Education First

Video games are among the most popular toys today. Children of all ages spend a lot of time engrossed in the latest action-packed video console or computer game. For this reason, it is important to choose video games that are educational, rather than those that contain violence or other content not suitable for children. There is a host of video games on the market perfect for children. These games incorporate education into the fun of video games, giving both parents and children lots of safe, educational options to choose from.

Though there have been serious concerns over the past few years surrounding the adverse affects of frequent video game playing on children, playing video games can have some positive effects as well. First, games can provide children a fun and social form of entertainment, especially when played in pairs or even teams. This allows children who share similar interests the opportunity to learn from each other while having fun in a pressure-free environment. This also helps to encourage teamwork and cooperation, two attributes that are essential to a child’s social education.

Video games can also make children feel more comfortable with technology. This may not be as much of an issue as it used to be, as many children are now learning basic computer skills at a young age, but it is still an important factor since technology changes so frequently. It also gives them the opportunity to share their knowledge with other children, and to learn from their experiences in a particular game or format.

Playing educational video games can also help build a child’s self-esteem as he or she masters more and more different levels in a particular game. More importantly, it can also teach children to feel good about having fun in a non-competitive environment.

However, the main goal of educational video games is, of course, to help educate. Educational video games can improve the development of math, reading, and problem-solving skills. This kind of practice –practice that your children will want to take part in– can help them with their schoolwork, as well as help them to catch onto particular subjects more quickly.

Video games can also help the improvement and development of eye-hand coordination, as well as fine motor skills. This will be very important to any child’s future, and can be instrumental in developing a child’s interests and special skills. This is also a good way to encourage your child to use different parts of his or her brain.

No matter which educational video games you choose, be sure they do not contain any features that would not be suitable for your children. Since the objective is to learn, they should help build useful skills and be thought-provoking. These games will also provide your child with hours of fun, while helping to build some of the most essential basic skills.

The Definition
Character education involves teaching children about basic human values including honesty, kindness, generosity, courage, freedom, equality and respect.

The goal is to raise children to become morally responsible, self-disciplined citizens. Problem solving, decision making, and conflict resolution are important parts of developing moral character. Through role playing and discussions, children can see that their decisions affect other people and things.

Inclusive Concept
Character education is an inclusive concept regarding all aspects of how families, schools, and related social institutions support the positive character development of children. Character in this context refers to the moral and ethical qualities of persons as well as the demonstration of those qualities in their emotional responses, reasoning, and behavior. Character is associated with such virtues as respect, responsibility, trustworthiness, fairness, caring, and citizenship. Broadly, character education encompasses all aspects of the influence that families, schools, and other social institutions have on the positive character development of children. Character Education is the deliberate effort to help people understand, care about and act upon core ethical values.

What Does Character Education Look Like?
Character education looks like young people learning, growing, and becoming. It feels like strength, courage, possibility, and hope. Giving life meaning, purpose, and a future is the collective message educators are sharing with youth in a curriculum that ultimately says, “Together we can.”

We need to practice moral education by means of explanation not simply stuffing students’ heads with rules and regulations, but engaging them in great moral conversations about the human race. The very existence of this dialogue helps make us human.

How can Children benefit
Embedded in character education are guidelines for successful living. The language of respect and responsibility navigates the journey to ethical fitness. Children explore education as life and life as learning positive approaches for setting and achieving goals.

Children learn that living each day to its fullest means more than waiting for moments here and there. Character education presents life with context, inviting them to listen, share, explore, and reflect. Cultivating knowledge for purposeful living, students learn through literature, art, humanities and throughout the existing school curriculum the benefits and consequences of behavior. They learn the power of choice. They learn to appreciate the qualities of being human and to share their appreciation at home, in school, and in the community.

Finding Time
Many stories in children’s literature, for example, reflect lessons in morals and virtues; we can read and discuss these moral lessons without taking time from core subjects. Character education also fits well with social studies and health topics. Accepting individual differences, showing courage, developing citizenship, taking responsibility for oneself, and making positive, so the hurdle of finding time for character education becomes less intimidating. Also, talking about good character traits fits naturally into the scheme of setting up a successful primary classroom. When we introduce games in math, we could review the ideas of fairness and cooperation.

Practicing Cooperative Learning Techniques
Partner and small-group learning activities are natural complements to character education, providing children with opportunities to practice cooperation, respect, teamwork, and responsibility. Children usually enjoy cooperative activities, and working with peers is a brain-friendly technique that enhances learning (Jensen, 1996).

School staff members serve as troubleshooters between students and the individuals or agencies in need of assistance. Such service programs teach valuable humanitarian skills. Through these activities, abstract concepts like justice and community become real as students see the faces of the lives they touch. Children begin to appreciate the need to couple moral thinking with moral action.

Does It Work?
Can character education really make a difference? Teaching about character is just as important as teaching the basics of writing, math, and reading. As Martin Luther King Jr. said, “Intelligence plus characterthat is the goal of true education” (1947). Educators should work in partnership with families and communities to give children every opportunity to grow into people of good character, and especially to counteract society’s potentially negative influences. Character education cannot cure all the world’s evils, but it can improve and influence children in positive ways, giving them the skills that they will need to be successful adults.

