University of San Diego's Character Development Center:

Promoting Character Education throughout Southern California

Liane Louie Baduha (right) and Ineko Tsuchida (left) visited with Ed DeRoche (center), the Director of the Character Development Center at the University of San Diego.

On January 11, 2008, Liane Louie-Badura and Ineko Tsuchida of the Shinnyo-en Foundation traveled to meet with Ed DeRoche and CJ Moloney, Director and Program Coordinator of the Character Development Center, at the University of San Diego.   Starting the day with the dazzlingly bright sunshine in San Diego, Ed and CJ gave a tour of the School of Leadership and Education Sciences and the Joan B. Kroc Institute for Peace and Justice at USD where they plan to host a Summer Conference on June 30 and July 1, 2008.  The theme of the annual conference this year is “The Three C’s for Safe School: Caring, Civil, and Challenging".  Liane and Ineko were most impressed with the thoughtfully and artistically designed auditorium at the Joan B. Kroc Institute for Peace and Justice and greatly are looking forward to witnessing the auditorium full of participants absorbed in reflective and thoughtful discussion during the conference.

In the afternoon, Liane and Ineko discussed with Ed and CJ about the current and future work of the Character Development Center.  Ed and CJ have been instrumental in providing an online character education specialist certificate program to teachers in preschools to grade 12 at the Character Development Center.  With the teachers on the online course, Ed and CJ plan to develop and implement lesson plans that will apply the philosophy of the Foundation’s newest initiative, Six Billion Paths to Peace.  Liane and Ineko wholeheartedly welcomed the opportunity for school teachers to grapple with and contribute to making Six Billion Paths to Peace come alive in P-12 classrooms.

After the meeting, Ed and CJ took Liane and Ineko to William Toler Elementary School in the San Diego Unified School District.  The principal, Harlan Klein, greeted the visitors warmly and gave a school tour where each corner of the school buildings are marked with one of the core values of character education, such as “Respect Rd”.  Harlan brought school-wide character education programs to William Toler five years ago when he became the school principal.  For the last five years, Harlan has noticed significant changes in his students’ behaviors and learning.  For example, he believes that the students have become not only caring and respectful to one another but also more engaged in their learning.  In fact, the reading scores in the state standardized tests have been steadily climbing.  He also showed a wallet with $21 that one of the students found on the campus and gave it to him.  Harlan said, “See, evidence on how our character education programs are working!” 

Liane and Ineko visit William Toler Elementary School

Ed and CJ have established mutually supportive relationships with several schools like William Toler.  For example, they have videotaped the implementation of character education in William Toler and spoke about the school along with Harlan at regional conferences.

It was quite a fruitful visit for Liane and Ineko in San Diego.  They were able to not only meet with two of the most dedicated educators and advocates of character education but also see in action how their work reaches out to children in small schools like William Toler through the Shinnyo-en Foundation's grantees.