Journal of Moral Education, Vol. 25, No.

1, 1996 93

94 T. Lickona

severe social and moral problems: the breakdown of the family, physical and sexual
Eleven Principles
abuse of children, mounting violence, ofgrowing
Effective
materialism, increasing dishonesty, the
deterioration of civility in everyday life, drug and alcohol abuse, a rising tide of sleaze in
Character
the media, a plague Education
of problems (such as teen pregnancy, out-of-wedlock births,
sexually transmitted disease, marital infidelity, and the destructive psychological
THOMAS LICKONA
consequences of sex without commitment) stemming from the breakdown of sexual
Statemorality and
University the loss
College of respect
at Cordand, New for human
York, USA life represented by widespread abortion at
one end of the developmental continuum and euthanasia at the other.
As is usually the case, society’s problems are most visibly reflected in its youth. Ten
troubling youth trends, which appear in large measure to cut across national borders,
indicate the dimensions of the difficulty:
ABSTRACT In recent
1. Rising years
youth “character education” has emerged in the United States as a leading
violence.
term for2.
school
Increasing dishonestyprogrammes
efforts to implement in moral
(lying, cheating, andvalues, ethics and citizenship education.
stealing).
This paper sets out 11 principles to guide schools as they plan their character education initiative.
3. Greater disrespect for parents, teachers, and other legitimate authority figures.
These include: issues such as core ethical values and their justification, a definition of character, a
4. Increasing peer cruelty.
comprehensive and intentional approach to developing good character, developing the school as a
5. A rise in
caring community, thebigotry and hate
relationship crime.
between character education and the academic curriculum and
6.
evaluation. The deterioration of language.
7. A decline in the work ethic.
8. Increasing self-centredness, accompanied by declining personal and civic
responsibility.
9. A surge of self-destructive behaviours such as premature sexual activity,
substance abuse and suicide.
Introduction
10. Growing ethical illiteracy, including ignorance of moral knowledge as basic as the
In the pastGolden Rule“character
few years and the tendency to engage
education”, at leastininbehaviours
the Unitedinjurious to self
States, has or others
emerged
without thinking it wrong [2].
as the leading term for school efforts to implement programmes in the area of moral
values, ethics and citizenship education. The Character Education Partnership, one of
In response to these moral danger signs, interest in character education is rapidly
the prominent new advocacy groups in the character movement, defines character
growing in the United States. Three recently formed national organisations—the
education as “the deliberate effort by schools, families, and communities to help young
Character Education Partnership, the Character Counts Coalition [3], and the
people understand, care about, and act upon core ethical values” [1]. While one can
Communitarian Network [4]—are working to promote character education nationwide.
certainly make a case for other models of moral education, advocates of character
A spate of books—such as William Kilpatrick’s Why Johnny Can’t Tell Right from
education believe the breadth and directness of their approach offer the most promising
Wrong (1992), Jacques Benninga’s Moral Character and Civic Education in the
response to the social-moral problems that beset modem societies.
Elementary School (1991), Ed Wynne’s & Kevin Ryan’s Reclaiming Our Schools: a
There are at least three compelling reasons why all schools should be engaged in
handbook on teaching character, academics, and discipline (1992), Henry Huffman’s
character education. The first is that we need good character to be fully human. We
Developing a Character Education Program (1994), Douglas Heath’s Schools of Hope:
need strength of mind, heart and will—qualities such as good judgement, honesty,
developing mind and character in today’s youth (1994) and my own Educating for
empathy, caring, persistence, self-discipline and moral courage—to be capable of work
Character (1991)—advocate character education as our best hope for addressing a wide
and love, two of the hallmarks of human maturity.
range of student academic and behaviour problems. The US Congress has recently
A second reason for character education is that schools are better places—
authorised funds for character education materials and teacher education programmes
certainly more conducive to teaching and learning—when they are civil and caring
aimed at teaching “core ethical values” such as respect, responsibility, trustworthiness,
human communities that promulgate, teach, celebrate and hold students and staff
fairness and caring. July 1994 saw the first White House Conference on “Character-
accountable to the values on which good character is based.
Building for a Democratic, Civil Society”. The Second Annual White House Conference
A third reason for character education is that it is essential to the task of building a
on Character-Building occurred on 19 and 20 May 1995 and the third is in the planning
moral society. It is painfully clear that societies around the world suffer
stage.
0305-7240/96/010093-08 © 1996 The Norham Foundation
 Eleven Principles of Character Education 95

Basic Principles of Character Education

“Character education” is a wide tent, covering a variety of approaches to building

good character. Nevertheless, the Character Education Partnership, on whose Board of
Directors I serve, has sought to provide some general direction for the growing
numbers of schools wishing to undertake character education. While there may be no
single script for effective character education there should be, we believe, some
important basic principles guiding the field.
The following 11 principles are offered by the Partnership as criteria that schools
and other groups can use to plan a character education effort and to evaluate existing
character education programmes and materials. Dissemination of these principles to
school personnel and other educators began in March 1995; we do not yet have
feedback on the extent to which they have proved useful in shaping and assessing
programmes.

