In an op-ed published last weekend in the Rochester Democrat and Chronicle, Alfred University President Mark Zupan writes about the importance of instilling character in students at a young age.
The op-ed, titled “Considering the value of developing character in students,” appeared in the Sunday, June 21, issue of the Democrat and Chronicle. In it, Zupan discusses how character development in children has been shown to have a greater influence on future academic and career success than does development of cognitive skills.
Zupan cited a book by Paul Tough titled “How Children Succeed,” in which Tough notes how social scientists have documented the increasingly greater importance of character development over cognition when rearing and education youngsters. “By character, Tough refers particularly to characteristics such as grit, curiosity, optimism, self-control and judgment—in addition to empathy, gratitude and morality,” Zupan writes.
Still, higher education institutions place a disproportionately high emphasis on cognitive skills, reflected in standardized test scores, when recruiting, accepting and enrolling students.
“The evidence, however, suggests that prospective students, their employers, the broader society, as well as higher education institutions such as mine, will be better served if we base our admissions and scholarship allocation decisions more on character than cognition,” Zupan writes.
