Can Character Formation Heal Society?

Why it Matters; How it Happens

Issue #2:

I had the pleasure of exploring character formation and ethical leadership with Dr. Beth Purvis. Beth is a educator who is resolute in her belief in the transformative power of character formation. Please enjoy this conversation with Dr. Beth Purvis, Director of the Educating Character Initiative at the Program for Leadership & Character, Wake Forest University.

Can Character Formation Heal Society?

In the world of philanthropy, character development or formation can get a bad rap. It’s difficult to produce outcomes data demonstrating its efficacy, not to mention sustainability. Social Emotional Learning is sometimes used interchangeably with character formation, and yet there are notable differences. SEL, typically found in K-12 education targets skills development toward social skills; social awareness skills; social decision-making and problems-solving skills; self-awareness skills; and, self management skills. Whereby, character formation, found in K-12, higher education and even corporate trainings addresses moral sensitivities; moral commitment; ethical reasoning, and personal growth. Are you wondering if this is truly important with so many societal problems needing attention?

Wake Forest University, the Lilly Endowment and many other institutions of higher education and philanthropies believe character has the power to heal and bring people with diverse backgrounds together. Through a generous gift from the Lilly Endowment, the Program for Leadership & Character (PLC) is poised to become a national resources for colleges and universities in developing their capacity to educate?character, an essential component essential to the flourishing of individuals, families, communities and society.?Beth Purvis will be directing the Educating Character Initiative within the PLC.

Diana Spencer:?Thank you so much for being here with me today. It's a joy to have you. We've been involved in similar work for a few years, and the character formation initiatives that you've led in have been inspiring and exciting.

Beth Purvis: Thank you so much for having me!

D.S.:?I’d love to chat about defining character development or formation and why it’s so important for our world today, and how you go about the work. To get us started please talk about your journey from the traditional education system into your current mission of education and character development?

B.P.:?First I’d like to say that I believe that every individual who is working in education from early childhood through Grade 12, college prep, and in post secondary education is involved in character education, or character formation, by modeling certain values or virtues. Though it may not be intentional as part of their role, I think all of this work is connected through the way you lead. As I reflect on my history as a special education teacher, early interventionist, college professor, school administrator, and as the Illinois Secretary of Education, I see that certain values and virtues have always been embedded in the work.

D.S.:?As you know, a program that I started and led in ethical leadership development for second-year MBA students defined ethical leadership traits as having courage, ownership & accountability, character & integrity, empathy, resilience, and self-awareness. But in researching the definition of?character?in preparation for this conversation, I added honesty, humility, morals, and transparency to the list of important traits for conscious leadership. Beth, there are huge investments being made in this work today within Wake Forest, other leadership development programs, and within every level of education. Why is this so needed today and why does a focus on character matter?

B.P.:?I think it's important to start with whatever wisdom tradition an individual, a community, an institution, or an organization comes from. My guess is, if you look in the mission and vision of the organization, there will be certain values, virtues, or assets, that are embedded. I believe that sometimes people get caught up in the terminology of ethical leadership, but there are some differences. I'm going to leave sorting those differences that to the academics, but I do believe the way you think about character may be different if you're a virtue ethicist versus a developmental psychologist, or an educator or a parent.

I think right now we are in a really interesting time in human history, and I'm not one to say that it's any better or worse than any other times, because I think if we look back in the history of the world, there are times like during the Crusades, where there was great violence, and I would bet there were people at that time lamenting what was happening. But what we do know is at this moment in time, leaders are under great scrutiny. The 24hr news cycles and social media mean more you speak, the more scrutiny you are under. Words must be chosen so carefully.

D.S.:?I believe we could all agree that our world is more complex than ever before, and the margin for error in communications has narrowed. Words matter and must be chosen carefully. Intentionally increasing the focus on character formation from the earliest years—and continuing through adulthood—improves empathy and provides a framework for intellectual humility and forgiveness.

