Making character education part of every school day

To be effective in schools, character education must involve everyone from school staff, parents, students, and community members, and be part of every school day.

Character education includes and complements a broad range of educational approaches such as whole child education, service learning, social-emotional learning, and civic education.

All share a commitment to helping school children become responsible, caring, and contributing citizens.

Schools that embrace character education become places people want to be because they bring out the best in everyone.

In light of this, President Joko Widodo (Jokowi) has entrusted national character education for Indonesian students to teachers to anticipate technological developments that could undermine the culture of the country.

Since students spend so much time in school, Jokowi remarked that teachers should offer a critically important opportunity to ensure that all students get the support and help they need to reach their full potential. 

So long as the children are in school, the president says teachers play a role in shaping their character and preparing them for their future.

"As long as our children are in school, teachers play a role in guiding them, lest the technological advances and the flow of change alter their social, culture, character," President Jokowi said in his speech when opening the Indonesian Teachers Association (PGRI) National Leadership Coordination Meeting at Sahid Jaya Hotel in Sleman, Yogyakarta, on Saturday.

Hence, the character education must be integrated into the curriculum as well as school culture, and when this happens and school communities unite around developing character, schools will see amazing results.

According to the president, character education is an effort to answer the challenge in building the dignity of the nation and can strengthen the national identity.

In the development of social media with all the good and bad impact, Jokowi said students should be able to control it instead of being at its mercy.

President Jokowi then asked the teacher to run their profession well, because they are role model of their students.

"To the teachers of this nation, I entrust the mandate to nurture, nourish, develop identity, and shape the character of our children, so that later they become a person who has integrity, honesty, morality, reason, and good manners," said Jokowi.

The head of state added that the character education efforts can stem the attitude of Indonesian children from the negative impact of the currently increasing flow of global change.

Besides in school, character education should also start start at home where children can learn through positive examples and encouragement from their parents.

Although character education is imparted in schools, it is not always merely the education that parents want their children to receive since if virtues are not reinforced and modeled at home, they will not exhibit good character or positive virtues.

Children who fail to receive character education at home will lack basic virtues that can lead to moral dilemmas in society.

Therefore, parents have to realize that character education, which encompasses honesty, trustworthiness, respect, responsibility, fairness, caring for others, and even citizenship, should begin at home as teachers cannot do it all alone.

Honesty and trustworthiness are the foundation on which character is built at home, but parents are often confronted with children who are not trustworthy.

From an early age, one is challenged to be a good citizen on a daily basis.

Within the family, children learn to work together and bond with each other as a single unit to address issues in their community and make a difference.

In light of this, the National Commission for Child Protection 

(Komnas PA) has stated that the values of mental revolution can be imparted by the family, which serves as the primary vehicle for the young generation in shaping the character of the nation.

It hopes that mental revolution will start within families that can play their part by instilling religious, social, and cultural values in order to shape the mentality, character, and behavior of children.

Therefore, character education in the family needs to be prioritized in order to create a golden generation that does not demonstrate negative behavior.

The mental revolution movement, which is being echoed by the government, is expected to bring about a significant change in society.

For the national movement of mental revolution to yield results and to touch the root cause of the problem, the public must be encouraged to take the initiative in their homes.

Sexual violence against children in Indonesia has reached an alarming level and created an emergency situation that needs immediate handling and action.

Accordingly, high school and college students had been invited to fight violence against women and sexual harassment.

High school and college students must increase their awareness and intensify their role in the fight against sexual violence as they are vulnerable to such crimes.

Indeed, early childhood education at home and at school is very important as it can instill good values and develop a childs personality.

Family education plays an important role in molding a childs character. In this case, parents play an important role in developing good character traits in their children.(*)  

Source: ANTARA