Over the years we have been impressed with many segments of international societies, but none as distinctive as the element known as the world of children.

Their story is a dramatic one! The need for and the bravery of the children is what gives hope to a nation and is many times beyond belief! Many children have a sense of goodness, gratitude, and a desire to learn more about life and people of different cultures. They are completely unspoiled, don’t have much of the world’s wealth, yet they have a happiness about them. They are primed for greater development and ready to embrace a moral inner strength which would certainly assist them throughout their years.

Many of the children of whom I speak have no parents. Recently I was touched when through video I saw one young girl about twelve years of age, followed by a film crew to her home after a long day’s work. Her home was a large wooden box! She lived there all by herself. She represents hundreds of children in the area where she lives.

Many children in the world support themselves working at jobs no one else will touch. They toil in fields, brick yards, working elephants, keeping cities clean through trash pick-up, are used as transport, managing elementary machines, and a million sweat jobs around the earth.

What if the many children obliged to go to school were to learn through their school system the need for ethical and values development in their lives? What if they learned an ethical vocabulary, how to make an ethical decision, and how to establish relationships built on a principled way of life? And, what if all were taught in the schoolroom arena and reached into their community life?  It would satisfy their capacity to understand and know character as it relates to personal fulfillment and national citizenship.

More than that, what if it helped them one day to have better families of their own and pass these values on to their children and grandchildren. Even more than that, focus the telescope of the future a little bit more; what if the future president of S. Africa, Guyana, Ireland, England, etc was being trained in the basic moral objectives of leading and preserving a nation?

We like to begin at the top, with leaders in education of a certain nation, explain the entire program, and let them examine the ethics program from beginning to end. They provide the initial invitation to the Center for Character Development, arrange for various educators to hear Power Point Reviews, consider what CHARACTER COUNTS!  would accomplish for them, anticipate its fitting into their culture, and the organizational planning it would take for this all to become a reality in their vicinity or country. 

All of this we have successfully done before.

Our teaching site is any community where education is sound and seen as vital to the lives of youth and their future.

• Local schools with the training of one faculty at a time.
• An area university where public school masters and teachers can travel in and be trained.
• An educational campus for teaching excellence where chosen teachers are trained in the ethics program to bring it home and teach it to their fellows.
• And, any method which conforms to educational customs of the area and approved by educational leadership.

• That our faculty created from among CHARACTER COUNTS! teachers in the U.S., travel to the training site and set in motion a premier character program in those schools, both classroom-wide and school-wide.
  
  
• That CHARACTER COUNTS! be taught so as to show consideration for the already set in place organization of the school system, their beautiful culture, and national ideals. That this program in effect be personalized by them and made their own!

For twelve years we have been going all over the world with our teaching/training programs. Many wonderful people have expressed how they have enjoyed the professional working relationship we have had with them. Among these have been President’s wives, Ministers of Education, numerous professors, teachers, and school authorities. This has caused us to return time and again.

To date we have gone into the following countries promoting CHARACTER COUNTS!: Ukraine, Ireland, England, Guyana, Russia (Siberia), Antigua, Tatarstan, Honduras, Albania, Barbuda and St. Thomas VI. Nine thousand five hundred teachers and youth workers have been trained in West Texas schools and this number does not take into account those trained as part of the national work of the Josephson Institute of Ethics, creators of CHARACTER COUNTS!, and one of the premier character organizations in the nation, of which we have been privileged to be a part.

Wishing to honor those we served we have been totally proficient and have always brought highly qualified instructors well certified in their given field. We have been so impressed with the interest of teachers, on both school and university level, that we have had special educational materials designed, printed and distributed. The latest material has been the Teachers Training Manual which has received recognition in the United States in educational circles.

We have established a website for the ongoing work of foreign school teachers [www.charactercenter.com] and have set in motion a monthly journal called CHARACTER INSIGHTS! sent to every place we have been and to those who have requested it. This electronic journal provides continued education, directives, lesson plans, activities, and suggestions to keep heath in the effort and maintain professional connection.

THE CHARACTER COUNTS! PLAN

The one program that has emerged as being beneficial to both home and school, has been the CHARACTER COUNTS!  basic approach.

THIS IS NOT A RELIGIOUS PROGRAM.  It's a methodology!

Again and again educators expressed a warm regard for this school agenda. It has proved itself well among world cultures and has received excellent educational acceptance both for its scientific style and help to children. There are educators in all these countries that have become very professional in promoting this program in their schools. For this we are thankful and fulfilled.

A POSSIBLE ON-SITE TEACHING APPROACH

TRAINERS TRAINING TRAINERS

• To train educators chosen by the Host School System in a five day CHARACTER COUNTS! seminar, who in turn set up a teaching/training schedule for the day to day educators in their given communities.
  • Three days would be given to the rudiments of the character program: definition, behavior, and assimilation into school manners.
  • Two days would be given to organization, design, activities, and promotion.

