What is Character Education?
Character education is that component of our school where we intentionally and explicitly help students understand the important virtues that serve as a foundation for a healthy and responsible life. Using the Heartwood Ethics Program, which embraces the virtues of love, hope, courage, loyalty, honesty, justice, and respect, we address and celebrate these qualities that are so integral to living constructive lives through activities at assemblies and events, literature, celebrations, service learning projects, learning to mediate and problem-solve, partnerships with parents and outside resources and, most importantly, through modeling daily living and work at the Village Campus.
MPI’s Character Education Program focuses on the theme “Circle the World with Love” and its three aspects: love of self, love of others, and love of the global family. Students also learn ways to communicate more effectively, to express their feelings, and to resolve peer conflicts. They are taught Christian values as well as respect for different religious beliefs. All grade levels participate in community service projects: raising funds for disaster victims, collecting food and clothing for the homeless and writing letters to hospital patients and shut-ins. All children participate in chapel services once each week for about 20 minutes. The chaplain speaks to the children, and selected students serve chapel leaders. Back to the top.
Understanding Character A lot of times, we hear people talk about someone as a man of character. Other times, someone might be described as an unreliable character. Sometimes, we hear them referred to as quite a character ! When people begin to talk about character, there could be a dozen different shades to their tone. They might be sounding impressed, awed, disgusted, frightened, amused, bemused or a combination of these reactions.
