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Character Development
The YMCA since its beginning has been about developing young men and then young
women of Christian Character.
Character has always counted !
However, with the changes in society and the weakening of moral teaching in
public schools and in public organizations there was a growing need in the 1980s
for character development to become a vital aspect of YMCA programming.
During this time, one approach to teaching moral values in society at large was values clarification. This approach to teaching values which was tried over several years, was later found simply not to work. What was discovered is that you can use the right words, but not end up with the right result. In the book “Why Johnny Can’t Tell Right from Wrong”the author explains what happened.
“ Values clarification was meant to help students to think more independently
and critically about values. Proponents claimed that a young person would be
more committed to self-discovered values than to ones that were simply handed
down by adults. That was the hope. But the actual consequences of the shift
have been quite different…. . it has meant wholesale confusion about moral
values. ”
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