Where do we add the character education lessons in an overcrowded curriculum?

Paul Tough’s recent book, How Children Succeed: Grit, Curiosity, and the Hidden Power of Character shows why some children are able to rise above the challenges that derail many of their peers. According to Trough, character development makes a huge difference in how children’s brains develop, and scientists are now able to trace a direct route from those early negative experiences to later problems in school, health, and behavior. By combining STEM and literacy with character education, EntelechyEducation, LLC helps children succeed through integration of positive social expectations with intellectual development.

No longer should parents focus solely on the intellectual acumen of their children, encouraging them to rise above their classmates to high honor roll status.  Instead, Tough’s research indicates that parents should help children to understand the basic social skills of cooperation, responsibility, and empathy.  Wow!  What a breakthrough concept for test-stressed children!  Can we actually let children play and jostle for position as they learn to cooperate within a group?  Should we teach responsibility and manners as we teach science, reading, and math?  How is that possible in an already overloaded curriculum?

The answer lies in careful selection of resources for that curriculum.  Teachers and parents should carefully choose books that teach science with responsibility, math with anger management, or geography with generosity. When our children learn to control their emotions, they will collaterally learn to control their education.  Imagine a world where children do homework without prodding, investigate topics of interest on their own, and accept everyone’s differences without question.

Entelechy Education, LLC sees that world and has begun to develop a series of books that combine STEM education with character education that can be used in the literacy learning center and the home library.  Read the first book, Where’sGreen? in which children learn about rainbow science, cooperation, and alliteration.  Your child will be one step closer to emotional and intellectual maturity.