ABSTRACT
If character is one’s central way of being, this should naturally lead to the question of why a particular person has a particular way of being. That question is about the source of character in a person. The author has asked people all over the world that question, and the most common answers are about relationships and role models. Others talk about the traumas and hurdles they had to overcome in life. No one has ever claimed that their character came from extrinsic rewards or public recognitions. As educators, people should want their efforts to lead children to develop internal motives to be a person of character, so that wherever they go in life, they will take those motives, those character strengths, those virtues with them, rather than merely enacting them when the circumstances provide a motive external to themselves, such as when there are clear material rewards for being that way or when an authority is watching.
