Cultivating Heart and Character: Educating for Life's Most Essential Goals

Foreword by Thomas Lickona. Cultivating Heart and Character is an indispensable guide for crafting a good life. Full of original ideas and practical strategies, it presents the stories, thoughts, and shared desires of educators, leaders, parents and students who are searching for an education that nourishes the heart as well as the intellect. In this comprehensive book, the authors recognize the desire to love and be loved as the fundamental force in the shaping of character. Building on this insight, they establish that the universal desire to live a meaningful life can be fulfilled through three common aspirations: attaining personal maturity, building and enjoying satisfying and long-lasting relationships, and making contributions to the larger community. These three life goals in turn become a framework for a balanced and holistic education in character and emotional intelligence. Chapters include discussions of marriage, family, and community as well as school-based character and life skills education. Cultivating Heart and Character offers fresh perspectives for everyone working to improve their own lives and make a difference in the lives of others.

Tony Devine is the vice-president of the International Educational Foundation, an organization promoting holistic character education. Holder of a Masters in Education, in the late 1980s he developed and directed international exchange programs between the former Soviet Union and the United States. Mr. Devine gives presentations and training to educators, family experts and community leaders on current insights in character, marriage and family, and adolescent life skills education, and the interrelationships among these fields. His advocacy efforts have taken him throughout Europe and Asia, and he has been a featured speaker in national character education conferences in the United States.

Dr. Joon Ho Seuk is the president of the International Educational Foundation. He holds a doctorate in public administration and oversees the organization of numerous international conferences for educational, family, community and cultural leaders in Russia, China and other countries. He has co-edited various textbooks on moral education, most notably Family Ethics and Character Education, published this year by the China Academy of Social Sciences, and he has directed the development of the widely used Russian character education texts, First Peak and I in the World of People. A native of Korea who lives in New York, Dr. Seuk has been working to integrate Eastern and Western values for the contemporary world.

Dr. Andrew Wilson has a Ph.D. from Harvard University and teaches Moral Theology and Biblical Studies in upstate New York. His long-standing concern for inter-cultural ethics led him to produce World Scripture: A Comparative Anthology of Sacred Texts (1991), a widely used text that highlights the shared values and common ground among the world's religions. He wrote on the moral ideals of the family in True Family Values (1996) in addition to numerous other books and articles on ethics, education and culture.