The Importance of Character Education Cultivation in Schools

Character education is an education that not only provides course material, but also instills moral and social values ​​to the learners. Why is character education important to learners?

To answer this question, several studies have been conducted. A summary of the research results has been published in a bulletin entitled Character Educator, by Character Education Partnership. In the article explained that Dr. Marvin Berkowitz of the University of Missouri- St. Louis found that schools that employ character education have a high level of academic success. This is due to increased motivation of learners in achieving academic achievement in school. In addition, there is also a drastic decline in the level of negative behavior of learners who can hamper their academic achievement in classes that comprehensively implements character education in their teaching and learning activities.

This character education provides the values ​​of character plus plus that involves aspects - knowledge (cognitive), feeling (feeling), and action (action). This is in line with the thinking of an expert in education, Thomas Lickona who states that without these three aspects, the character education goes ineffectively. In addition, the implementation must be done continuously and systematically.

By providing character education, a child will have a high emotional intelligence. This emotional intelligence is an important provision for them to welcome the future. because with emotional intelligence, a child will be able to cope with various obstacles and challenges, including challenges that hinder them to be academically successful.

This is supported by the opinion of Daniel Goleman who states that one's success in society is influenced by 80 percent of emotional intelligence, while intelligence intelligence only gives effect of 20 percent.

Children with little emotional intelligence will have difficulty learning, hanging out. They can not control their emotions so they tend to have problems like juvenile delinquency, drugs, fighting, booze, free sex, and so on. If they are not dealt with immediately, they will grow into a morally immoral person as an adult. Conversely, children who can control their emotions can avoid these problems and grow into a good person.

Although basic character education exists within the family, character education in schools is also indispensable. This is because not all families provide character education to their children who may be in because of their busyness. In addition, many parents are more concerned with aspects of brain intelligence than emotional intelligence. As a result, their children grew up with less character education.

Therefore, the role of the school is necessary to form moral individuals through character education. Dr. Martin Luther King once said, "Intelligence plus character ... .that is the goal of true education"