The Survival of Character Education In An Era of Elementary School Counselor Cutbacks

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<h1>The Survival of Character Education In An Era of Elementary School Counselor Cutbacks</h1><strong> Author: <a href='http://www.articleseen.com/profile_webmaster charactereducation.aspx'>webmaster charactereducation</a></strong><br /><p>What do states like Indiana, Colorado, Florida, Washington, California, and New Jersey have in common? They all at one time boasted to have strong guidance and counseling programs at the elementary school level. But in a new era of record budget deficits and fiscal uncertainty, school systems around the nation are being forced to drastically overhaul their guidance programs by either cutting back on the total number of counseling positions or by eliminating entire programs. To the detriment of the social, moral, and emotional well being of our children, buildings across the country that were once serviced by a full time counselor – are now seeing dozens of schools share a single counseling professional. Worse, in many situations around the country elementary schools simply have no access to a counselor at all! With a reduction of counseling positions, it is becoming increasingly difficult for schools to maintain high quality character education programs. Frankly, faced with reductions in overall campus staff, increased demands on our classroom teachers, and reduced funding to purchase character materials - there often isn’t the manpower and/or available finances to keep a consistently strong character education program up and running. Yet, despite the problems besieging them, many of our school principals around the nation refuse to give up on developing strong school wide character programs as they simply reject the notion that SpongeBob Squarepants, Hannah Montana, iCarly, or even Yu-Gi-Oh can do a better job! Despite the changing counseling landscape, there are several great character education programming options. For example, due to their relative low cost, overall simplicity, lack of large time involvement, effective school wide reach, and extreme ease of use - many principals, classroom teachers, and counseling supervisors are turning to programs like R-Time, Second Step, Project Wisdom, and Achiever McBeaver and The College Crew. These simple and efficient programs have well proven track records and have had successful results across the nation. All four of these programs are wonderful, but there are some slight differences. For example, R-time and Second Step are programs that do put some level of responsibility on the classroom teacher, whereas Project Wisdom and Achiever Radio are generally used during morning announcements and rely upon the school PA system as the method of delivery. R-Time and Second Step also tend to differ from both Project Wisdom and Achiever Radio in that they are geared more towards social skills development. In some contrast, Project Wisdom and Achiever Radio focus more on character education, introspective reflection, and virtue development. Another slight difference is that the R-Time and Second Step programs do have added fees associated with the kits at various grade levels (and multiple kits are often needed per grade level), whereas Achiever Radio and Project Wisdom have a single fee for school wide use of the materials. Additionally, both Second Step and Project Wisdom have had statistical studies completed on their core programs, whereas both R-Time and Achiever Radio are in the process of having studies completed. For example, Achiever Radio just completed a pre/post study with an elementary school in the Seattle area that saw a 40% drop in undesired school wide behavior. All four of these programs are exciting ways to provide continued school wide character education programming despite staffing and funding complications! Lookout Nickelodeon … despite the odds and setbacks … our schools around the country are putting you on notice! </p><strong>About the Author:</strong><br />Author is a professional school counselor who has served in the field of education for over 20 years. He has developed a <a rel="nofollow" href="http://www.iamgoingtocollege.com">character education program</a> which helps promote both college attendance and core character values. <p> Article Source: <a href='http://www.articleseen.com/Article_The-Survival-of-Character-Education-In-An-Era-of-Elementary-School-Counselor-Cutbacks_28758.aspx'> http://www.articleseen.com/Article_The Survival of Character Education In An Era of Elementary School Counselor Cutbacks_28758.aspx</a></p>

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Keywords : Character education, character education programs, character education resources.,

Category : Reference and Education : K 12 Education