World War Ii In American Schools Character Education Development Research

Character education has been one of the essential aspects of moral education in American schools now. It is the intentional, proactive effort by schools, districts, and states to instill in their students important core, ethical value to cultivate the moral and intellectual virtues. Character education had been one of the main educational missions in American schools after the foundation of the first public school. From the beginning of the colonial times, the virtue-centered character education was combined with the religion education and then became secular in the late 19th century. In the early 20th century, Character Education Movement had spread out throughout the elementary schools and the secondary schools in America. But then the traditional character education met with criticisms for its disadvantages. After World WarⅡ, Character education declined gradually and was impacted on by other moral education in the 1960s and 1970s. Even so, its supporters made great efforts to defend and develop the character education."Values Clarification"and"Cognitive Developmentalism"in the 1960s and the 1970s emphasized the course instead of the content and the instruction on the behaviors and the habits. So"Values neutral"and"value free"were popular, the adolescent were confused and moral crises emerged. Americans reaffirmed the importance of character education and tried to revive it in the 1980s, and the Character Education Movement has emerged since the 1990s.The thesis mainly inquiries the development of the character education in America after World WarⅡ. Character education in America undergoes the rise prewar, the decline postwar and the revival at the present.This thesis tries to explore the experience and lessons from the turns and twists of the character education development and avails to the development of character education in our schools.The thesis mainly consists of six parts:The first part is the preface of the thesis. The preface introduces the research purpose, gives the literature summary and the conception of"character"and"character education", then shows the research methods of the thesis.Chapter One reviews the traditional character education before World WarⅡ. The Character Education was combined with the religion education in the early period, then new content of democracy and patriotism was added into it after the establishment of the United States. The rise of the Character Education Movement at the beginning of the 20th century showed the great influence of the traditional character education.Chapter Two analyses the gradual decline of the character education in the 1940s and 1950s, then shows the causes of the decline of the character education. At the same time, the reaffirmations and accommodations were upheld by some educators who defended the character education.Chapter Three relates to"Values Clarification"and"Cognitive Developmenta -lism"in the 1960s and the 1970s as well as their impacts on the character education. The advocators of character education criticized the two theories much and made great efforts to defend the character education in schools.Chapter Four sets forth the revival of the character education since the 1980s. This part relates to the manifests and the reasons of the revival of the character education, and then states the content, the principles, the comprehensive approaches, the effect of the character education, and so on. With the elaboration, experience and lessons are expected to be gained for the character education in our schools.The last part makes a conclusion of the development of postwar chracter education in America, summarises the situation of our chracter education briefly and provides some instructive and useful suggestions and implications for the healthy development of character education in our schools.