E-raamat: Applying Positive Character Traits To The Study Of U.S. History: A Teacher's Resource Book

This is a U.S. history teacher's resource book, and does not include any Scripture of any religion. But, it does teach ethical decision-making to students in another way. The book uses the positive character traits of positive psychology to examine the decision-making of Americans in the past. You can do this without presentism by emphasizing the people then lived in different times. But, students can still examine the ethics of their decisions and how they interacted with ideas about wealth, power, democracy, equality, etc. at the time. These types of nuanced discussions help students understand the strengths and weaknesses of decisions made in the past, and how some positive character traits were emphasized for a decision while others were excluded. It shows the trade-offs humans sometimes make in their decisions. Students engage in group discussions, Socratic seminars, simulations, and other activities to learn how decisions were made in the past, and how to possibly make ethical decisions in the future in our country. They learn which positive character traits they may want to incorporate into their own lives to make decisions. One simulation has them work on different problems for our country in a simulated Congress to make joint ethical decisions to solve the problems. At the end of the book, there is a chapter about how the development of human rights laws through time in America represents a type of national Code of Ethics that was earned after many people suffered, went to war, or were discriminated against. The history of the development of these human rights laws is examined in the chapter.