Having just finished “The Character of Leadership” by Jeff Iorg, my mind has been wondering around thinking of ways to educate character into my students. I hate to say it, but it’s hard. It’s hard because you can’t make someone else behave in a certain way (and if you do you’re as bad as the person who wasn’t acting right in the first place); it’s hard because we don’t get to spend a lot of time with our students as opposed to other influences on their lives. It’s hard because behavior modification is easier than character development.
I truly believe that you lead out of who you are. If that’s the case, then character development is one of the more important things that we will do for our youth, and especially our young leaders. Its importance cannot be understated.
Here are a couple of ideas when it comes to developing character that I’ve been mulling over:
1. Partner with parents. Parents are the main influence on students, whether they’ll admit to it or not (actually, they have admitted to it. See “Real Teens” by George Barna). If we’re going to have any real impact on character development, it will have to be a multi-front fight. Make sure parents are on board with you.
2. Constantly harp on Character. Maybe harp is a bad term. Don’t nag them, but keep character issues in front of their face at all times. Talk with your students about their character. Do exercises that stretch their moral mental muscles.
3. Give them real moral dilemmas to work through and figure out. Make them as real and as relevant as possible.
4. Cultivate a rich inner life in your students. A student who is out of their bible and not spending time in prayer is not going to develop biblical character. Help your students come up with good spiritual disciplines and then help them stick to them.
Question: How are you developing character in your students? What is working, and what isn’t?
Training Tomorrow’s Leaders Today,
Matt
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