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An Interview with Ron Kinnamon
Character. Integrity. Purpose. Responsibility. Every year camps and
camp professionals strive to bring a diverse community together around
common values and goals. The 2003 American Camping Association Conference
in Denver, Colorado, will bring character education to the fore from
every angle - workshops, shared philosophies, discussions, and dynamic
keynote presentations. Ron Kinnamon, chair of the Character Counts! Coalition
and one of the keynote speakers at the national conference, will explore
the six core values in character development and how each can be fostered
and implemented in the camp community. His expertise stems from a varied
camp background, including serving as assistant national executive director
of the YMCA of the USA, camp director of YMCA Camp Grady Spruce, president
of the American Camping Association Texas Section, and co-author of the
book, Camp Leadership Focus. Kinnamon also volunteers as the senior advisor
to America's Promise and serves on various committees for the Points
of Light Foundation and the Josephson Institute's Board of Governors.
In an exclusive interview with Camping Magazine, Kinnamon shares his
unique perspective on character development and his commitment to "spread
the movement through youth organizations, sports, and schools to reach
every kid in America."
Why do you believe that character building - developing good character
- is essential to youth development?
Children and youth today don't live in a "kid friendly" world. They
face serious problems as never before - problems such as substance abuse,
teen pregnancy, and youth violence. These are all ethical issues. The
long-term solution to solving these problems is to develop a societal
norm based on a limited number of core values.
This is not new to camp professionals. Camp people have known the importance
of developing character for well over a hundred years. We have been developing
character by teaching a set of core values. Now we need to help the rest
of the world to understand that adults need to teach and demonstrate
these values to children and youth.
Our society has a problem in providing positive youth development for
all kids. In many ways, we adults give the wrong message to youth. Many
adults are afraid of teens and because of this, they stop communicating
with them. How many adults know the names of the children and youth in
their neighborhood? How much conversation goes on between adults and
teens when it is not organized? How much eye contact is there with teens
who dress differently or who are pierced?
Our children and youth are in real need of positive youth development
- and the cornerstone of youth development is character development.
Every child has the right to develop his or her character so that he
or she will know "right" from "wrong" and make decisions that will allow
them to be a child of character and competence. Camp counselors have
known for a hundred years that you can't "police" kids at camp. They
know that they must develop a norm of behavior for their cabin group.
This is character development in its purest form.
You have stated that building good character in today's youth is
essentially an adult issue/concern. What do you mean by this and why
do you feel this way? How can adults reach children through character
education?
Kids didn't just wake up one day and decide that they will no longer
be respectful or responsible or caring. Children learn to be respectful
or disrespectful from the adults in their lives. We adults teach and
demonstrate the values our children possess. This is why I say that we
don't have a youth problem, we have an adult problem.
The best way we can change the values of the children and youth with
whom we come in contact is by living our lives in such a way that they
are able to see how we demonstrate these core values. Kids observe the
lack of values in some of the highly visible sports figures, rock stars,
politicians, corporate CEOs, and movie stars - but they also observe
the lack of values in the adults closer to their lives. They carefully
observe us using a radar detector in our cars, buying a child's movie
ticket for a small teenager, smoking, not being honest when we fill out
our tax forms, and telling jokes that include disrespect for people of
a different gender, race, or religion.
We, as adults, must take the responsibility to change the world that
we have left for our children.
What is the mission and purpose of Character Counts!? How does the
coalition work and what successes has it realized?
Character Counts! is a coalition of over 500 organizations that have
committed to teach and demonstrate six core values to children and youth.
Character Counts! is not as much of a program as it is a movement. It
is spreading across the country and impacting millions of children and
youth every day. Character Counts! is thousands of trained adults who
work with kids in camps, schools, and youth organizations of all kinds.
Members of the Character Counts! Coalition include organizations like
ACA, individual camps, whole school systems, NEA, Association of School
Administrators, YMCA, Big Brothers/Big Sisters, the American Federation
of Teachers, the United Way, the Points of Light Foundation, whole cities,
and over five hundred other groups.
What are the six core values and why do you feelthat they are important?
About eight years ago, the Josephson Institute of Ethics called together
executives of leading educational and youth service organizations to
determine how we can best impact character development in children. These
leaders came up with the six values that are used today in Character
Counts! These values are Trustworthiness, Respect, Responsibility, Fairness,
Caring, and Citizenship. Though these grew out of the Judeo/Christian
tradition, they are also the core values of all major religions in the
world. They are important because they are a fundamental way to bring
people of all types together in agreement, since these values transcend
religion, race, gender, economic circumstances, etc.
Many states have already either mandated or strongly recommended
that character education be part of the school curriculum and youth
development programs. How has the camp community and camp experience
been in the forefront of character education throughout the years and
what more can we do?
We have gone through a period in the 70s and 80s when schools have been
afraid to "teach values." The thing that is very strange about this is
that it is impossible to teach without teaching values. We teach values
by what we say, the tone of our voice, our body language, etc. The way
we establish a societal norm is by teaching and demonstrating the same
six values so that kids hear and see these values everywhere they go.
Hearing the same words to describe these value concepts at school, at
camp, at home, or at youth organizations provides continual reinforcement
of those values.
The camp community has always understood and reinforced the importance
of character development by teaching core values. While camp has been
the leader in developing character, it has somewhat separated itself
from the community as a whole. The camp community has positioned itself
as a place to "escape." Although this philosophy is changing, the community
still remembers this "separate" view of camp. Now is the time for camp
to provide leadership in the community. Expertise in character development
is a gift camps can give to their communities throughout the United States.
Now is the time for the camp movement to mobilize the total community
to teach and demonstrate these six values - to develop good character
and positive youth development.
Originally published in the 2003 January/February
issue of Camping Magazine.
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