1. Character Education Promotes Core Ethical Values as the Basis of Good Character
Character education holds, as a starting philosophical principle, that there are widely
shared, objectively important core ethical values—such as caring, honesty, fairness,
responsibility and respect for self and others—that form the basis of good character. A
school committed to character education explicitly names and publicly stands for these
values; promulgates them to all members of the school community; defines them in
terms of behaviours that can be observed in school life; models these values; studies
and discusses them; uses them as the basis of human relations in the school; celebrates
their manifestations in the school and community; and enforces them by holding all
school members accountable to standards of conduct consistent with the core values.
In a school committed to developing character, these core values are treated as a
matter of obligation—as having a claim on the conscience of the individual and
community. Character education asserts that the validity of these values, and their
power to hold us accountable, derive from the fact that these values affirm our human
dignity; they promote the development and welfare of the individual person; they serve
the common good; they meet the classical ethical tests of reversibility (“Would you
want to be treated this way?”) and universalisability (“Would you want all people to act
this way in a similar situation?”); and they define our rights and responsibilities in a
democratic society. The school makes clear that these basic human values are affirmed
by all civilised people and transcend religious and cultural differences. They express
our common humanity.

2. “Character” must be Comprehensively Defined to Include Thinking, Feeling and

Behaviour
In an effective character education programme, character is broadly conceived to
encompass the cognitive, emotional and behavioural aspects of the moral life. Good
 96 T. Lickona

values. The task of character education therefore is to help students and all other
members of the learning community know “the good”, value it, and act upon it. As
people grow in their character they will develop an increasingly refined understanding
of the core values, a deeper commitment to living according to those values and a
stronger tendency to behave in accordance with those values.
3. Effective Character Education Requires an Intentional, Proactive and
Comprehensive Approach that Promotes the Core Values in AU Phases of School Life
Schools committed to character education look at themselves through a moral lens
and see how virtually everything that goes on in school affects the values and character
of students. An intentional and proactive approach plans deliberate ways to develop
character, rather than simply waiting for opportunities to occur. A comprehensive
approach uses all aspects of schooling—the teacher’s example, the discipline policy, the
academic curriculum (including the drug, alcohol, and sex education curriculum), the
instructional process, the assessment of learning, the management of the school
environment, relationships with parents and so on—as opportunities for character
development. “Stand alone” character education programmes can be useful first steps
or helpful elements of an ongoing effort but must not be considered a substitute for a
holistic approach that integrates character development into every aspect of school life.
4. The School Must Be a Caring Community
The school itself must embody good character. It must progress towards becoming
a microcosm of the civil, caring and just societies we seek to create in our countries.
The school can do this by becoming a moral community that helps students form caring
attachments to adults and to each other. These caring relationships will foster both the
desire to learn and the desire to be a good person. All children and adolescents have a
need to belong, and they are more likely to externalise the values and expectations of
groups that meet this need. The daily life of classrooms, as well as all other parts of the
school environment (e.g. the corridors, cafeteria, playground and school bus), must be
imbued with core values such as concern and respect for others, responsibility,
kindness and fairness.
5. To Develop Character, Students Need Opportunities for Moral Action
In the ethical as in the intellectual domain, students are constructive learners; they
learn best by doing. To develop good character they need many and varied
opportunities to apply values such as responsibility and fairness in everyday interac-
tions and discussions. By grappling with real-life challenges—how to divide the labour
in a co-operative learning group, how to reach consensus in a class meeting, how to
carry out a service learning project, how to reduce fights on the playground, how to
involve their peers in sharing responsibility for die quality of the moral
98 T. Lickona Eleven Principles of Character Education 97

