Running head: Character Education Interview Assignment 1
Character Education Interview Assignment
Kayla Hillmann
Liberty University
Running head: Character Education Interview Assignment 17
Part 1: Demographics
First and Last Name of person you are interviewing: Melissa Monti and Amber Matyi and Terry
Rogers
The person’s role: Behavioral Analyst for Special Education and k-5 grades education and Parent
Age level of children/students: K-12
Date of the Interview : 10/08/2019
Part 2: Questionnaire Interview for Parent of a Child(ren)
As a parent, what goals do you have for your child?
“My daughter has Autism and my son has learning disabilities and sensory disorders. My daughter loves
school because she has this keen sense of gaining knowledge. If you ask her, she will tell you that she
believes there is no point in life where you will stop learning. My son dreads going to school because of
embarrassment, bullies, and not receiving the help he needs. Not only as a parent, but as a teacher my
goals involve making sure each and every child that comes across my path receives the help that they
are entitled to. After struggling with the school system to give my child an IEP, I understand now what
parents may have been going through when they felt as though they were not receiving the help their
child needed or deserved. I am not quiet about the struggle the school gave me and I consistently make
other parents aware of what processes they will have to go through. My only goal in life for my children is
to protect them and have them succeed.” (A. Matyi, personal communication, October 8th, 2019)
“I am not a parent, but I have worked as an educator for my entire adult career. I worked with special
education, juvenile delinquents, to just being a regular teacher. I am currently in the process of adopting a
Running Head: Character Education Interview Assignment 16
little boy from China. I went overseas to work with an organization on Special Education for children over
there. He has autism and barely speaks english. I decided to learn Mandarin chinese so that when he
comes here to America, he will still feel like he has a piece of his home. My goal for him is to adapt to this
new world, to feel that he is loved in every aspect of life, to feel as though he can succeed, despite the
circumstances.” (M. Monti, personal communication, October 8th, 2019)
“To see that they get a good education, make sure that they grow into respectable people, and to be
successful in all areas of life.” (T. Rogers, personal communication, October 12th, 2019)
Do you, or have you given any thought to the moral development of your child?
“Absolutely, moral development most definitely is influenced by the environment they grow up in. I have
kept my children from watching things like Harry Potter, um, but school has now introduced my child to
Harry Potter. So instead of sending him on his own to read and decipher the book and figure out why it is
wrong from our morals, I decided to take the time out of the day and read it with him. He is at an age
where he is soaking up everything. So instead of having my kids live under a rock, I choose to confront
things as they come so that I can play a large role in their moral development.” (A. Matyi, personal
communication, October 8th, 2019)
“I have definitely pondered on the moral development of my future children. I had always wanted children
of my own. But I am not married and I have not found the man that God may have out there for me. Right
now, he has given me other opportunities to help children. It has taken me an immense amount of faith to
follow along with his plan, even though it is not what my heart desired. We, as parents, as adults, play a
large role in the moral development of children. Take a child for instance, who sees his parent constantly
displaying vulgar language; you will then see that child display vulgar language. Moral development is
also learned by watching what is around them. Their brains sponge in a lot more than we think they do.”
(M. Monti, personal communication, October 8th, 2019)
Running head: Character Education Interview Assignment 17
“Most definitely. I treat my son to treat people the way that he would want to be treated. I treat him to see
everyone as equal, that no one stands over anyone else. I am black and we constantly see racism all
over the place. White men shooting black men, black men retaliating; and while I do not want my son to
fight back with violence, he sees the violence everyday and I believe it cripples his moral development.”
(T. Rogers, personal communication, October 12th, 2019)
What values do you try to teach?
