Many schools have character-education curricula but parents are on the front-line where character-building is concerned.

Here are some resources for teaching character:

  • Character Counts (310-306-1865) and Character First (405-235-8100) are programs that schools can purchase with prepared material and local trainers to help with school manners. 
  • The Character Education Partnership has developed 11 principles of effective character education and offers lots of good information about manners for kids: 800-988-8081 
  • The Character Education Center features a newsletter and plenty of helpful character-building resources. Also awards kids with good character: 800-229-3455 
  • Character Education Resources can be reached by fax for general information requests: 603-746-4099 
  • Boston's Center for the Advancement of Ethics and Character offers lots of helpful information and delivers an important manifesto: 617-353-3262 
  • The Michigan Department of Education's Office of Safe Schools has created a resource list for people who are interested in making schools safer and improving school manners. These resources include links to books, programs and organizations that focus on violence prevention and character education.