TRAINERS TRAINING INDIVIDUAL SCHOOL FACULTIES

• To set up a teaching schedule over several months in which all faculties of all schools would be taught in CHARACTER COUNTS! in two day sessions.
  • One day given to rudiments
  • One day given to organization, activities, and promotion.

SELECTING THOSE WHO WOULD PARTICIPATE
AS TRAINERS OF TEACHERS.

            [Note that their teaching task is implied in the basis of their selection.]

• They have an academic certification as a teacher to teach.
  
  
• They have a recommended history for good educational performance.

• They have already put into practice the CHARACTER COUNTS! agenda in their school.

• They are seen by those in their cities and villages as ethical reflectors of the principles they teach.

• They have a hospitable manner and are influential with other teachers.

• They are not inelegant in personality traits and are easy to be approached by people who are learning.

• Who understand “culture” and know how to show regard for the same.

• Who are known for their genuine love of children, especially those who live under difficult life-circumstances?

•  Who have conviction about instructing and advancing character in children and village living.

• Who are willing to make the optimal preparation in creating this character mission as a model of success for the rest of their nation.

• Who are not opposed to giving their time and efforts to future opportunities of this type as they come into prospect.

• To adhere to any parameter the Minister of Education and local officials would place on the program.

MEANS OF FUNDING

The Center: Travel, board, and room on the part of US faculty, teaching aids, projectors, Power Point, etc would be sponsored from the US side.

Host country: a training site, foreign teachers in attendance, etc. and would make the necessary provisions for their own teachers.

TIME SCHEDULE FOR ON THE SITE TEACHING

The time schedule would be set up by the Minister of Education/Superintendents for the host country.

• We would try to meet their peculiar teaching schedule.
  
• Teaching Plan and Schedule would be set up by the host schools

CHARACTER MATERIALS TEACHING NOTEBOOK

This can be arranged mutually for production. We have it in hardcopy form in black/white. We do not want the expense for the production of these materials to be a reason for not having the training. We will bring about this part of the plan jointly.

FOLLOW UP

• After this Certification Training our staff would move into the role of giving "Technical Support" from time to time.

• The host schools should be given direction as to how to set up a Coalition to perpetuate CHARACTER COUNTS!  throughout their region.

• Trips could be planned for High school and University students trained in CHARACTER COUNTS! to develop follow-up Character Camps for the native children. These campers would come from CHARACTER COUNTS! schools.

• They would be highly recommended by their school authorities and meet all standards for qualification for involvement.

• They would have three main programs:

  • Tutoring in school subjects

  • Teaching new materials in CHARACTER COUNTS!

  • Pursuing Victory With Honor

CERTIFICATION PROCESS

A Certification Process is already developed in agreement with the Josephson Institute of Ethics and applicable to the host school system.

• The Minister of Education [or authority in the host country or region] should acknowledge the program officially.
• The program should be recognized for its credibility through "self-study".
•  The host nation/district/province should choose at least thirty of their best teachers for certification to perpetuate CHARACTER COUNTS! in the local school system.
  • Providing all arrangements for an approved seminar.
  •  Using national teachers who have proved themselves skilled in implementation in their school system.
  • The Center will provide the Teacher's Training Manual in the English language [with no additional materials].

WEBSITE TRAINING

• Host teachers should be trained in the use of the CENTER FOR CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT and CHARACTER COUNTS!  web-sites for the following purpose:

• To become part of the CHARACTER COUNTS! World family.
   

• To have access to CHARACTER COUNTS! News.
   

• Addresses: www.charactercenter.com and www.charactercounts.org
   

• To feel identifiable with CHARACTER COUNTS! Educators elsewhere and make and share in their character friendship.

  • To be made aware of extra character materials through other websites. [All the resources they would need are on these websites. We will provide the addresses.]
     

• To create awareness of teaching information as it relates to school, home, and community life.
   

• To show ways of integrating the teaching of character into classroom lessons, etc.

  • The Internet could be used for promoting character in the host country and could be developed with a National Page with information pertinent to the schools of that country...
     

INTERNATIONAL CHARACTER COUNTS!
RESOURCE CENTER

THE CENTER FOR CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT
IS AN INTERNATIONAL CHARACTER COUNTS!
RESOURCE CENTER.

• All requests come to the Center for Character Development to be considered for training outside the United States.
   

• Communication will be set up with the appropriate person/s  in foreign countries for good communication purposes.
   

• An initial training date will be established.
   

• Resource people working with Character Teams International will be matched with the assignment.
   

• As nations become CHARACTER COUNTS! Sites, materials in their language will be added to the Center for Character Development web-site.
   

• A Technical Support Team will be developed for each foreign CHARACTER COUNTS! Training site.