Books
In PRIMED for Character Education, renowned character educator Marvin W Berkowitz boils down decades of research on evidence-based practices and thought-provoking field experience into a clear set of principles that leaders, administrators, and teacher-leaders can implement to help students thrive. The author’s original six-component framework offers a comprehensive guide to shaping purposeful learning environments, healthy relationships, core values and virtues, role models, empowerment, and long-term development in any PreK-12 school or district. This engaging and heartfelt book features tips for practice, anecdotes from award-winning schools, and straightforward tenets from moral education, social-emotional learning, and positive psychology.
Purchase English Language Edition
PRIMED for Character Education is now published in a Spanish language edition.
Spanish Edition info and purchase
Also available for purchase on Amazon
PRIMED for Character Education is also published in a Chinese language edition.
Chinese edition info and purchase:
Good Things to Do
“We asked several of the foremost names in child development and education to offer their practical wisdom for helping young people grow in goodness, compassion, understanding, development of the spirit, and more. What they offered are treasures, both readable and of tremendous importance. Each expert’s suggestions are presented in short, almost bullet-point format, easy to read and written specifically for educators and parents in independent schools, but relevant to parents and educators everywhere for character education.” - CSEE
Purchase from the Center for Spiritual and Ethical Education
Parenting for Character
“Four decades of research point to five practices that, when implemented by parents, lead to the development of children who are altruistic and empathic, and who have strong consciences and moral reasoning skills. In this booklet, five of North America’s leading child development researchers and character education trainers explain these practices. This booklet was written with an independent school parent audience specifically in mind.“ - CSEE
Purchase from the Center for Spiritual and Ethical Education
You Can't Teach Through a Rat
Whatever is on the mind of a child can be more important to the child than a lesson at school. This book is a collection of insights, designed and tested from decades of teaching, workshops and lessons learned, to help educators stimulate their epiphanies about how best to serve the academic and developmental needs of students. It is user-friendly, provocative, and humorous and intended for all who work with and love working with children. PERFECT for a total staff reading!
Order a copy for yourself or many copies for your school staff. Bulk orders available.
Parenting for Good
Parenting is not for the faint-of-heart. In this book of essays, Dr. Marvin Berkowitz, one of character development's leading educators, offers his wit, wisdom, and experiences on the joys, surprises (and everything else in between) on raising children. We've put together a compilation of the best of Dr. Berkowitz's syndicated newspaper columns, offering insight, advice, and strategies for parents with kids of all ages.
Contact the Center for Character and Citizenship to purchase Parenting for Good
Articles and Chapters
Democratic Parenting
Marvin W. Berkowitz - In Parenting for Character: Five Experts, Five Practices, D. Streight, Editor, Portland: CSEE Publications, 2007
When we think about parenting, lots of ideas typically come to mind: love, protection, guidance, discipline, communication, etc. . However, I want to make an argument that we should be considering the concept of democracy when we think of parenting and families. I hope both to offer some support for the power and relevance of democracy in families, and to suggest some ways we can be effective democratic parents. When the founders of this great and daring experiment in self-governance that we call a democracy first crafted the blueprints of the United States, they understood that such self-governance depended on the character or virtues of its citizens. They also understood that families...
Early Character Development and Education
Marvin Berkowitz and John Grych - In Early Education & Development, Volume 11, Number J, January 2000
“It is a well-worn refrain that more attention must be paid to the moral character of our youth. Such pleas are prevalent in the mass media and in professional forums, and typically are justified by data reflecting the misdeeds of youth…” “This article represents an attempt to investigate what we know about character development in early childhood, in order to suggest how we can effectively promote character in early childhood education.”
Return to Resources Page
