The antidote to navigating turbulent times isn’t more rules. It is timeless virtue that creates sustainable value. Thoughtful leaders are keenly aware of the enormous challenge they face to drive high performance in a world that continues to ratchet up pressure and uncertainty. Some leaders respond by getting tough and establishing strict rules. They get people in line, but they don’t inspire excellence. Wise leaders, on the other hand, help their people practice character to navigate their way through the turbulence—without lowering performance expectations. As a result, their people are more reliable under pressure. Exception to the Rule links ancient wisdom with contemporary science on high performance, teamwork, and engagement. Building an organizational culture based on classical virtues―of trust, compassion, courage, justice, wisdom, temperance and hope―is both strategically smart and a better way to live. Exception to the Rule walks you through the steps of helping everyone in your organization focus on character defined by virtue. The word virtue means excellence, which is why each one is essential to help people perform at a high level despite uncertainty and pressure. Under character-based leadership, teams work better together, creativity flourishes and engagement increases. The most powerful idea of Exception to the Rule is this: character defined by virtue is not based on birthright; it can be learned and practiced. Everyone can develop habits to become better than they were. While character cannot be legislated, character can be cultivated. As virtue proves its value, the culture you have can evolve into the culture you need.

The Journal of Character Education is the only professional journal in education devoted to character education. It is designed to cover the field—from the latest research to applied best practices. We include original research reports, editorials and conceptual articles by the best minds in our field, reviews of the latest books, and other relevant strategies and manuscripts by educators that describe best practices in teaching and learning related to character education. The Journal of Character Education has for over a decade been the sole scholarly journal focused on research, theory, measurement, and practice of character education. This issue includes a "Voices" section highlighting the 2017 Character.org "Sandy Award" recipient, along with four peer-reviewed articles, and a book review.

Across the globe, educators are grappling with how best to prepare a new generation to engage the challenges and opportunities of the twenty-first century. Along with knowledge and skills, many are now emphasizing the importance of character. Yet, while there has been a robust movement to educate character among children and adolescents, much less attention has been given to the ethical formation of college and university students. What is the role of colleges and universities in educating the character of students? Should universities even attempt to cultivate virtue? If so, how can they do so effectively in a pluralistic context? Cultivating Virtue in the University seeks to answer these questions by gathering diverse perspectives on character education within twenty-first century universities. With essays from some of the world's leading scholars, this volume catalyzes a critical debate about the possibilities and limits of character education in the university while offering theoretical and practical perspectives on what such education could look like in increasingly global and intercultural institutions. By engaging insights from education, history, literature, philosophy, psychology, sociology, and theology, the volume encourages scholars and educators to embrace the opportunities and challenges of cultivating virtue in the university.

Drawing from philosophy, religion, biology, behavioral and social sciences, and the arts, The Routledge International Handbooks of Multidisciplinary Perspectives on Character Development, Volumes I and II, present cutting-edge scholarship about the concept of character across the life span, the developmental and contextual bases of character, and the key organizations of societal sectors, within and across nations, that promote character development in individuals, families, and communities. This first volume, Conceptualizing and Defining Character, explores the foundations of the field by providing an array of interdisciplinary approaches to character development, including economics, education, law, literature, military science, philosophy, and many more. With contributions from international experts, Volume I brings together cutting-edge research and discusses instances of character development, including civic character, courage, fairness, forgiveness, gratitude, morality, tolerance, and thankfulness. This comprehensive publication is an essential reference for researchers and graduate students in behavioral sciences, biology, philosophy, theology, and economics, as well as practitioners leading or evaluating character education or character development programs around the world. Find Volume II: Moderators, Threats, and Contexts here: www.routledge.com/9781032172453

Build a sustainable high-performance culture around the seven classical virtues Virtue is more than a word: It’s a way for us all to live, a way to flourish as human beings. And when applied to organizational life, virtue serves to enhance engagement, strengthen teamwork, and foster success in business. Better Humans, Better Performance connects the classical virtues―Trust, Compassion, Courage, Justice, Temperance, Wisdom, and Hope―with science that can help you achieve results in areas such as: Cultivating excellence in leadership High performing teams Cultures that drive performance outcomes Character education for families Integrity as a growth market The science of resiliency Coaching, deliberate practice, and habits of high performance Better Humans, Better Performance is a practical guide to achieving individual, team, and organizational performance.

A concrete and hands-on method for improving your everyday decisions Every 15 minutes, each of us can make ten or more small decisions. Some of them are relatively inconsequential, while others can change the course of our lives. What if you could improve all of your decisions, across the board, and start to build a healthier, more productive, and meaningful life? In Wise Decisions: A Science-Based Approach to Making Better Choices, a team of accomplished industry experts delivers an evidence- and research-based blueprint for making the best decisions you can with the information you have. You’ll learn to make the targeted, repeated investment of energy required to turn your decision-making process into one informed by reason, emotion, intuition, and science. In the book, you’ll discover: How to put the decision-making process under a microscope and learn what makes a decision truly wise Ways to help children, teens, and families make wise decisions How to train yourself to make wise decisions with voice training and other strategies A can’t-miss resource for parents, teachers, coaches, managers, executives, and other business leaders, Wise Decisions also offers timeless advice and guidance for anyone else hoping to improve the decision-making abilities of the people close to them.

A page-turning novel that is also an exploration of the great philosophical concepts of Western thought, Jostein Gaarder's Sophie's World has fired the imagination of readers all over the world, with more than twenty million copies in print. One day fourteen-year-old Sophie Amundsen comes home from school to find in her mailbox two notes, with one question on each: "Who are you?" and "Where does the world come from?" From that irresistible beginning, Sophie becomes obsessed with questions that take her far beyond what she knows of her Norwegian village. Through those letters, she enrolls in a kind of correspondence course, covering Socrates to Sartre, with a mysterious philosopher, while receiving letters addressed to another girl. Who is Hilde? And why does her mail keep turning up? To unravel this riddle, Sophie must use the philosophy she is learning—but the truth turns out to be far more complicated than she could have imagined.