As part of our Patribus Initiative in educating for the Character and Care for Fine Scots Boys, last Thursday evening an audience of boys, parents, staff and friends of the College were treated to a masterful talk by leading American philosopher of character Professor Christian Miller (Wake Forest University). His talk, entitled ‘The Character Gap: What it is and why it matters for raising boys’, addressed what we mean by character, why it matters, and what approaches are more or less effective in helping boys develop it.
The Character Gap from imageseven on Vimeo.
Drawing on his recent book The Character Gap: How Good Are We? (Oxford, 2018), which reviews the insights on moral behaviour from hundreds of psychological studies over the past 50 years, he argued that:
Strategies for promoting virtue at home and at school can vary in their effectiveness. Those which the evidence suggests are more likely to succeed include:
For more parent and teacher resources from Professor Miller, visit The Character Portal. If you are interested in finding out more about how we are building expertise in Character and Care, please don’t hesitate to contact me or Dr Tom Cerni, Head of Counselling, Character and Care.
Dr Hugh Chilton
Director of Research and Professional Learning
- Moral character, or virtue, leads to morally good actions and motives, displayed stably and reliably over time in a variety of situations.
- We are generally not as good as we think. While we are not generally morally bankrupt, there is a significant gap between what we want to be and what we tend to be — a ‘character gap’. For example, studies on the ‘bystander effect’ reveal that the vast majority of us will follow the crowd rather than do what we know is right.
- It’s best in schools to concentrate on a few, developmentally appropriate virtues consonant with the values of the school, rather than a broad swathe.
Strategies for promoting virtue at home and at school can vary in their effectiveness. Those which the evidence suggests are more likely to succeed include:
- reminding boys of morally good behaviour (e.g. by an honour code);
- encouraging boys to emulate virtuous role models (e.g. consider which films to watch and discuss as a family);
- teaching boys about the virtues and helping them put them into practice (e.g. via a gratitude journal);
- teaching boys about their own character flaws, such as hidden cognitive biases;
- encouraging boys to engage in Christian practices (e.g. prayer, giving, worship) which have character improvement as as byproduct (e.g. humility, generosity, gratitude)
For more parent and teacher resources from Professor Miller, visit The Character Portal. If you are interested in finding out more about how we are building expertise in Character and Care, please don’t hesitate to contact me or Dr Tom Cerni, Head of Counselling, Character and Care.
Dr Hugh Chilton
Director of Research and Professional Learning
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