B.P.:?There is also a great distrust of institutions and organizations right now, be they government or organized religion. All of these things are pointing to the fact that at this moment in time, schools have more and more of a burden placed on them to focus on character formation.

I am a big fan of the work of the Jubilee Centre for Character and Virtues. They have a framework where they talk about character formation. In that, they talk about character being?caught, taught, and sought. And I do think it's a very easy way to think character in schools. How do adults or faculty or teachers model character? How do we model integrity? And then there is empathy and intellectual humility. You know, recognizing that I don't know everything when I walk into a room. And there’s forgiveness. How in in the time of the cancel culture do we teach and think about forgiveness?

D.S.:?The?caught, taught, and sought?phrase resonates. In preparing for our conversation, I came across a great quote from Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. “The most dangerous criminal may be the man gifted with reason, but with no morals.” How does this resonate with work you’re doing today?

B.P.:?There was all this work that happened in the sixties and seventies. For Dr. King and his colleagues, and moving forward, we’ve had a push for equal rights for individuals with disabilities. We can look at the history of our country and see the lack of inclusiveness. You’ll see the men and women who have fought for equal rights for people regardless of their gender, their sexual orientation, their ethnicity, their background, their socioeconomic staus. But there is still a lack of equity.

D.S.:?We've talked about?Why it Matters, and it’s apparent that regardless of the language used, whether character, leadership, development, ethical leaders, I think we're all talking about the desired outcome of creating a better society for all.

B.P.:?Great leaders are talking about character. You quoted Dr. Martin Luther King; in almost every speech and writing, such as?Letter from Birmingham Jail, Dr. Kingtalked about character. Both the specific virtues that he valued, what he hoped for his own children and for other children, but also in the global idea of how we become individuals who treat each other with respect rather than contempt.

D.S.:?Let's talk a little bit more about?How it Happens?now. You mentioned that there were seven strategies at Wake Forest. Can we talk a little bit about those or strategies that you've used in the past, be it with students in higher education or in primary education?

B.P.:?The Wake Forest motto, Pro Humanitate- for humanity - calls us to develop the qualities of character that enable us to serve humanity. The seven strategies employed by the Program for Leadership and Character include:

? Habituation through practice

? Reflection on personal experience

? Engagement with virtuous exemplars

? Dialogue that increases virtue literacy

? Awareness of situational variables and biases ? Moral Reminders

? Friendships of mutual accountability

B.P.:?There was a quote on one of the walls at Vanderbilt that said something to the effect of:?Today I am going to give you two examinations, one in trigonometry and one in honesty. I hope you will pass them both, but if you must fail one, let it be trigonometry, for there are many good [people] in this world today who cannot pass an examination in trigonometry, but there are no good [people] in the world who cannot pass an examination in honesty.?Madison Sarratt (1891-1978), dean, Vanderbilt University.?I think most schools, be they early childhood or moving up, believe they're teaching character in some ways, but putting that into practice, the way athletes practice their craft or a musician practices over and over? Not really. I think we've had a resurgence lately, and people talking about the use of—whether it is journaling or quiet reflection or meditation—taking the time to not just act but to reflect before and after an action. That reflection is to understand why and how we act as we do, and I think encouraging students to reflect on their personal experiences helps them wrestle with morally relevant issues. We all have blind spots to explore to help us understand what we may have missed and what we could have done differently.

D.S.:?Character development, in whatever context you put it, be it from K-12, undergraduate or graduate studies, or in existing leaders, is a lifelong journey. We know that there are character development labs and programs for younger children, but how are you incorporating this at Wake Forest?

