Before coming to the Jubilee Centre for Character and Virtues, I spent three years training and working as a secondary school teacher. Working in this role fuelled my conviction for character education within schools and allowed me valuable insight into the concerns that teachers have about the idea of its implementation. This blog explores those... Continue Reading →
The newly published Flourishing From the Margins research report published yesterday (October 26th) provides a rich and comprehensive dataset for the study of character development in marginalised young people. The literature review that began the study found a gap in the research of marginalised, and sometimes NEET, young people, with a dearth of studies considering... Continue Reading →
Poetry is when an emotion has found its thought and the thought has found words – Robert Frost In this blog post, I wish to describe my proposed PhD project that I’m undertaking as of this coming autumn. I’d like to begin by briefly explaining the concept of character education, before describing the elements of... Continue Reading →
Money, it is said, makes the world go round and the individuals who generate pounds, dollars and yuan are rarely out of the news. The world’s largest economy, the United States, is now run by a veteran businessman rather than a career politician. The elevation of billionaire Donald Trump to the Oval Office has ensured... Continue Reading →
The value of engaging young people in positive social action has been working its way up the political agenda for some time. An independent review into youth social action launched by former Prime Minister David Cameron led to the #iwill campaign, which aims to harness the creativity, energy and talents of 10 to 20-year-olds for... Continue Reading →
University of Birmingham School principal Michael Roden talks to Richard McComb There cannot be many homework planners where one of the most prominent pages asks pupils: “What virtues have you shown today?” Below the question, embedded in a heart shape, are words such as kindness, courage, service, resilience, honesty, loyalty and kindness. Anchoring the page,... Continue Reading →
Amid the pressure to hit targets and the clamour to shine in school league tables, there is resurgent interest in the wider development of students’ character. Teachers and parents see the intrinsic value of helping young people to untap their potential as flourishing citizens of the world. But how does a school judge how well... Continue Reading →
“This is not politics as usual. This is disgraceful.”[1] These were the words of US first lady Michelle Obama on the Hillary Clinton campaign trail in New Hampshire last month. The speech, widely lauded as one of the best of the campaign, focused on the conduct of Clinton’s Republican opponent Donald Trump, in particular his... Continue Reading →
“A few years ago, I was speaking at one of my very first autism conferences, and a parent came up to me with one question: ‘What will happen to my child when I’m gone?’ For me, this became the million dollar question in our autism community. While this father was crying, asking me this question,... Continue Reading →
This year has seen some terrific football triumphs as underdogs Leicester won the Premiership and Wales out-performed England at the European Championships. But the last week of September 2016 will go down in English football infamy. Newly-appointed national team manager Sam Allardyce left his “dream job” by mutual consent after only 67 days in post,... Continue Reading →
Over the coming weeks and months, it will be interesting to see how the new Education Secretary Justine Greening lays out her vision for schools. Ms Greening’s previous incumbent, Nicky Morgan, stressed the importance of “building character and resilience in every child” in the White Paper Educational Excellence Everywhere, published in March. The paper noted... Continue Reading →
Traditionally, moral or other virtues have been considered aspirations to personal excellence: to have cultivated a virtue – albeit imperfectly – is to have attained some higher human state. While regarding virtue and the virtuous in this normatively exalted way, however, it has also been common to esteem people for their so-called ‘spirituality’ or spiritual... Continue Reading →
Of all ways in which the vote for Brexit has shone a light on the state of our society, one finding is both clear and profound: Britain is becoming a more heterogeneous country, both culturally and economically, with fewer shared values, a suspicion of elites, and a weakening national identity. This phenomenon is not limited... Continue Reading →
First, a health warning for ethicists: I am not an ethicist. Second, it gets worse, a lot worse: I am a journalist. According to measures of moral credibility, my profession ranks marginally above cold-callers for accident claim firms and hedge fund managers. Journalism and ethics have had, for want of a better phrase, a bad... Continue Reading →
Barack Obama’s historic visit to Hiroshima, the first by a serving US president since the nuclear bombing, prompted reflections on Harry Truman, who ordered the attack. Truman became a senator a little over a decade before he assumed control of the Oval Office following Roosevelt’s death. The Democrat’s meteoric rise left him well placed to... Continue Reading →
The business world is frequently rocked by allegations of greed, excessive pay and scandals involving dodgy products and services. Yet careers in the sector are some of the most keenly sought by graduates. In the UK, Business and Administration Studies was the most popular higher education subject for 2015-16 according to UCAS, ahead of Creative... Continue Reading →
The clock is ticking down to full time and the score is locked at 1-1. Suddenly, the opposition goalkeeper falls to the ground injured and the ball is crossed to you inside the penalty area. The net is gaping. What do you do? No foul has been committed and if you shoot there is a good... Continue Reading →
More than two decades of major military engagements and the changing face of warfare have created a unique set of challenges for the British Army. The Gulf War and lengthy conflicts in Afghanistan and Iraq have put huge demands on frontline troops and their leaders. Soldiers’ roles can change rapidly as fighting units switch from... Continue Reading →
Educational assessment can seriously damage a child’s health in Britain’s modern schools system. At least, that is the belief of a union representing educational professionals. A recent survey by the Association of Teachers and Lecturers (ATL) suggests the mental health of children as young as six is being put at risk by overwhelming assessment stress.[i] What... Continue Reading →
The Government’s recently announced commitment to ensure that ‘by 2020 every primary and secondary school in England will be, or be in the process of becoming, an academy’ has generated discussion, concern and questions. The academy programme was initially introduced by the Labour government in 2000 and aimed specifically to turn around schools that were... Continue Reading →
virtue insight 