2011

Many theorize that teaching character education enhances students’ positive selfesteem, multicultural tolerance, and higher order thinking (Williams, 2000). Counselors in the school setting are in the best position to teach and reinforce social responsibility and positive ethical and cultural values through the delivery of a complete, comprehensive school counseling program (Britzman, 2005). Though many programs promote social responsibility and ethical values, few comprehensive counseling programs that include character education focus on the importance of teaching multicultural aspects of character education to young children (Lee, 2001). Current research literature proposes that the use of character education programming in schools can aid positive student development and student learning. Additionally, researchers propose many counseling interventions are only focused on remediation and psychological damage that can be linked to poor moral and ethical decision-making, thereby hindering a positive academic environment (Britzman, 2005).