CHARACTER COUNTS at LCMS!
CHARACTER COUNTS AT LCMS!
adapted from What Parents Can Do Handbook
LCMS recognizes the importance of developing strong character within our students. Our staff will begin implementing CHARACTER COUNTS (a national character development program) this school year. You may have noticed some banners hanging around campus, banners hanging in the MPR, or our new CENTURIONS mural with the six CHARACTER COUNTS pillars? It is our hope that our students begin to realize the role they each play in helping to create a great school environment and that they learn to give back (contribute) as opposed to just taking!
What is character and how is it formed? Character is who we really are. It’s what we do when no one is looking. It’s the accumulation of thoughts, values, words, and actions. These become the habits that comprise our character. That character determines our destiny.
A person of character thinks right and does right according to core universal values that define the qualities of a good person: trustworthiness, respect, responsibility, fairness, caring, and citizenship. The CHARACTER COUNTS program refers to these as the Six Pillars of Character. Whatever we call them, though, our role as character developers is to guide young people’s thoughts, words, actions, and habits toward these values, which all people share, regardless of other differences.
Don’t be intimidated by the changes taking place in your 11 to 13 year old and by the increasing importance of peer influence. The family is the primary character-building force in a child’s life, and character education is a major family obligation. It’s a parent’s job to help kids engage the world with as much trustworthiness, respect, responsibility, fairness, caring, and citizenship as possible.
Even when physical, emotional, and social changes sometimes mean a temporary self-focus for middle schoolers, the challenge of parenting for character becomes more manageable by taking a simple approach – and by involving the full community in sending a common message about the standards of good character.
Identify and reflect on the major influences on your child’s character:
- Friends
- Life experiences
- Stories heard
- Books read
- Conversations heard
- People admired
- People who spend time with your child
- TV programs and movies watched
- Music listened to
- Games played
- Sports played and watched
- Goals and expectations
Please join us and help make Los Coyotes Middle School a place where character truly does count!
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