Conference Opening and Welcome
Dr. Susan Tave Zelman, Ohio Superintendent of Public Instruction
Bob Taft, Governor of Ohio

Dr. Zelman: Thank you for the opportunity to participate in the Summit on Character Education, and to all of you, welcome, and thank you for coming. I suspect if I paused here and asked each one of you, “Why are you here today?” I would get a variety of answers. Some of you are very strong advocates of character education, like U.S. Senator Christopher Dodd from Connecticut. You are convinced that our schools are built on the bricks of English, mathematics, science and social studies, but that character education is the mortar that puts them together. Many of you are here to learn, to gain a better understanding of character education, to find out what the research says, and to develop the knowledge and skills that will make you better educators in the classroom. And still others may be curious and even concerned by some of the more difficult questions raised by character education. Whose values are going to be taught? Are my values any of your business? Can you teach morality? And if so, shouldn’t we be teaching character at home, not in the school? We have very different reasons for being here today, but one thing on which all of us can agree, is that character counts. It counts for young people who want to grow as moral human beings. It counts for educators in schools who are committed to meeting the needs of our children and preparing them to meet the challenges of a lifetime. It counts for a democratic society whose core institutions are dependent upon the cultivation of such character traits as courage, perseverance, loyalty, caring, civic virtue, justice, truthfulness, respect, and responsibility. 

The word character comes from the Greek work to mark, to engrave. And the people with good character traits habitually display good behavior, and habits are embedded in them. And to me, that’s what character education is all about. It recognizes that good behavior is not innate. Instead, it is acquired through teaching and practice in the home, in the school, and in the community. So it is important for teachers who are responsible for transforming our children into adults, adults who behave well, adults who demonstrate good external conduct, but most importantly, adults who understand why this sort of behavior is important. 

During the past few days I have had the opportunity to think a lot about what I was going to say today, and to reflect on some of the research on issues that you will be addressing today. I really have been reminded that character education is not a simple matter. An individual’s character is not formed overnight. It develops over time, usually a long time. And it is shaped by many forces, and in many ways. It can result from the exposure of actions and attitude of others, most often, family members and close friends. It can be formed by one’s own actions, such as service to others. But it also can be developed through dialogue and discussion, and through a variety of formal as well as informal learning situations. In sharp contrast, there is little evidence that moralizing to children, or direct instruction in a very traditional sense, makes a difference. This tells us a lot about the challenge that educators face as they help students grow into moral human beings. It tells us that promoting good manners and demanding compliance with rules have limited value. It tells us that to define and drill and praise and reward may produce some quick behavioral results, but they don’t help students understand and commit to values that are core to our society. Nor do they help young people develop the skills of putting these values into action that really reflect the complex life situations that they will face. 

So, then, what does work? Well, that is one of the things that we hope you will discover during this summit. I know, with insightful presenters and challenging work sessions that have been planned here today, I know that you will in fact review this research and come back with even more skills and abilities in providing the appropriate classroom possibilities. Today you’re going to have an opportunity to explore the link between character education and academic success. Hopefully, each of you will take from this experience a better appreciation of the ways that we can match high expectations for student behavior with high expectations of academic behavior for each student. The understanding of what education is all about is reflected in the core objectives established by the State Board of Education. One: To assure high achievement for all learners. Two: To promote a safe and secure learning environment for every child. Three: To preserve and nurture enthusiasm for learning. And Four: To help every generation learn, enhance and practice the character traits that are valued by their communities. So you see, the goals of the State Board of Education are what the summit, this Character Summit, is all about. And that’s why I am so pleased that Governor Taft is here this morning, so he can join with us as we kick off this very important conference. Through his many years of public service, Governor Taft has proven for all of us that character counts. He has demonstrated through his years of public service this important value. He has made it clear that fostering positive character in children is first and foremost a responsibility of parents and families. Yet, at the same time he has confirmed that every Ohioan who interacts with young people, teachers, administrators, business and community leaders, has a critical role to play. He has proven that character building is everybody’s business. Governor, we welcome you to this session this morning, and we look forward to what you have to say. Please welcome Governor Bob Taft. 