B.P.:?When you walk onto the Wake Forest campus you see it everywhere; many programs are looking at how we develop an individual. This type of conversation has been occurring at Wake Forest for a very long time. In fact, the Wake Forest School of Business, Allegacy Center for Leadership and Character, focuses on character and ethical leadership, that is separate from the Program for Character and Leadership. Wake Forest launched its school of engineering five or six years ago, and they have been adding character work into the curriculum from the beginning, in collaboration with the Kern Entrepreneurial Engineering Network. If you were to talk to the folks in the law school, they’d see character in the professions as slightly different than the folks in the engineering school versus medical college. So even at Wake Forest there is not a one size fits all approach to how this works. I would like to see a focus on character ultimately permeats every student’s experience.

D.S.:?I love the personalization in terms of one's career path. The decisions that people are making, whether it's a medical student, a law student, a business student are different, but they are all making impactful decisions. How can people take this and adapt it for what they're going to be doing and what they're going to be held accountable for?

B.P.:?There is a tradition of research and publishing about this. There are Peer Review journal articles being published about the effectiveness of different approaches to the work. One thing that is incredibly important to remember is that character is a journey, not a destination.

D.S.:?And I would imagine that everyone’s character development is variable across the seven practices, and that it changes over time.

B.P.:?If you look at both positive psychology and developmental psychology, they will talk about, especially in kids, the ebbs and flows of character. It has become really hard to measure character, number one, because character is about motivation. You know the old story... If I find a wallet on the street, will I return it because I believe it's the right thing to do or return it because I saw there was a camera on the street, which means that I'm only going to return it because I know someone is going to see me. They're the same outcome; someone gets their wallet back. But I think we would say, one choice reflects character and for the other choice, we're not 100% sure.

D.S.:?This is work at the soul level that is crucially needed for the health of our country.

B.P.:?Yes.

D.S.:?Beth, this work is so important. It's hard though. It's not a widget. You're not creating something. It’s also not something where you can necessarily see the outcome after six months or one year. I'm wondering if you have any research or titles of books that you would like to share that speak to this?

B.P.:?There was a book that came out 2021 by the Oxford Character Project, “How is Virtue Cultivated?” Another is “Cultivating Virtue in the University”, written by Jonathan Brand, Michael Lamb and Edward Brooks

D.S.:?Beth, is there anything else that you’d like to share? Anything else that you really want people to know?

B.P.:?I believe we are living in a time of division. We are divided politically, we’re a divided country right now. And there's a lot of anger and a lot of the anger is righteous. We need to really acknowledge that much of the anger out there is understandable, but we also have a generation of kids with unprecedented levels of depression, anxiety, suicide ideations, or suicide attempts, as well as high numbers of drug and alcohol abuse. These kids feel isolated, even though they're on devices all the time. I really believe that an intentional and purposeful, thoughtful and inclusive, focus on character formation can truly help bridge divides and help people focus on humanity and our similarities rather than our differences. If we support the development of intellectual humility and empathy, it can help us be better at being in authentic and caring relationships; we can be working collaboratively and create better ways to bring people together.

D.S.:?Bridging the divide in our country is critically important and something that I feel everyone is acutely aware of today. It also seems to be some of the most important work we can do. If we can do this work through character and virtue development, we have an opportunity to heal our brokenness.

Thank you for your commitment to working in this important space, Beth, and best wishes to you and the Wake Forest team. Where can people best reach you?

B.P.:?I really enjoyed speaking with you today! I can be reached [email protected].

Dr. Beth Purvis?is the Director of the Educating Character Initiative within The Program for Leadership and Character at Wake Forest University.?Purvis has had an acclaimed career in education, teaching, researching and in leadership. Before accepting this role at Wake Forest, Beth led the Education and Character Initiative at the Kern Family Foundation, served as the Illinois Secretary of Education, the CEO for Chicago International Charter School network, and was also an assistant professor of special educati on at University of Illinois, working often in her career as a teacher of children with special needs. It was at this time that Beth developed her passion for education and character development, believing both to have equal importance in the formation of children.Today, Beth furthers her passion in education and character development by leading efforts in replicating the Wake Forest model.