Expectations of Excellence
Children need standards and the skills to achieve them. They need to see themselves as students engaged in a continuing pursuit of excellence. These standards of excellence in school work and behavior will encourage students to develop qualities like perseverance and determination, and those virtues will affect every aspect of the children’s lives as they mature.

Academic studies change rapidly; what we discuss in class today becomes pass tomorrow. But the values, moral influences and noteworthy characteristics we model and discuss will outlast academic facts and figures. We can leave our children a legacy that will remain constant throughout life: to know the good, love the good and do the good.

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Career training is something many individuals seek through continuing education. Many local community colleges and some local high schools offer adult education courses and continuing education to guide individuals who want further career opportunities through career training.

Job placement after career training can offer individuals a better incentive for furthering their careers. Career training through education is one way to ensure candidates for jobs are well qualified for the positions they wish to secure. Often, career training programs offer degrees through continuing education as well as certificate programs.

The computer programming field as well as the medical field offers ongoing career training for individuals to pursue as they are working in their field of choice. Higher salaries are often realized as well as better job security following a career training program. Community colleges and high schools which offer career training programs will often schedule classes in the evenings and on the weekends so the working adult can benefit by scheduling classes after work and on their days off.

Career training is one of the best things you can do for yourself if you are planning to remain in the career of your choice for your lifetime. It not only gives you a competitive edge in the workplace but it also enables you to gain a more secure job realizing better rates per hour. Also, with more job training, individuals are likely to become recognized as an authority in their career of choice making the idea of career training that much more attractive.

The internet offers the working public a better way to seek further career training too. If you want to further your education or find better advancement within your career, log online and see if you can find internet courses which will enable you to reach your goals of career training. You can conduct keyword searches online to find the best opportunities to teach you more about a particular trade or a particular career.

Many colleges and universities have what they are commonly referring to as distance education and you may be able to find distance education courses offered online from numerous universities throughout the country which may appeal to you more than your local opportunities. Distance education programs range in all facets of job skills and requirements which can help you advance your career. Some colleges and universities will offer more training in your chosen field than others. Your local community college advisors may be able to help you with this if you are already taking classes to further your career locally. However, for the most part, distance education courses offered online will be something you can pursue on your own.

The important thing to remember when you are seeking more career training possibilities is to research your possibilities. With the internet, there are countless possibilities for you and youll find the job training you seek for on-the-job can be valuable to you as well. Talk to your employer, search the internet and get ready to advance your career through career training programs.

Art programs, such as art appreciation, drama, theater and music, have been suffering across the nation for 30 years, as school officials concentrate on the basics of learning. With federal programs, such as No Child Left Behind, even more focus has been placed on basic learning skills, which excludes the arts. This also means that any extra funding is funneled into these basic learning programs in order to meet state and federal-set standards. Arts education is one of the standards that should be met by schools within the state of California, yet the state does not impose penalties on schools that do not met these particular standards.

A statewide survey by SRI International concluded that of the 1,123 schools surveyed:

89 percent failed to meet state standards for arts education;
Nearly 13 offered no art education coursework that met state standards;
61 percent had no full-time arts specialist, with classroom teachers without adequate training teaching arts education at the elementary level;
Kindergarten through 12 enrollment in music classes declined by 37 percent over a five-year period, ending last June; and
Poor schools have the least access to arts education; whereas better income schools (where parents can afford private lessons) are more apt to have it.

Chris Funk is the San Jose schools principal of Lincoln High School, a stellar magnet arts school. He believes that the more San Jose schools students are exposed to the arts the better they will do in testing within other coursework.

Studies have proven that a strong arts program can be linked to improvement in everything from math skills to truancy. Arts education in elementary and secondary schools produce skilled sculptors, actors, musicians, singers and so many other arts-related careers. The arts also improve the socialization skills of students.

Bill Eriendson, assistant superintendent of the San Jose schools, stated that the level of funding for the arts is inadequate. Last year, the state budgeted 500 million for the arts and physical education; however, this amount was a one-time deal. The norm is 105 million, which is about 15 per student. According to Eriendson, the San Jose schools requires about 800,000 to restore just their music programs at the elementary San Jose schools. This figure does not include the purchase of instruments.

San Jose schools are a good representation of the statewide findings. Besides trying to meet state and federal standards in the basic coursework, the San Jose schools were hit with Proposition 13 that was passed in 1978, which imposed tax cuts for Californians and greatly reduced funding for arts education. The arts were first cut in the secondary San Jose schools and then in the elementary San Jose schools. By the late 1980s, arts education was all but gone in the San Jose schools.

According to Funk, there currently is a waiting list of 225 San Jose schools students. He finds San Jose schools students are drawn to the dance, theater, music and visual arts programs offered by his school. Without the support of the Lincoln Foundation, which donated 75,000 for this school year, this San Jose schools arts magnet would not exist.