Macon County Partners with Character@Heart
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. once said, “Intelligence is not enough. Intelligence plus character -- that is the goal of true education.” State legislators confirmed their support of this statement in 1995 when Act 95-313 was enacted. It was then that the Alabama Legislature mandated that character education is taught a minimum of ten minutes per day in our classrooms.
Funding has never been provided to support character education programs, so school systems have had to find creative means of funding character education. Thanks to local school administrators and teachers that students have been able to participate in many character building activities outside of the classroom. Currently, Macon County has partnered with Character@Heart to find some relief. Deborah Cannon Wolfe, George Washington Carver Elementary, Notasulga High and Tuskegee Public Schools will benefit from opportunities offered by Character at Heart.
Character@Heart is a non-profit organization in Montgomery that provides character education curriculum to elementary school children throughout the state. Character@Heart was recently awarded a grant from the Daniel Foundation to assist in a new project to spread “Character Across Alabama”. The grant has enabled Character@Heart to offer its curriculum to three additional counties and/or school systems, including Macon. Character@Heart has developed a curriculum which covers the 25 mandated character traits and provides books that correspond to every trait as well as activities. The 25 mandated character traits are listed below:
| Cheerfulness | Courage | Generosity | Patriotism | School Pride |
| Citizenship | Courtesy | Honesty | Perseverance | Self Courage |
| Cleanliness | Creativity | Kindness | Punctuality | Self Respect |
| Compassion | Diligence | Loyalty |
Respect of Environment |
Sportsmanship |
| Cooperation | Fairness | Patience | Respect Others | Tolerance |
Dr. Brooks affirms that Macon County Schools’ administrators and staff strongly support character education and realize that building character in our students means building children who grow to become productive adults. As a result, a district team recently attended a training for Character Coordinators. Mr. Asberry, Ms. Williams, Mrs. Hooks, Mrs. Eula Marshall and Dr. Venesia McClaney received an overview of the Character@Heart curriculum, and a set of books was provided for the district coordinator to use while providing training to others.
For more information on Character@Heart, you may visit www.characteratheart.org. Staff includes Pam Morgan, Executive Director; Brenda Blount, Director of Development; Peggie Ennels, Administrative Assistant/Technology Coordinator and Lisa Powell, Program Support and Training.