“Some of the most important values to be are honesty, respect, love, kindness, and compassion. I am a
strong Christian and I work hard to instill some of the values into my child. I teach my child not to see skin
colors, I teach my child not to see status, I teach my child to respect authority. It is important in today’s
world that we lead our next generation up to be leaders.” (A. Matyi, personal communication, October 8,
2019)
“One of the greatest values that Jesus taught to us was kindness and compassion. When working with
children, whether it will be my future son, or working with children in the classroom, I try to teach them by
modeling kindness and compassion. I try to not yell, but to level with these children. I want my son to
grow up being a light and bringing these values towards every other person he meets.” (M. Monti,
personal communication, October 8, 2019)
“To be respectful, truthful, to stand up for yourself, stand behind your word, and uh to be a man basically.I
try to forward the values my mama taught me growing up.” ( T. Rogers, personal communication, October
12th, 2019)
What family traditions do you try to maintain, and what is the importance of these
traditions to you?
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“One of the traditions I had as a child was on Christmas. It was very important the day after Thanksgiving
that we would go get our Christmas Tree. We would get up extremely early, go get breakfast, get our tree,
go home and Dad would set up the lights on the tree. Mom, my sisters, and I would listen to Christmas
music and decide on our theme of the tree. Once Dad was done, we would start decorating and for dinner
we would order pizza. At the end of the decorating we would curl up together and watch a Christmas
movie with hot cocoa and admire our tree. That night, we would all curl up by the fire and sleep in our
family room for the night. Just this one tradition taught me what it meant to be with and spend time with
the family. Now as I have a husband and three children of my own, I carry on this tradition and teach my
children the importance of working together as a family.” (A. Matyi, personal communication, October 8th,
2019)
“One of my family traditions was having dinner every night together at the table. We would all go around
in a circle and talk about our days and what was something we had learned that day. We often shared
jokes and laughed quite a bit. It is important to me and important for me to continue because not very
often do we pay attention to our families any longer. Everyone is to busy running around, hustling and
bustling. Our children need to see that we still value family and traditions. Otherwise they will no longer be
carried out.” (M. Monti, personal communication, October 8th, 2019)
“Even though my wife and I are separated, we try to maintain together a united family front when working
with our child. We are always together on holidays because it is important that our child understands even
though we did not work out, we will work together. We will always be co-parents, we will not ignore the
value of family and teaching our children the importance of standing together.” (T. Rogers, personal
communication, October 12th, 2019)
When do you have discussions about values?
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“I shared above how I have tried to shelter my children from Harry Potter. I believe that witchcraft is
witchcraft, no matter how you spin it. It may not be other parents views, but it is my view. When our
school wanted my child to read the book, I realized he is old enough. No matter how I try to hide these
things from them, they go to a public school and will eventually learn. So while reading the book we
discussed the difference between the values we carry and the values in the book. I can shelter my kids as
much as I want, but we will always have discussions about what is right and wrong and whether or not it
follows the values they have been taught.” (A. Matyi, personal communication, October 8th, 2019)
“When I worked with the little boy I am in the process of adopting, I discussed some of the things that are
important to me, value wise. We shared a lot of the same ideas. It was hard at first, putting my Mandarin
into practice, but I told him some of the things that I would like to teach him, some of the values that are
important to me, and asked if I could share those with him. I told him if he had questions about things he
didn’t understand or wasn’t sure of, it was okay to always ask questions.” (M. Monti, personal
communication, October 8th, 2019)
“We have conversations all the time about values. We have conversations if we see something on TV, or
even if he did something wrong. Recently, while at his brothers football game, he took ten dollars of his
mother's purse. He then convinced a friend to walk to Dairy Queen. He came back and threw out the
remainder of his cone so that he wouldn’t get caught. But another parent saw it. He is only seven. We had
a long conversation about whether or not that was respectful and honest.” (T. Rogers, personal
communication, October 12th, 2019)
What are your concerns or worries about your child’s moral development?
“My worries are that the world is increasingly getting worse around us. Everyday they are surrounded by
violence and people who are teaching our children that drugs, violence, and sex are okay. It scares me,
especially since they are attending a public school and they are surrounded by things I do not agree with.
