:I was glad that Dewey emphasized the importance of character -building
involved in industry. Making adults and children responsible for their actions can build character. By training in order and industry, children and adults are given important jobs. Therefore, making them Accountable.
Often times children become lazy and irresponsible because parents do
not enforce the importance of being responsible.

I agree with you that sometimes parents do not enforce responsibility. Too often I hear parents say, "My child did not do such and such assignment but it is my fault." or kids say, "I don't have my homework because my mom didn't put it in my bag." At our school there is a 5th grader whose dad STILL walks her to class every morning AND carries her bookbag for her. The walking to class is one thing, but carrying the bookbag? Who's responsibility is it?

I found this part of Dewey's article interesting. The HOUSEHOLD was the center in which industrial occupations were carried on. Children gained and participated in the processes; learning cooperation, discipline, character building and responsibility. I think it was wonderful that children were learning these traits at home and from actual experiences. Many of these are traits we are expected to teach at school today. At my school, we have a different character trait we are supposed to work on each month. Responsibility is always the trait we work on during August. I think it is one of the hardest traits for "people" to acquire.
Cindy

don't we all , as teachers, find we are not asked but required to instill character traits, skills and knowledge in our students. it used to be the province of the home to initiate responsibility, fairness, good citizenship, trustworthiness, compassion etc. there was a triangular configuration consisting of the home school and community( which included some sort of religious affiliation and instruction).
i find it very interesting that the school takes on more and more of the burden of child rearing . at this same time people not in classrooms or in touch with what happens in schools are demanding we raise the levels of expectations for students( with a plethora of problems stemming from dysfunctional homes) and MAKE these students smarter.

who would ever think a dentist would be required to teach honesty, fairness, good hygiene, responsibility , be a therapist, set up medical appointments for non-dental needs and check their patients for lice and scabies weekly? it sounds absurd but think of what you do daily and weekly that has nothing to do with teaching academic subjects.

what would happen if we demanded to be paid every day or hour after delivery of services like doctors, dentists and lawyers? is what we do any less important than these other professionals? is what we do not MORE important than almost anything you can think of?

don't we all , as teachers, find we are not asked but required to instill character traits, skills and knowledge in our students. it used to be the province of the home to initiate responsibility, fairness, good citizenship, trustworthiness, compassion etc. there was a triangular configuration consisting of the home school and community( which included some sort of religious affiliation and instruction).
i find it very interesting that the school takes on more and more of the burden of child rearing . at this same time people not in classrooms or in touch with what happens in schools are demanding we raise the levels of expectations for students( with a plethora of problems stemming from dysfunctional homes) and MAKE these students smarter.

who would ever think a dentist would be required to teach honesty, fairness, good hygiene, responsibility , be a therapist, set up medical appointments for non-dental needs and check their patients for lice and scabies weekly? it sounds absurd but think of what you do daily and weekly that has nothing to do with teaching academic subjects.

what would happen if we demanded to be paid every day or hour after delivery of services like doctors, dentists and lawyers? is what we do any less important than these other professionals? is what we do not MORE important than almost anything you can think of?

That would be interesting to see, Airlie. My daughter's pediatrician requires payment before services are rendered. Wouldn't that be interesting? We have a character trait that we are supposed to teach each month in our school system, too. I'm really frustrated with teaching responsibility to several of my students. I can't seem to get one of my boys to understand that that homework he has is for him to do. The problem is really that his mother and sister obviously don't understand whose responsibility his homework is because they keep doing it for him. THis must be the case with most everything else at home too. I don't think he does anything for himself. So when he comes to school, he makes absolutely no effort to do anything on his own. As soon as he is given an assignment, he starts saying, or I should say yelling ( he is very loud) "I need help! I don't know how to do this!" These phrases are repeated approximately 30 or 40 times while I continually tell him to give it a try before asking for help. He also desperately has to go to the bathroom each day when we begin writing. This happens just like clockwork because he hates to write. At the beginning of the year I thought he may have some learning dissabilities, but now I feel quite sure that he is very capable, but he is accustomed to saying I can't and then he expects someone to give him the answers. One day I asked him what he does while his mom or sister does his homework for him. His response was , "I watch tv." How can he be taught responsibility when that is not something that is important to his mother. I have talked to her about this and sent numerous notes and she continues to do the homework. I have considered actually sending her some homework that is really for her like some geometry or a ten page research paper with an outline, note cards, single spaced, 12 inch font - the whole works!

I, like the rest of you, have a hard time understanding why the parents of these children don't see what they are doing to their kids! One of the students that comes to me in my Title I class makes the excuse to his teacher that he can't get his work done in her room because he is "in that pull-out program". (This is a !st grader.) He tries not do work at school so that he can take it home with him, where his mother does it for him. So at home, we know that his parents are helping foster all this. His mother came in for a conference and was asked about her doing his work for him, which she readily admitted that she was doing, but she didn't see anything wrong with that! The classroom teacher finally got her (we think) to begin to see how she was really harming her child rather than helping him.

At our school our discipline program is based on the slogan "I Am Responsible For My Actions." The students hear this everyday and see it posted all over the school. The problem that I see is that the children don't really understand what responsible means. So often the same group of parents bring their children in late to school at least three times a week and these children are seeing how "responsible" their parents are. Homework is not done because mother or father had to get groceries or go to Wal-Mart and parents write excuses for the children. I try to be a responsible teacher and stick by what I say. However for some children the conflicting messages that they receive damage their ideas of character.

I agree with all that has been said, sadly I have also witnessed most of it here at our school. When most of us went through school, "Character education" was not formally taught. It was understood that you would be taught how to be a reponsible, caring human being from your parents. At that time many parents would have been upset at the school for overstepping thier boundaries to teach "character". Now days teachers are required to teach it. I realize that society has changed a lot over the years. That certain values are not being instilled at home. Sometimes I really resent the fact that I have to "raise" other peoples children.
What really scares me is, what's it going to be like in 10-20 years. Will teachers have to start teaching "Thy shall not kill"?

Dawn- Gosh- I hope not! That would be me teaching that in the next 10 -20 years.