ABSTRACT
It is helpful, when thinking about interventions such as character education, to start “with the end in mind.” Sometimes this is called “backwards design.” The idea is that any effective character education initiative needs to start with a clear understanding of what people are trying to impact. Any journey not only begins with a single step but also needs a destination. Knowing where people are trying to get to is essential for getting there. Fortunately, character education has resisted the obsessed-with-test-scores approach to accountability that has caused many schools to narrow the curriculum mostly to reading and math and in the process rob kids of exposure to the arts and other humanizing educational experiences. But it is also true that character educators have neglected accountability to a fault. Dealing with human goodness and flourishing can be inherently polarizing and even frightening. It ultimately needs to deal with issues of right and wrong which makes people uncomfortable and even suspicious.