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I have seen children my daughters age smoking pot underneath bleachers at the school. One of her
friends was caught with marijuana. This world has hit rock bottom and it is a scary thought wondering if
my child's moral development will not go the way I had hoped it would.” (A. Matyi, personal
communication, October 8th, 2019)
“The world only seems to be getting worse. We have seen an increase in hate crimes recently. It is
surrounded and hate is taught. No one is born to hate, we are all taught these values and ideas by those
around us. Recently, I read a study about a man who showed a bunch of children a picture of a black man
(who was a teacher) and a white man who was known as a threat to national security, he had bombed
something. Most of those children said the black man was a criminal and the white man looked nice and
was the teacher. The point proven is their moral development is being stumped by parents who hold
negative views of a human being and has reflected it onto their children.” (M. Monti, personal
communication, October 8, 2019)
“I guess, all the influences that are constantly around my child. Many of the rappesr now adays promote
sex, money, and drugs. Whether it be at school, other family members, or media. That is why when he is
around me, I try to be a good role model, you know?” (T. Rogers, personal communication, October 12,
2019)
How do you feel about our society, media, and moral development?
“Society is increasingly growing worse. The role models we have out there are not what I would call a role
model. They are not people I would want my children viewing as someone to follow. Media is including
violence, anger, lies, sex, drugs, and a love for money now more than ever. It is cramping their moral
development, it is thwarting our jobs in developing our children's morals. With everything that is around us
it is making our jobs as parents more difficult. But that does not mean that we should ever give up!” (A.
Matyi, personal communication, October 8, 2019)
Running head: Character Education Interview Assignment 17
“Society can be a beautiful thing. However, with the leaders we have today, we are slowly drifting away
from being beautiful. As parents we can protect our children til we are blue in the face, but it won’t matter
if we are not constantly having discussions with them about our morals and values. It won’t matter if we
don’t have them growing up in an environment where Jesus is constantly taught. Our children definitely
need to be protected from the media we have. There are so little positive media models that are healthy
and good for our children. I had been watching a newer episode of Sesame Street with my nephew and
there was a gay child who was only seven years old! What is happening?” (M. Monti, personal
communication, October 8, 2019)
“I think society and media are more focused on negative energy and the negative things that happened
around us, there isn’t much positivity out there. It can have a negative effect on my child's moral
development. We can try to shelter our children completely, but it doesn’t always work. They learn about
things we may want to protect them from, whether we like it or not.” (T. Rogers, personal communication,
October 12, 2019)
How do you feel about character education programs in schools?
“Personally I struggle with character education programs, especially in public schools. If I could afford to
send my children to a private school, I would. But they do not have very many financial friendly schools
around here. The reason why I have a problem is because they are not even allowed to reference God in
public schools anymore. I like our kids schools, but I am not happy with the government indoctrinating
their values onto our children. There have been many teachers who are pushing their views onto our
children even though they do not align with our values.” (A. Matyi, personal communication, October 8,
2019)
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“I think character education programs have the potential to be wonderful, minus the fact that God is not
the center for most of these teachers. I once attended a character education program at a public school in
Pennsylvania. I was disheartened by the lack of education that was happening. Most of the children were
simply sitting at a desk and playing games amongst themselves. There was no teaching, but a teacher
sitting at her desk on her phone.” (M. Monti, personal communication, October 8, 2019)
“I think it's a good idea to be honest with you. Having someone that is able to teach a child during the
day, when parents are not around, is helpful to the moral development of our children. Teaching them to
be respectful, ask questions, and stand up for what they believe in is helping not only develop their
character, but also their moral development.” (T. Rogers, personal communication, October 12, 2019)
What words of advice would you give teachers for teaching character education or
integrating character in the classroom/curriculum?
“I would say the teachers should work on getting to know their students on a personal level. They should
spend time figuring out where their moral development is and what their values are as well. If you can not
talk about God you can still show God’s love through encouragement, empathy, compassion; you can still
show them there is a difference in you.” (A. Matyi, personal communication, October 8, 2019)
“I would tell teachers who are in public school to spend time in prayer for their students. Being a role
model is a tough gig, it is important to make sure you are fulfilling the role properly. Asking God to be
present in every situation with a child could be the difference between life and death. It sounds so literal
but it is. If a student comes to you and asks you if you are a Christian and they choose to confide in you,
do not report it! Handle it.” (M. Monti, personal communication, October 8, 2019)
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“Treat them as if they were your own child. How would you want your want child to be treated/raised?
