the exams
alone.
Knowing how much you love exams, I even
had thoughts of introducing a ‘General
Certificate in Character Education’, or GCCE,
as a joke. But the more I think about it, the
more I think such a qualification has sense.
It would help ensure that schools prioritise
character development and it would ensure
all schools monitor each pupil on their
progress. Knowing they are being monitored
and evaluated would help the students take
it seriously.
Employers would then have a record of how
well each student performed, not just at
GCSE and A Level, but also at the traditional
character strengths and basic manners.
Students would have to exhibit punctuality,
tidiness, personal appearance, appreciation,
loyalty and sensitivity to others. If a GCCE is
what it takes for you both to take character
education seriously, then I’m for the GCCE.
Parents too would need to support it, and
you need to support schools being much
stronger with parents who won’t abide by the
character and behaviour policies. We have an
election in a little over two years. It is quite
likely that neither of you will be in post after
it. The duarchy thus may well end in 2015.
Your time frame is short, but human life is
long. You understandably want to show real
change year on year before the election, but
much of the change our school students
need – the shaping of their characters - is
longer and subtler. Some good heads care
disproportionately about their own time
frame and their own legacy. They want to
show measurable short-term gains. The great
heads care about the short-term and the
long-term. Be like those great heads.
You still have the chance to gain that final
cheer and, who knows, a packet of M&Ms at a
special assembly.
ethos magazine
will follow, and for the right reasons. The
students will behave well in class. They will
respect their teacher and each other. They
will want to learn, rather than being made
to learn. They will want to behave rather
than being made to behave. They will probe
beneath surface learning to the depths of
subjects because they will be more reflective
people.
Goodness knows how long it will be before
we have such a powerful pair running our
schools. You would be amazed by how you
could transform schools, higher education
and society if you embraced character
education.
The clock is ticking. Choose wisely.
Cheers, if only two at this stage.
Anthony Seldon
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