Charater in education Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Charater in education - Essay Example Character education is mainly based on two premises. The first premise is that virtues are objectively the good human qualities and are good for humans whether they know them or not. Virtues have a claim on human’s personal as well as collective conscience. Basically, they are affirmed by religions and cultures around the world. In simpler terms, virtues express the common humanity of human beings. They transcend time and culture. Unselfishness, pursuit of truth, diligence, wisdom, perseverance and patience has always and will remain to be virtues, irrespective of the number of people practicing them (Lickona, 2004). Humans form beliefs that make it more likely for them to act virtuously in future. Beliefs are not only the mental states worth mentioning, but emotions and desires are also equally important for virtuous behavior. Just having a belief, for example to stop gossiping can leave somebody indifferent to actually behave in that way if he or she does not also care about these things. Therefore, for humans to become virtuous they have to form appropriate beliefs and cultivate the right emotions and desires. Right emotions and desires are the components that play a central role in having virtuous people (YouTube video, 2007). The very first set of beliefs basically has to do with the character of other people. However, people also beliefs about themselves such as believing that they are honest, they care about other people, and their spouses think that they care for other people or other people do not see them as lazy. The first two sets of beliefs are mainly about people’s own virtuous character. Labeling themselves in this way can have an effect on their virtuous behavior since they want to live up to how they believe in themselves to be moral people. On the other hand, the third and the fourth beliefs have to do with