Most parents would agree that teaching kids about character education is a good thing, since it helps children get along well with others and feel positive about themselves.

But a new study suggests that the benefits of character education programs go far beyond these “soft skills.”

In a recent study, researchers took 20 public elementary schools in Hawaii and randomly assigned students from some of those schools to participate in a character education program called “Positive Action.”

So what happened? BabyCenter has the report:

At the beginning of the study, the control schools happened to be better off. They had higher test scores overall, and, unlike the schools assigned to the test condition, their scores were higher than the Hawaiian state average.

But by the end of the study, the situation had flipped: The schools that had adopted the Positive Action curriculum were now performing better than the controls.

And when researchers interviewed teachers, parents, and students about school quality, the Positive Action schools got higher ratings from all groups. People involved with these schools had nicer things to say.

(Emphasis mine.)

Studies like these are exactly why we place so much emphasis on character education here at Urban Martial Arts.

In addition to our rigorous martial arts curriculum, we have an entire character education program designed by Dr. Robyn Silverman, one of the country’s leading child development specialists.

Every month, we focus on a different Powerful Word, or concept around character education.

All our class discussions revolve around this concept, our karate students have to turn in worksheets on the topic, and we provide parents with lots of tools so that they can reinforce these lessons at home.

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Photo Credit: taryn_liz on Flickr