By Program Leader Jordan Rogers and Program Coordinator Reggie Mays Jr.
After thinking about their own character traits, our young men shared with the group.
What are your character strengths? How can you make a difference in the world? What do you think about Colin Kaepernick’s refusal to stand during the national anthem?
These were some of the questions our after-school students tackled on Thursday for Character Day 2016, a global initiative devoted to helping young people talk about and understand character.
In our after school program, we work on character education every day, focusing on traits like grit and zest. On Thursday, we focused our entire after-school session on character education and added a special evening event that included family members and other interested adults connected to the Foundation.
We kicked off the discussion by watching The Science of Character, a short film about character strengths produced by Tiffany Shlain, the founder of Character Day. (You can watch the film at the bottom of this post.) Then Program Coordinator Reggie Mays Jr. posed this question to our young men and the adults: If you had to focus on just three character traits for the rest of your life, what would they be? After some individual contemplation, everyone shared his answer. Alejandro chose humor, social intelligence, and bravery. Jaden said wisdom, optimism, and bravery. Others said kindness, humility and love.
Next, Program Coordinator Reggie Mays Jr. screened the Athletes’ Call to Action from the 2016 ESPY Awards, featuring Carmelo Anthony, Chris Paul, Dwayne Wade, and LeBron James. (Watch the video below.) This led to a dialogue about professional athletes and character, with a focus on Colin Kaepernick, his protests against police violence, and the recent police shootings in Tulsa and Charlotte. The parents and volunteers also participated in this dynamic discussion.
All of our young men thought Kaepernick was right to act on his convictions, and they said it showed character to make such a statement in the face of certain criticism. When one of our young men wondered what he and his peers, just teenagers, could do to make the country safer for young men of color, Reggie yielded the floor.
Some of our guests reminded the boys that they do have tools to make their voices heard, including technology and their collective spending power. Their access to information and ability to communicate with each other and the world, our guests pointed out, put them ahead of every previous generation of Americans that fought to make the United States a more just place for all its citizens.
The impact that our Character Day program had on our young men was clear as they left the Learning Center on Thursday night. They had considered the traits they most wanted to work on in their own lives, and they had a plan to develop them over the rest of the school year.