Character Education in Christian Higher Education: A Historical Analysis and Contemporary Challenge (Part II)

Abstract

In this pair of two articles, the authors summarize the history of the practice of character instruction in Christian higher education. They examine character education beginning with the founding of Harvard in 1636 to contemporary times. They note that virtually every historian, theologian, and social scientist acknowledges that character instruction was at the heart of the curriculum in Christian higher education from Harvard's founding in 1636 until at least the Civil War. They note that after the Civil War there was a slow erosion in character training in Christian higher education, which facilitated the more cataclysmic changes that occurred much later. The authors also note the effects of these more tumultuous changes that occurred as a result of John Dewey's influence and U.S. Supreme Court decisions in 1962 and 1963. The article demonstrates how Christian character education has gradually retreated into a much smaller number of colleges than used to be the case. The article concludes with propounding three ways that Christian higher education can limit, stop, and even reverse the trend toward less character education, which are likely some of the same ways that trends toward increased secularization can be reversed. Part II covers the influence of industrialization, the challenge of Dewey's philosophy and the concerns of H. H. Horne, and the period after the Supreme Court decisions of 1962 and 1963. The authors then address the relevant trends and the appropriate response by those in Christian higher education.