Governor: Thanks Susan, and good morning. Susan is someone that I personally admire for all of her good character traits, and she really needs them! Her job is much tougher than my job. I report to eleven million people throughout the state of Ohio. That is relatively easy compared to reporting to nineteen members of the Ohio Board of Education on a monthly basis. And I have to be very careful, I know at least one of them, Sue Westendorf, is here today, and who is very interested in character education up in Henry county. But Susan does a remarkable job as our school superintendent and I really enjoy the opportunity to work closely with her in so many different ways. I also want to introduce and welcome Jane Berger, who is sitting right up here at one of these front tables. Jane has just taken over the role as our second Governor’s Teacher in Residence, and she is doing a great job and thank you for being here to learn more about character education.

I also, of course, am a product of character education. I do remember, I think it was back in the fifth grade when my teacher, Jackie Eiser, heard me and another student laughing over a dirty joke in the back of the class and he took us both right around the corner into the bathroom there, the boys room, and washed our mouths out with soap. That was effective, but I am sure you will be learning other ways of teaching good character here at this conference. 

I want to thank the Ohio Partners in Character Education, the Council for Ethics in Economics, and the Ohio Department of Education for organizing the great agenda for this year’s conference. I also want to express my appreciation to American Electric Power, Honda, Nationwide, the Lubrizol Corporation, and Ashland Incorporated for sponsoring this conference. All of those companies are outstanding corporate citizens and they display a strong sense of responsibility towards their communities. I’m here for the third straight year because my highest priority as Governor is to enable every child to succeed. And character education is essential to achieving that goal. We’re spending 1.7 million dollars a day on school construction and renovation, and I recently signed into law a student success bill to implement a system of high academic standards, common sense assessments, and accountability for results, second to none in the nation. But our children need a lot more than buildings and more than academics for success. They also need to learn good habits of character. We have expanded our efforts to build and renovate schools, but we know what really matters is what happens inside our school buildings, and inside the hearts and minds of our children. The duty of teaching character starts at home with parents and grandparents. Ideally, parents should be every child’s first and most important teacher. But schools have a vital role to play in building strong character traits in our children. In fact, there was a time when education was only about character. Two thousand years ago, Plutarch said, “The very spring and root of honesty and virtue lie in a good education.” A hundred and fifty years ago Herbert Spencer said, “Education has for its object the formation of character.” 

Our nation has recently come under violent attack, and as we cope with those tragic events we have to focus on what is really important, and nothing is more important than enabling our children to learn good character traits. In these recent days we have had wonderful examples of how good character matters out in the community. We saw the character of firefighters and police officers who risked their lives to help rescue others, rushing into the World Trade Center without hesitation, many of them losing their lives in the process. And the seventy-two members of Ohio’s Task Force One worked twelve hour shifts for more than a week as part of the search and rescue effort, showed us all how character matters. I was up in Toledo last Saturday visiting a mosque and I learned that fifteen hundred Christians and Muslims and Jews had encircled the large mosque there on Interstate 75 near Bowling Green in a show of unity and respect for one another. Another beautiful example of good character, helping our nation in a time of trial. 

As adults, we know that ordinary people can rise to great moments and perform extraordinary tasks when they have within them the strength of character cultivated since childhood. Bishop Phillips Brooks, who wrote O Little Town of Bethlehem, among other things, once said, “Character may be manifested in the great moments, but it is made in the small ones.” And the character lessons that come from parents and teachers and the community, in the ordinary moments as we live out our lives, is what is really important. Helping our children learn and incorporate the traits of good character like responsibility and honesty and respect for others in the classroom, helps them in their lives, but also helps them to be better students. The results of Ohio Partners in Character Education study released earlier this year bear that out. We know character education is making a difference in our schools. It’s working to help our children, and that is why it is so important to do what all of you are doing, which is to weave the building of character into education. It should be an integral part of the educational experience of our children. As Susan noted, character education is also essential to creating an orderly and constructive school environment, in which children can achieve and flourish. By linking character and education in their curriculum, schools are making remarkable gains. I have heard about Fairmoor Elementary here in Columbus, which received an Ohio School Improvement Incentive Award for improved student performance on the state proficiency tests, which their principal, Nancy Weber, attributes to the fact that they built character education into that curriculum. And I know that all of you have your own examples of how character education is improving the climate for learning in your schools. You all have great success stories. You are here at this conference to share them, to learn new ideas, and to develop new strategies for character education. I also want you to know that in the future we hope to resume funding for character education. Your efforts deserve state support. I just want to commend all of you for your hard work and for your dedication to Ohio’s children, for being here, taking the time to learn how to do your job even better on such a very important issue. We are on the right track with character education and we all need to be part of that effort to make it happen in all our schools for our children’s future and for Ohio’s future. Thank you all and have a great conference. Thank you.