In June of this year twelve to fourteen teachers attended a training session held at Dunkerton Community School, instructed by the Institute For Character Development based in Des Moines at Drake University. Teachers that attended the training from schools that had member’s children attending those school’s in East-Central Iowa REC’s service territory were from Union Community (Dysart & La Porte City), Dunkerton Community, Independence ST. John’s, Vinton-Shellsburg Community, and BCLUW Community.

CHARACTER COUNTS is the nation’s most widely used framework for character education in the country. It is based on shared beliefs and consensus values called the six Pillars of Character. These include: trustworthiness, respect, responsibility, fairness, caring and citizenship. The Character Counts framework is not a curriculum. It is a process of teaching, encouraging, advocating and modeling that these six universal ethical values are important in all areas of life in a community. Although it is agreed that the responsibility for character development lies within the family, the framework asks that families, schools, community organizations, businesses, city government all work together to enhance the environment in which we live-to model and vigorously advocate to the youth in our communities that these core virtues are important and expected of all of us.

This 2-day class provided a study of ethics and character development centered on providing the information skills and resources for participants to mobilize a character development initiative when they return to their school, classroom, home, or community. Course content tied directly to the Eleven Principles of Character Education and links with current state school improvement initiatives. There was a specific emphasis on the Character Counts framework, and they also examined other character development programs and models.

“The behaviors emphasized in the Character Counts program reflect the core values of what we at East-Central Iowa Rural Electric Cooperative stand for: integrity, accountability, and commitment to community. We feel it’s important to support our schools in their efforts to build people of strong character.”

Schools throughout Iowa that have implemented the Character Counts training program have experienced far fewer behavior problems, more positive behavior in the classroom, and reduced juvenile crime in the community.

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