The Values Character Education category of the BeCaL Datapool contains details of carefully selected internet based resources

The nonprofit Giraffe Heroes Project fosters active citizenship by telling the stories of these real heroes in the media, on podiums and in the K-12 Giraffe Heroes Program for schools.

The Heartwood Institute is a non-profit educational organization whose mission is to promote the understanding and practice of ethical values that are the foundation of community among all people, with particular emphasis on children and families.

The Council for Global Education is dedicated to the development of a new model of education for the child in the 21st century. CGE facilitates the creation and implementation of curriculum, programs and policies that prepare children for success in the emerging global community. (http://globaleducation.org/)

The Center's purpose is to: enable school personnel, parents, teacher educators, faith community members, youth providers, and concerned individuals to come together to study, discuss, learn, practice, reflect, and write on issues, programs, problems and promises regarding the character education of children and youth.

Some center activities include: Character Education certificates, on-line training, program assessment, consulting, publications, courses, workshops, staff development, partnerships, academies, conferences, and a masters degree specialization in character education.

The Association emphasizes the development of moral understanding in all individuals, and believes that such development requires opportunities for engagement in moral dialogue. Through its program of conferences and publications, the AME serves as a resource to educators, practitioners, students, and the public in matters related to moral education and development, provides expertise on educational policies and practices, and provides information about moral education to interested parties in the general public.

• To promote public discourse and practical action around significant ethical issues by:

• Discovering and defining the global common ground of shared values.

• Establishing clear structures for moral reasoning and ethical decision making.

• Promoting the teaching of Ethical Fitness in the practices of private, institutional, and civic virtue.

• Analyzing trends, gathering and disseminating information, and developing new knowledge about global ethics.

• Being a model organization in effectiveness, outreach, efficiency, and ethical action.
  

Developing Fairness and Concern for Others. Linking educators , scholars, and citizens interested in sharing their work and learning more about research, practice, and activities in the area of moral developement and education.

The Scottish Schools Ethos Network is a communication service, funded jointly by The Scottish Executive Education Department and The University of Edinburgh. Established in 1995, it is a 'bottom-up' development which is guided by member requests, initially as they set about implementing the recommendations in the guidelines, "Using Ethos Indicators in School Self-evaluation; taking account of the views of pupils, parents and teachers" (SOEID, 1992). Ethos studies are centrally concerned with people and relationships and with helping to create the most appropriate and positive whole context of learning in their own settings, from a variety of perspectives. The Network supports members through the complex process of evaluating the whole context of learning in their own setting. The aim is to facilitate schools getting in touch with each other to share approaches, methods of consultation, good ideas and action for improvement of school ethos. The Network encourages a research attitude in schools. Schools seeking to improve their ethos need to gather views from teachers, pupils and parents about the strengths and weaknesses of current relationships and to analyse these views carefully before taking action. (http://www.ethosnet.co.uk/default.htm)

The Values Education Education category of the BeCaL Datapool contains details of carefully selected internet based resources

A school's vision and mission statement will indicate some principles or core values which can inform and support the way the school develops. Core values are therefore a useful vehicle for realising the school's educational vision and its mission.

• the encouragement of open discussion of the alternatives
• the realistic examination of the consequences of the alternative

The acknowledgement that students will make their own decisions

Essential aspects of the curriculum are that it:

• accepts the values position that such precepts as stealing, cheating and lying, for example, are wrong
• assumes the existence of a certain core of values principles and the need to use this base in order to examine particular situations and choose behaviour accordingly
• evaluates the alternatives and their consequences relative to the basic precepts involved
• assumes that people are not by nature rational/irrational and moral/immoral and that if left entirely to their own devices, individuals will not always choose the rational and good
• contends that the mark of a truly pluralist and democratic society is that the philosophy that underpins societal and individual behaviour are open to contention.
• The curriculum does not demand acceptance of, or conformity to, a particular precept. Rather, it accepts that in the end students will make their own decisions, but having done so have the responsibility of accepting the consequences.

It is acknowledged that the best values education is that which reminds students that it is their own character that is at stake.