A Newton County, Georgia teacher believes that character education is what’s needed to motivate students. The reigning “King of the County” Robotics Champion, Dr. Raymont Burke, shares his thoughts on character education.
Dr. Burke doesn’t take teaching lightly.
His motto is, “every day we have the opportunity to create success stories.”
He believes character education is how we will see more success stories from teachers.
Although not an engineering standard, he teaches his students that when faced with obstacles and barriers to seek solutions not excuses.
Dr. Burke also makes it a part of his classroom culture to celebrate every student.
Even students who are in lower performing groups do well.
He attributes their success to 30% of his lesson building character within students.
In this conversation with Dr. Burke’s on character education he shares these thoughts.
Professor JBA:
“What from your childhood do you see missing in the development of today’s youth?
Dr. Burke:
“Tough love! We have created a space for our youth that allows bad behaviors. low academic performance and poor social skills”
Dr. Burke believes that this is a result best seen through our youth’s sense of entitlement and lack of self motivation.
Students don’t perform well when their self-esteem/motivation is low.
Professor JBA:
What would you offer as a solution for teachers dealing with unmotivated students?
Dr. Burke:
In my classroom, when I observe indicating behaviors, I immediately address it.
Sometimes teachers can engage students poorly which builds a dam and not a bridge with students.
This causes them to shut down and shut out help from others.
Engagement is an investment that begins with listening.
My students perform well because they know that I listen to them and provide them lessons they can apply to their lives now.
Jason has worked in education for over 15 years as a teacher, blogger and community advocate. He speaks and writes primarily about the need to improve education for Black boys, particularly increasing the number of Black male educators in schools. In addition to blogging here at EdLanta, Jason is also a featured writer at Education Post.