How would you want them to act towards other kids. It's important to stay strong when teaching children
who have nothing but negative influences around them. Practice what you preach.” (T. Rogers, personal
communication, October 12, 2019)
Part 2: Questionnaire Interview for Teacher
Tell me about character education in your classroom/school/district.
“I have taught in many different settings. I have taught at Christian schools and at public schools. In the
public school setting we were not allowed to bring God into the picture. However, I make sure that no
matter where I am, I am acting the way I am teaching. If I am teaching kindness, I am kind. If I am
teaching about empathy or compassion, I am empathetic and compassionate. While working with other
people's children I still use my values, but I do not cross boundaries, as they are not my children.” (A.
Matyi, personal communication, October 8, 2019)
“I once worked in a juvenile delinquency hall, that was ran by a Christian church. I was able to train these
children in the values that Christ gave to us. Teaching them to do unto others, as they would have done to
them. Teaching them it is not their job to judge others, but to love others. Teaching them things like
patience and commitment. I helped them with their walk with Christ. I faced my challenges, like a child
spiking brownies that we were cooking, and I survived, but I never lost hope.” (M. Monti, personal
communication, October 8, 2019)
In your opinion, is character education a new initiative of schools?
“I believe the special programs are newer, but since the beginning teachers have always been the
primary example of character education. When a teacher cares, it is obvious. When a teacher is simply
there just for the money, it is obvious. Children learn by observing you, if you are not showing a positive
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example, they will not be a positive example to the peers around them.” (A. Matyi, personal
communication, October 8, 2019)
“It was never a new initiative. I think in lieu of all the mass shootings character education has become
more important within schools, but it has always been there. It was not held in high esteem until now.” (M.
Monti, personal communication, October 8, 2019)
Do you believe character education should be left up to the family or church?
“I absolutely do not agree that it should just be left up to the family and church. I believe as educators we
are supposed to be the utmost character educator there is. We have these children for eight to nine
hours, five days a week. It is important that we continue to be examples for these children. Training them
up to make a difference, to lead not follow.” (A. Matyi, personal communication, October 8, 2019)
“I think the church and the family are extremely important in playing the role of teaching children character
education. However, when we spend massive amounts of time with these children, for nine to ten months
out of the year, it is important that we focus on teaching them properly. Even if we can not insert God into
the situation, teaching them simple things like being polite, being honest, sharing, and being kind is part of
our jobs.” (M. Monti, personal communication, October 8, 2019)
What has been the reaction of parents and community members to character education
programs?
“I have never had a negative reaction from any of the parents. I have always been told that I was good at
my job, that their children never complained about how I taught them. I had one parent who even
commented on how they could never get their child to say thank you, and now they say please and thank
you all the time.” (A. Matyi, personal communication, October 8, 2019)
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“I have had one negative reaction from a parent. I was working at the juvenile hall that was provided
through a church, and we had a mother who complained that we “converted” her child. She was angry
and said that it should be illegal for us to push our beliefs on their children. That is not what happened, we
were very careful how we approached situations with some of these children, understanding the
backgrounds they may have come from. This child approached us and asked if we would be willing to
help them accept Jesus into their heart.” (M. Monti, personal communication, October 8, 2019)
Please tell me a little bit about any resistance you have found to character education.
“I am very open about being a Christian. Even working in a public school, I have never gotten fired for it,
and I do not push my beliefs on students. However, in my syllabus every year I explain to the parents that
I am a Christian and I will not push the boundaries. Many parents had requested their students be
removed from my classroom, but our principle assured them I would not push the boundaries and they
would not be displeased with my teaching.” (A. Matyi, personal communication, October 8, 2019)
“The most reluctance I have seen has been from the students themselves. I talked about before, working
for the juvenile delinquency hall. Many of them did not want to have to share much about their lives and
they were not interested in accepting our faith. It took quite a long time to get some of the students on
board with changing their lives, especially after most of their life they had been told they had no
self-worth.” (M. Monti, personal communication, October 8, 2019)
Which types of programs or activities do you believe are most successful in promoting a
sustained character education program?
