An Unteachable Subject by Hope

An Unteachable Subject by Hope - August 2015 Scholarship Essay

As a wife, mom, mentor to many undergraduate students, full-time employee of our non-profit organization that works with students, and a graduate student, I’ve worked with many students of all ages. When I saw the topic of this essay, I knew immediately what subject I would add to the American high school curriculum. If taught correctly and learned well, this subject is something that will outlast any education or career. It is also something that transcends the student’s entire life, including career experiences, family life, and personal circumstances. Through my experience as a mentor and working with thousands of students through our non-profit organization, I’ve realized that more than ever, this subject not only needs to be taught, it also needs to be modeled.

The subject that I would add to American high school curriculum is character. Developing positive character in students is arguably one of the most important indicators of the success they will experience in their life. On a professional level, having strong character ensures that the student is able to build and maintain the “soft skills” needed in his/her future career. Our education system has a strong emphasis on being educated in the hard skills and gaining knowledge. While knowledge and having hard skills may get the applicant a job, the soft skills and having high character are the values that are going to earn the employee a leadership position. Character, integrity, honesty, responsibility, and having a positive attitude are just some of the skills that are being quickly disregarded in the development of our students in the education system.

More importantly than the professional implications of character building, the development of high character ensures that the student will become a responsible citizen that makes a positive difference in our culture. Regardless of the situation or location, people that display character, especially in difficult circumstances, will always make a positive difference simply by their display of high moral values. The impact of this display of high moral values will always trump the impact of intelligence in regards to making a positive impact on our culture. But, in order to make a positive difference in this world, we have to develop positively different people. Those positively different people then have no boundaries on when and where they can make a difference- in their conversations, in their reactions, in the way they handle difficult situations, in the way they support and help others, in the way they work, drive, or raise a family, in their every day life. Showing character and developing integrity will always be the capstone of having a culture that is fundamentally good and respectable.

Character, integrity, honesty, endurance, positive attitudes, motivation, and service to others are important values to teach and to learn. However, they are not subjects that can be treated or taught strictly within the traditional classroom environment. If I had the authority to add character curriculum to the American high school education system, I would ensure that the classroom education of these values were integrated with the experiential education of these values. There’s a dramatic difference between knowing character and being a person of character and that difference is choice. That choice to be positively different lies only within the student and he/she needs to be taught and shown how to make the positive choices to build positive character. For example, it’s impossible to teach the importance of service to others without actually allowing the student to experience the impact that can be made by serving others.

Ultimately, character can’t be strictly taught- to be effective, it has to be modeled. And, the student that is learning character cannot solely have a teacher, he/she needs a mentor. I dream of the day that we could implement character curriculum into American high schools through mentorship for every student because the most effective lesson isn’t the one you’re taught, but it’s the one you experience. The understanding of character and high morals are best experienced through relationships with a trusted mentor or friend. In order for character curriculum to be effective within the American high school curriculum, the class/experience would need to be structured in a way that is contrary to many of the education strategies that our schools are currently using.

In order to be different, we have to do things differently. And in order to build the next generation of positive leaders, we have to show them how to be positively different. Through character education and experience through mentorship, I believe that our next generation could not only make a difference in the lives of others, but they can make a positive difference in our culture. Raising the next leaders doesn’t require more knowledge or education, but rather it requires them to have the ability to be people with unwavering character that shows integrity despite the circumstances.