“Character Education is about helping students
know the good, love the good, and do the good.”

Background:

For social, moral, civic, and personal reasons, parents and teachers have a responsibility to help students
develop good habits. That’s really what a virtue is: a good habit. A virtue is not a point of view or a matter of
what we like or dislike; a virtue is a positive character trait.

The founders of BFCCPS chose to focus on four core virtues, historically known as the “cardinal virtues”:
Justice, Temperance, Fortitude, and Prudence. Within each of these virtues, there are related
sub-virtues.

Defining​ ​Principles:

  1. BFCCPS students, faculty and staff strive to always demonstrate good character and model that
    character for others, and are publicly recognized at grade level assemblies for demonstrating virtuous
    character.
  2. Character Education instruction is integrated across the curriculum and across the four pillars utilizing
    various teaching methods, and a common language throughout grades K-8
  3. Grade level character education benchmarks are used to create a spiraling curriculum for grades K-8
  4. A school wide calendar details which virtue the entire BFCCPS community will focus on each month.
  5. BFCCPS regularly reviews and updates its resources to achieve the objectives of its Character
    Education program.

Pillar in Action: Character Education 

 
In order to support the character development of students, we explicitly teach the definitions of the four virtues, and use grade level curriculum to illustrate what examples of good character are.  We work with students to analyze situations to determine when good character was used, and use it to help students  successfully  navigate social situations with their peers.  We believe that it is as important to teach character education as it is to recognize good character when we see it. 
Most parents are familiar with the Leaves in the Forest Virtue that students receive in Kindergarten through Grade Five.
Our students in Grades Six through Eight also receive ongoing character recognition.

Students will be recognized using our Character Postcards. These postcards highlight observations from the teaching team and are read aloud with the class.  Postcards are mailed home to share these observations with parents. Students who go above and beyond to display one of the BFCCPS virtues can also be recognized through a Character in Action Award at one of three assemblies throughout the year.

Any student who has been recognized for displaying all four of the BFCCPS Virtues will receive a Benjamin Franklin Medal of Virtue.  These awards will be presented during the Character Assembly for Students in Grades 6-8 which take place at the end of each trimester.  Parents will be notified in advance if their child is receiving either a Character in Action Award or the Benjamin Franklin Medal of Virtue so that they can make arrangements to join us for this special recognition.