“In my classroom I use the character education acronym. It is for the word THINK. Is it true? Is it helpful?
Is it inspiring? Is it necessary? Is it kind? I always tell the children to stop and ask themselves these
questions? I ask them to remember that they want to keep their character influential and be a leader.
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Typically it works? We go over it every morning before we start our day.” (A. Matyi, personal
communication, October 8, 2019)
“In my classrooms we did the bucket of kindness. Every day I would have my children write down a nice
thing about somebody that they didn’t usually spend time with. At the end of the day I would pull the little
papers out and I would read them outloud. All ages faces lit up when they received their compliment for
the day. There was only time I had a negative response and it was from a young boy who liked to be the
troublemaker.” (M. Monti, personal communication, October 8, 2019)
Which type of activities or programs do you feel are least successful?
“I think activities that do not include the parents are not successful. It's frustrating when you feel as
though you spend so much time on building character within the classroom and then your students share
a bit about their personal life. They may confide in you that their parents do not encourage them to do the
things you’ve worked so hard on within the class and throughout the year. Activities that do not encourage
supporting each other and teamwork are not successful because then students will work less together
and that is when cliques and the drama begins. Working together builds character.” (A. Matyi, personal
communication, October 8, 2019)
“This is a broad question, um well, I think that the least successful program is not having one at all. There
are so many things happening in the world that are teaching our children nothing about character or
building character. Bullying is something that needs to be talked about. Suicide rates are increasing
among children. Children as young as ten have committed suicide because of bullying.” (M. Monti,
personal communication, October 8, 2019)
Are there any noticeable changes in student behavior or morale since you have started
integrating character education?
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“Absolutely! I have noticed things as simple as my students starting to be kinder to each other. A few days
ago one of my students did not have lunch. Seven kids in the class took a few things from their lunches
and put them together to give to the student who did not have one. My kids have even shared with me
when they stop and ask themselves questions I have posted in the classroom!” (A. Matyi, personal
communication, October 8, 2019)
“There were a few students that were tough to crack, but I was able to get them to break down and finally
work on their character. We talked about the importance of not seeing the same behaviors and morals at
home but still enacting them out in the world. Many students shared that the bucket filler helped build their
self-esteem and it helped when making friends with people they may not have previously talked too.
When someone has a support team in the halls of school, it gives them encouragement to keep coming
back. I did this with my juvenile delinquency hall and it worked out well. Many of these students did not
have that support or character building at home.” (M. Monti, personal communication, October 8, 2019)
What words of wisdom, advice, or caution do you have regarding character education or
integrating character into your classroom/curriculum?
“Come up with creative ways to work together with your students when it comes to building their
character. Pinterest has wonderful ideas of activities and things that you can do. It is important to instill
these things in children no matter what age they are, in my opinion, the younger the better.” (A. Matyi,
personal communication, October 8, 2019)
“When doing activities with students have them interact with other students they do not usually interact
with. It develops wonderful friendships and encourages students to branch out and reach those who may
not be sure they can trust or work with other people. Encouragement works wonders when it comes to
building characters. When they do group activities for Reading or English have them work with students
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you do not see them around. Talk to them separately and get to know them as a person so you can work
with specific abilities.” (M. Monti, personal communication, October 8, 2019)
Part 3: Integrating Character Education in your Classroom: Summary of
Research-Based Strategies
After going through this interview I discovered many new ways of instilling these views in our children.
One of the things I’d like to do first is focus on social development. As well as, how I can be of assistance
to the children who come into my class room with their development. Ms. Melissa Monti spoke about how
she would do the bucket of praise. One of the important things in working with social development is to
teach them how to interact with people. When we would do class projects in school we were often paired
with people we usually didn’t spend time with. This is how we were taught to expand our friend groups.