environment
counsellors, of the
coaches, school—students
secretaries, develop practical
cafeteria workers, playgroundunderstanding of the
aides, bus drivers—
requirements
must be involvedof in
fairness,
learningco-operation and and
about, discussing respect.
taking Through
ownershiprepeated moral
of the character
experiences, students
education effort. can also
All these develop
adults must and practise
model the values
the core moral in
skills
theirand
ownbehavioural
behaviour
habits thatadvantage
and take make up the action
of the sideopportunities
other of character. they have to influence the character of
the students with whom they come into contact.
Secondly,
6. Effective the sameEducation
Character values andIncludes
norms that govern the and
a Meaningful life of students must
Challenging govern
Academic
the collective life of the adult members of the
Curriculum that Respects all Learners and Helps Them Succeed school community. If students are to be
treated as constructive learners, so must adults. They must have extended staff
Characterand
development education and academictolearning
many opportunities observe and mustthennot try
be out
conceived
ways ofasintegrating
separate
spheres; rather there must be a strong, mutually supportive
character education practices into their work with students. If students are relationship. In a caring
given
classroom and school where students feel liked and respected by
opportunities to work collaboratively and participate in decision-making that improves their teachers and
fellow students, students are more likely to work hard and achieve.
classrooms and schools, so must adults. If a school’s staff do not experience mutual Reciprocally, when
students are enabled
respect, fairness to succeed atinthe
and co-operation theirwork
adultofrelationships,
school, they theyare more
are lesslikely to to
likely feel
be
valued and cared
committed about those
to teaching as people.
values to students.
Because
Thirdly, students
the school come
mustto find
school
andwithprotectdiversetimeskills, interests
for staff and on
reflection needs,
morala
curriculum that helps all students succeed will be one whose content
matters. School staff, through faculty meetings and smaller support groups, should be and pedagogy are
sophisticated
regularly asking:enoughWhat to positive,
engage all learners. That means
character-building movingisbeyond
experiences a skill-and-
the school already
drill, paper-and-pencil curriculum to one that is inherently interesting
providing for its students? What negative moral experiences (e.g. peer cruelty, and meaningful
student
for students.
cheating, A character
adult disrespecteducation
for students,school makes
littering of effective use of
the grounds) is active teaching
the school and
currently
learning
failing tomethods
address? such What as co-operative
important moral learning,
experiences problem-solving
(e.g. co-operative approaches,
learning,
experience-based
school and community projects, “themes”
service, that integrate
opportunities different
to learn aboutsubjects, and sowith
and interact on. One of
people
the most authentic ways to respect children is to respect the
from different racial, ethnic and socio-economic backgrounds) is the school nowway they learn.
omitting? What school practices are at odds with its professed core values and desire to
develop
7. Charactera caring schoolShould
Education community?
Strive toReflection of this nature
Develop Students’ IntrinsicisMotivation
an indispensible
condition for developing the moral life of a school.
As students develop good character, they develop a stronger inner commitment to
doing what their moral judgement tells them is right. Schools, especially in their
9. Character
approach Educationshould
to discipline, Requires Moral
strive to Leadership
develop thisfrom Both Staff
intrinsic and Students
commitment to core
values. They should minimise reliance on extrinsic rewards and punishments
For character education to meet the criteria outlined thus far there must be a leader that
(a
distract students’ attention from the real reasons to behave responsibly: the
principal, another administrator, or a teacher co-ordinator) who champions the effort rights and
needs
and a of self andeducation
character others. Responses
committeeto(orrule-breaking
several suchshould
supportprovide
groups, opportunities
each focusedfor
on
restitution and foster the student’s understanding of the rule and willingness to
a particular aspect of the character effort) with responsibility for long- range planning abide
by
andit in the future.implementation. Students should also be brought into roles of moral
programme
Similarly,
leadership throughwithinstudent
the academic curriculum
government, peer intrinsic motivationprogrammes,
conflict mediation should be fostered
cross-
in every way possible.
age tutoring and so on. This can be done by helping students experience the challenge
and interest of subject matter, the desire to work co-operatively with other students
and the fulfilment of making a positive difference in another person’s life or in their
10. The
school or School Must Recruit Parents and Community Members as Full Partners in
community.
the Character-building Effort
A school’s
8. character
The School education
Staff Must mission
Become statement
a Learning andshould
Moralstate explicitly in
Community what is true:
which All
parents are the first and most important moral educators of their children.
Share Responsibility for Character Education and Attempt to Adhere to the Same Next, the
school
Core should
Values take
that painsthe
Guide at Education
every stageoftoStudents
communicate with parents about the school’s
goals and activities regarding character development—and how families can
Three things need attention here. First, all school staff—teachers, administrators,
 Eleven Principles of Character Education 99

