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CHARACTER EDUCATION VISUAL ART KITS
By Kathleen Thompson and Rachel Ross

ELEVEN INDIVIDUALLY PACKAGED KITS

Each kit includes
• Five art reproductions
• Five lessons and interdisciplinary activities
• Teacher’s Guide presented in a k-9 format, but equally applicable in school systems with k-12 format.

Program Goal

Designed as a resource, the Character Education Visual Art Kits offer a series of model lessons that enable both classroom teachers and art specialists to concurrently teach critical thinking skills, art appreciation, and character education. The ultimate goal of the program is to change students’ undesirable behaviors and attitudes and reinforce their positive ones. Students are encouraged to value and practice the virtues or character education traits studied. Because the goal is change, the virtues chosen for the program are those that many people agree upon.

Use of the Kits

The materials from the kits may be incorporated into a broader curriculum in several ways.

The character traits to be taught were selected from lists drawn up by various private and public entities that promote character education; these amount to an unofficial consensus. The 11 teaching units or kits evolved by grouping 30-plus traits from the national models examined into natural sets.

Ready-to-Use Activities

For each art reproduction, a model lesson provides the teacher with a format for introducing the artwork, exploring the concepts and meanings presented by the work, and making connections with the character education trait featured. Suggested lessons include information about the artist and the artwork, objectives for the lessons, a guided looking section to help the teacher conduct a dialog with students, teacher preparation, character education activities, studio art projects, procedures, methods of assessment, and resources.

Character Education and Art

What today is called character education is the age-old process of teaching young people to know, to love and to do good. In school, we believe this is achieved through intentional instruction.

Art has always been a tool for transferring values and as such is a natural for teaching character education. Intentionally or unintentionally, art reflects the values of the artist, his or her culture and the times in which it was created. These include a desire to emulate nature and create beauty, a need to create sacred images, or a wish to serve political ends, delve into imagination and fantasy, or mirror everyday life. In all cases, the personal goals and views of the artist become part of the fabric of the work. The lessons of character education we need to teach already exist in the content of great works of art — we just need a method of communicating them to children. The link is art criticism, which allows teachers and students to “read” works of art. Inherent in the process of art criticism is the opportunity to develop cognitive skills as well as deal with the sensory, emotional and moral content of the works.

Art Reproductions list

• Respect for Authority
• Empathy, Compassion, Kindness
• Equality, Tolerance, Issues of Race
• Courage
• Work Ethic, Cooperation at Work
• Children’s Work Roles
• Family Responsibility and Commitment
• Friendship
• Respect for the Natural Environment
• Community, Service Learning
• Heroes, Virtue in Action
• Art and Sports