WHen I first went into high school there were already “pre-cliques”. Most of these students had grown up
together and I was just joining in new. It wasn’t until the eleventh grade that I made extremely good
friends with two of the girls in my class. We became inseparable, all because we were forced to stay
together in a room during our college tour trip. There were only 33 people in my graduating class. All of
these students are still memorable to me this day. I’d like to teach literature, as I had an amazing teacher
who inspired my love for reading. For my reading groups, I will make students pair with people that do
not talk to outside the classroom and then switch pairs when they work on discussions. My hope is that if I
encourage this, I will see a change outside of the classroom.
The next is emotional development. Children need to be taught how to handle their emotions. I found a
journal article that talks about the importance of teaching social-emotional development. It says this,
“Social-emotional learning in early childhood sets the stage for students’ future behaviors in
schools.”(Schultz, 2011) I’ve always wanted to work in a Christian school. When I was in high school I
had a lot of emotional problems. I was a foster child and was eventually adopted. I had a theater teacher
who would approach me everyday and take time out of her busy schedule to pray with me. She would
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listen to me share my emotions, concerns, and fears. I only hope that I can be a teacher with this same
nature. I’d like to work in a school with a small enough environment that I can spare time for each and
every student. One of the ways I’d like to work with my students is to encourage them to share their
emotions. I’d like them to be able to have a healthy environment that they can share when they are angry,
upset, confused, or even scared. I’d love to be a teacher that is so approachable that students feel that
they can share with me whatever they are feeling. When a child is not encouraged to share his emotions,
it can cause issues with the child’s emotional development. (Schultz, 2018)
The last one is moral development. The best way to reach students nowadays is to use songs and media
that they are used too. When I was in high school I attended a youth group. Our pastor constantly used
songs, movies, and T.V shows that he knew interested us. One of the most famous ones was Breaking
Bad. While he was teaching about anger and the negative effects he used quite a few scenes from the
show. Students were automatically roped in. We also used to use songs that may not have been
considered Christian to do things like human videos. Basically it was putting a skit to a song. We would
cover things like self-harm, addiction, and all types of sin. It always caught students attention. So with that
being said, I’d like to do something in the way of taking wonderful moral lessons from the books we read.
We read The Outsiders when I was in eighth grade. Our teacher took the phrase, “Stay golden ponyboy”,
to teach us to stop and appreciate all of the things around us. She used different things from the book like
the value of friendship. For our eighth grade graduation she was supposed to give a speech. She got up
on stage and that was the only thing she said, “Stay golden eighth grade. Stay golden as you make your
way through life.” She walked off. No one else understood the speech, except for us. Safe to say our
principle was not happy, but we all giggled because we knew what she meant. She’d ask us what our
morals were and how they aligned or didn’t with the story. I would like to carry on that tradition.
Part 4: Conclusion – Reflection and Discussion
In conclusion, this interview project was eye opening. I know I was only supposed to use one
teacher/parent, but I was able to collect so much information that it helped me get through this
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assignment. It took all week, but it was so well worth it. I learned the importance of being a teacher and
how important our job is. Our job is to give these children what they may not even get at home. Emotional
and social development starts at a young age and I am teaching middle grades. In that time period it is
when they are just finally starting to get curious about the world. They are feeling older and a bit more
independent. It is important to shape their ideas. Not to put our own beliefs on them, but to develop their
keen sense of understanding so that they can form their own opinions. When I was a child I was taught to
believe everything my parents believed. I grew up without my own opinions. I refuse to raise my child like
that. I was taught to HATE President Obama, but as I stepped out on my own and formed my own
opinions I came to a conclusion on my own. Just because a child is young does not mean that they are
not capable of their own opinions. Throughout this assignment I learned so many ways as to how I can
help children be guided through their life. I can help them figure things out. Again, we are meant to be the
change in the world we want them to see. We are there to cultivate their learning and help them develop
their character.
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References:
Schultz, B. L. (2011). A Preschool Pilot Study of Connecting with Others: Lessons for
Teaching Social and Emotional Competence. Early Childhood Education Journal , 39
,
143–148. Retrieved from https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10643-011-0450-4
Slavin, R. E., & Schunk, D. H. (n.d.). Learning Theories (1st ed.).
