When we hear the term character education, we usually think of the responsibility and opportunity of parents and primary school teachers to teach young children the difference between right and wrong and to inspire them to choose what is right.

But what about older children, young adults, and mature professionals? Is there a time when a person’s character has been formed, when the clay, so malleable in early youth, hardens like stone and character education becomes futile? Lots of people think so, not only about other people but about themselves.

While working to integrate ethical decision-making strategies into police and military academies, I’ve seen conclusive evidence that this notion of a fully developed or fixed character is not only wrong, it’s wasteful. Character development is a lifelong process, and all people have the capacity to be better today than they were yesterday.

Police and military academies explicitly recognize that good moral character is as vital as competence. While they try to select only young people of sterling character, they don’t leave it at that. A large portion of their training is designed to instill or enhance moral qualities associated with good character -- and it works.

It’s not that hard either. Guided discussions, simulations, and supervised field experiences all can be used to generate attitudes and habits that make new officers more diligent, thorough, and accurate; more committed to honesty; better able to control negative impulses; more willing to treat people -- even ones they don’t like -- with respect; and more likely to summon the moral courage to do the right thing even when it may be personally costly. This is high-level character education.

What about you? Are you as good as you will ever be?

This is Michael Josephson reminding you that character counts.

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