help. To build shared ownership and trust between home and school the school
must be proactive in involving parents in planning and policy making. All parents must
be informed about—and have a chance to react and consent to—the school’s proposed
core values and how the school proposes to try to teach them. Schools also do well to
take the further step of setting up a parent leadership committee whose task is to keep
parents abreast of the school’s character education efforts and provide parents with
specific ways (such as home-based activities) in which they can support the values the
school is trying to teach. Finally, schools and families will enhance the effectiveness of
their partnership if they recruit the help of the wider community— businesses,
religious institutions, youth organisations, the government and the media—in
promoting the core ethical values.
11. Evaluation of Character Education Should Assess the Character of the School,
the School Staffs Functioning as Character Educators and Extent to which Students
Manifest Good Character
Effective character education must include an effort to assess programme impact.
Three broad kinds of outcomes merit attention.
The character of the school. To what extent is the school becoming a more caring
community? This can be assessed, for example, with surveys that ask students to
indicate the extent to which they agree with statements such as: “Students in this
school [classroom] respect and care about each other” and “This school [classroom] is
like a family”; observation can also be a useful means of assessing the school’s
character.
The school staffs growth as character educators. To what extent have adult staff—
teaching faculty, administrators, and support personnel—developed understandings of
what they can do to foster character development? Personal commitment to doing so?
Skills to carry it out? Consistent habits of acting upon their developing capacities as
character educators? This speaks to formative evaluation—assessing the degree to
which the character education programme is actually being implemented.
Student character. To what extent do students manifest understanding of,
commitment to and action upon the core ethical values? Schools can, for example,
gather data on various character-related behaviours: has student attendance gone up?
Have fights and suspensions gone down? Has vandalism declined? Have drug incidents
diminished? Schools can also assess the three domains of character (knowing, feeling
and behaviour) through anonymous questionnaires that measure student moral
judgement (for example, “Is cheating on a test wrong?”), moral commitment (“Would
you cheat if you were sure you wouldn’t get caught?”) and self-reported moral
behaviour (“How many times have you cheated on a test or major assignment in the
past year?”). Such questionnaires can be administered at the beginning of a
100 T. Lickona

school’s character initiative to acquire a baseline and again at later points to assess progress.
Clearly, future planning should then be guided by this evaluative information.
The Character Education Partnership hopes that these 11 principles—one could surely add
others—will help to ensure quality in theory and practice as schools move forward with varied
character-building initiatives. There is wisdom, to be sure, in “letting a thousand flowers bloom”,
but some broad principles can help us minimise the weeds.

Acknowledgements
In formulating several of these principles, I am particularly indebted to the thinking of Catherine
Lewis, Eric Schaps and Marilyn Watson of the Child Development Project and Amitai Etzioni of the
Communitarian Network. The major part of this text, the “Eleven Principles of Effective Character
Education”, was published as a pamphlet in 1995 by the Character Education Partnership which
granted permission to reproduce this within the present paper.

Correspondence: Dr Thomas Lickona, Professor of Education and Director of the Center for the 4th
and 5th Rs, Education Department, State University College of New York at Cortland, PO Box 2000,
New York 13045, USA.

NOTES
[1] The Character Education Partnership, 809 Franklin Street, Alexandria, VA 22314,
USA.
[2] For documentation of these trends in the United States, see Josephson Institute of
Ethics (1990); T. Lickona (1991) and W. Kilpatrick (1992).
[3] The Character Counts Coalition, Josephson Institute of Ethics, 4640 Admiralty
Way, Suite 1001, Marina del Rey, CA 90292, USA.
[4] The Communitarian Network, The Gelman Library, Room 714-J, 2130 H Street,
NW, Washington, DC 20052, USA.

REFERENCES
BENNINGA, J. (Ed.) (1991) Moral Character and Civic Education in the Elementary
School (New York, Teachers College Press).
HEATH, D. (1994) Schools of Hope: developing mind and character in today’s youth
(San Francisco, Jossey-Bass).
HUFFMAN, H. (1994) Developing a Character Education Program: one school district’s
experience (Alexandria, VA, Character Education Partnership).
JOSEPHSON INSTITUTE OF ETHICS (1990) The Ethics of American Youth: a warning and
a call to action (California, Josephson Institute of Ethics).
KILPATRICK, W. (1992) Why Johnny Can’t Tell Right From Wrong: moral illiteracy
and the case for character education (New York, Simon & Schuster).
LICKONA, T. (1991) Educating for Character: how our schools can teach respect and