As if making good decisions wasn’t hard enough, there are some obstacles that may get in our way of being accountable for our choices.

Here are a few:

• You’re a bigger one:  Have you ever told yourself that your actions aren’t so bad, especially compared to others? Don’t justify your choices based upon someone else’s bad behavior.
• Just this once:  You’ll be held responsible for your actions, regardless if you thought you would do it only one time.  Something to consider: how many lies does it take before you are a liar?
• I can’t afford to do the right thing:  It will never get any easier.  If you don’t demand the best from yourself now, will you ever?  Being ethical is a matter of habit and conditioning, not a switch you can turn off and on when it is convenient.
• But I have to:  Do you really have to?  What we often perceive as necessary is rarely needed for survival.  What if you couldn’t do what you wanted to do?  It’s easy to overestimate the cost of doing the right thing.
• It’s a stupid rule:  Well, maybe it is a stupid rule or law.  Are you willing to let everyone decide for themselves which rules to follow?

“One unable to dance blames the unevenness of the floor” – Malay proverb

Adapted from the Josephson Institute of Ethics.

Imagine you’ve been thinking about a tough decision, and you think you know what you are going to do.

Before you act, here’s a few tests to see if the decision is right for you:

• In the News:  How would you feel if your decision was on the front page of the paper or on the 10pm news?
• Mom & Dad:  What would your parents think of your decision?  Is your decision something you would be okay explaining to your own children?
• Everybody’s Doing It:  Would it be okay if everyone in your situation made the same choice as you?

Do you have any of your own tests that help you make decisions?

Learn more about character education.

What does the future look like? What skills will children need to thrive? Guest blogger, Connie Toenjes, is thinking futuristically and is here to remind us that with a constantly changing world, we must think ahead. 

As parents and educators we ask ourselves, how do we best prepare our children to live, work, and be productive citizens in the 21^st Century? We all agree that social media and technology have changed our world faster than any other time in history. Jobs your three-year-old will have in the year 2030 most likely do not even exist today! What content, principles, and skills taught in school and at home will be essential in the future?

Iowa Schools are doing their part to address these questions as well as Iowa Legislature, who has adopted the Iowa 21^st Century Skills and Universal Constructs critical to student success.  These skills include civic literacy, employability skills, financial literacy, health literacy and technology literacy.

Students will learn about responsible use of financial resources in the form of needs versus wants as early as kindergarten! I am sure many of us could have benefited from lessons in credit and forms of insurance earlier in our lives.

21^st Century Skills is intended to teach students to be productive employees as part of the school curriculum across all content areas. Skills such as working independently, collaborating as a team member, completing your task, being responsible for your own performance, are all skills necessary to being a successful employee.  They are also the skills of a person with good character.

Teaching our children to be trustworthy, responsible, respectful, fair, caring and good citizens aligns with the needs of the 21^st Century and principles that the Iowa Business Council supports as desirable qualities in the workforce.  Could it also be said that the tenets of good character are necessary for the success of any society in any century?

The connections between the 21^st Century Skills/ Universal Constructs and the Pillars of character are strong and plentiful.  Teaching your children to be a person of good character is preparing them for the 21^st Century.

Learn more about character education.

Cedar Valley has gone above and beyond in building a foundation of good character. For the past seven years the Community Education Committee has met monthly to help implement different character initiatives into schools, businesses, and the community. 

Positive reinforcement for behaviors that demonstrate the Six Pillars of Character has been a priority to teachers at Cedar Valley schools. So, instead of punishing students for bad behavior, the focus is more directed towards encouraging good behavior. Through this encouragement, teachers hope to see students develop strong character traits and good behavior that is a foundation to the person they are and grow up to be.

What are some examples of positive reinforcement?

• Praising and admiring someone who rarely engages in group conversations
• Thanking a young child for doing a task that was not asked of them
• Providing incentives for good work, such as coupons or a free lunch
• Recognizing someone who took initiative on a challenging task

Cedar Valley has been a huge advocate for Character Counts In Iowa. Pillars are hung downtown, essay contests are held for fifth graders displaying character, articles are written for the Waterloo Courier, and events are held in the community. Is your community taking initiative to build good character in the citizens?

“CHARACTER COUNTS is a great way for a member of the community to become involved in providing a good model and positive reinforcement for our young people. As a side benefit, it keeps the Six Pillars of Character in our minds as we make decisions in the business world,” said Bruce Clark, a member of the Community Education Committee.

As communities take character seriously, we continue to see positive changes and individuals who are willing to making good decisions no matter the cost.

Is there more of a deficit in academics or character? Guest blogger, Mike Danilson, believes post-secondarylife will require a foundation of character education in order for students to excel. 

If you follow the most recent round of the seemingly perpetual education reform discussion, you will soon hear one of the newest phrases, “college and career readiness.” Are students graduating from our K-12 systems ready for the rigors of post-secondary life? And while many have focused this question on potential deficits in academics – reading comprehension, math computation, etc – we should also investigate potential character education deficits.

In addition to content knowledge, students must also have a strong foundation in character education to be successful. David T. Conley’s book, Redefining College Readiness, identifies several cognitive strategies and academic behaviors required for post-secondary readiness. Examples of these include skills like:

• Problem solving
• Time management
• Prioritizing
• Personal responsibility
• Self-monitoring
• Self-control
• Acceptance of others and their ideas
• Communicating effectively
• Teamwork

Standardized tests cover none of these yet each of them is just as important to future post-secondary success.

So as you listen to the politicians, pundits, and reformers debate the current state of education in our country and our state, listen carefully. When they talk of college and career readiness, know it isn’t just the core subject areas that matter. And when you teach your character education lessons, know that your role is just as important in college readiness as any other teacher in the building.

In a recent post, we talked about the difference between compliance and ethics.  (We got a little over eager at the end of that last post and said we’d talk next about decision-making obstacles.   That’s jumping ahead a bit in the decision-making process – so we’ll come back to those obstacles later.)

So now that you know the difference between choosing between what you should do and what you are required to do, let’s move on to the next step in decision-making.  Imagine you’re faced with an tough ethical issue, and you want to make a good decision.  But how do you know what is the good one?  Here’s a few tips:

Good decisions require some thought.
Some require more thought than others, but in order to make the right choice, we need to look at the facts and evaluate the potential consequences.

Good decisions are ethical AND effective.
You can have your cake and eat it too.  At least where decision-making is concerned.  A good decision should stay true to your ethics, but your decision also needs to accomplish what you need.  For example – if we lie to a friend so they will do us a favor, we’ve gotten what we need, but compromised our ethics by lying.  But don’t give up!  Look for another way that you can get what you need and also stay true to your values.

Good decisions are rational, not rationalizations.
Which one comes first:  your decision or the reasons for the decision?  Good decisions are the result of reasoning and considering all options.  You may be making a poor choice if you’ve made the decision first and are now looking for ways to rationalize it.

Good decisions require discipline.
You’ve decided what do do, but now you have to actually do it.  We need discipline because it takes strength of character to do what is right, even when it is costly or uncomfortable.

Of course, all decisions aren’t equal.  Most don’t require serious forethought (i.e. what to wear) because the issues aren’t complex or the stakes aren’t high.  Here’s a good question to ask yourself:  what are the consequences?  The greater the potential consequences, the more careful we need to be in thinking it through.

“Your life is the sum result of all the choices you make, both consciously and unconsciously.
If you can control the process of choosing, you can control all aspects of your life.”
– Senator Robert Bennett

We’ll continue talking about decision-making in more upcoming posts – including some tests to tell if you are making a good choice and those obstacles we face in making the right decision.