Introduction
being
a leader and making decisions
often do not recognize when they are in a situation that calls
for a moral choice, and they are not able to define what is right
and what is wrong in that situation. The California-based
Josephson Institute of Ethics agrees with these concerns. The
institute states that we have a “character deficit” in our society
today and points out that increasing numbers of young
people across the United States—from well-to-do as well as
disadvantaged backgrounds—demonstrate reckless disregard
for fundamental standards of ethical conduct.
According to the 2006 Josephson Institute Report Card on
the Ethics of American Youth, our children are at risk. This
report sets forth the results of a biannual written survey
completed in 2006 by more than 36,000 high school students
across the country. The compilers of the report found that 82
percent of the students surveyed admitted that they had lied
to a parent about something significant within the previous
year. Sixty percent admitted to having cheated during a test
at school, and 28 percent admitted to having stolen something
from a store.2 (Various books in this series will tell of
other findings in this report.) Clearly, helping young people to
develop character is a need of national importance.
The United States Congress agrees. In 1994, in the joint
resolution that established National Character Counts Week,
Congress declared that “the character of a nation is only as
strong as the character of its individual citizens.” The
resolution
also stated that “people do not automatically develop
good character and, therefore, conscientious efforts must
be made by youth-influencing institutions . . . to help young
people develop the essential traits and characteristics that
comprise good character.”3
Many stories can be told of people who have defended our
nation with character. One of the editors of this series knew
one such young man named Jason Dunham. On April 24,
2004, Corporal Jason L. Dunham was serving with the United
States Marines in Iraq. As Corporal Dunham’s squad was
conducting a reconnaissance mission, the men heard sounds
of rocket-propelled grenades and small arms fire. Corporal
Dunham led a team of men toward that fire to assist their
battalion
commander’s ambushed convoy. An insurgent leaped
out at Corporal Dunham, and he saw the man release a grenade.
Corporal Dunham alerted his team and immediately
covered the grenade with his helmet and his body. He lost his
own life, but he saved the lives of others on his team.
In January 2007, the Dunham family traveled to Washington,
D.C., where President George W. Bush presented them
with Corporal Dunham’s posthumously awarded Congressional
Medal of Honor. In the words of the Medal of Honor
citation, “By his undaunted courage, intrepid fighting spirit,
and unwavering devotion to duty, Corporal Dunham gallantly
gave his life for his country.”4
Thomas Lickona, the author of several books including
Educating for Character and Character Matters, explains that
the premise of character education is that there are objectively
good human qualities—virtues—that are enduring
moral truths. Courage, fortitude, integrity, caring, citizenship,
and trustworthiness are just a few examples. These moral
truths transcend religious, cultural, and social differences
and help us to distinguish right from wrong. They are rooted
in our human nature. They tell us how we should act with
other human beings to promote human dignity and build a
well-functioning and civil society—a society in which everyone
lives by the golden rule.5
To develop his or her character, a person must understand
core virtues, care about them, and act upon them. This series
of books aims to help young readers want to become people
of character. The books will help young people understand
such core ethical values as fairness, honesty, responsibility,
respect, tolerance of others, fortitude, self-discipline,
teamwork,
and leadership. By offering examples of people today
and notable figures in history who live and have lived these
virtues, these books will inspire young readers to develop
these traits in themselves.
Finally, through these books, young readers will see that if
they act on these moral truths, they will make good choices.
Introduction
10 being a leader and making
decisions
They will be able to deal with frustration and anger, manage
conflict resolution, overcome prejudice, handle peer pressure,
and deal with bullying. The result, one hopes, will be middle
schools, high schools, and neighborhoods in which young
people care about one another and work with their classmates
and neighbors to develop team spirit.
Character development is a lifelong task but an exciting
challenge. The need for it has been with us since the beginning
of civilization. As the ancient Greek philosopher Aristotle
explained in his Nicomachean Ethics:
The virtues we get by first exercising them . . . so too we
become just by doing just acts, temperate by doing temperate
acts, brave by doing brave acts. . . . Hence also it is
no easy task to be good . . . to do this to the right person,
to the right extent, at the right time, with the right motive,
and in the right way, that is not easy; wherefore goodness
is both rare and laudable and noble. . . . It makes no small
difference, then, whether we form habits of one kind or of
another from our very youth; it makes a very great difference,
or rather all the difference.6
This development of one’s character is truly The Ultimate
Gift that we hope to give to our young people. In the movie
version of Jim Stovall’s book of the same name, a privileged
young man receives a most unexpected inheritance from his
grandfather. Instead of the sizeable inheritance of cash that
he expects, the young man receives 12 tasks—or “gifts”—
designed to challenge him on a journey of self-discovery.
The gifts confront him with character choices that force him
to decide how one can be truly happy. Is it the possession of
money that brings us happiness, or is it what we do with the
money that we have? Every one of us has been given gifts.
Will we keep our gifts to ourselves, or will we share them
with others?
Being a “person of character” can have multiple meanings.
Psychologist Steven Pinker asks an interesting question in a
11
January 13, 2008, New York Times Magazine article titled “The
Moral
Instinct”: “Which of the following people would you
