CHARACTER EDUCATION — In pedagogy the term *carattere* (character) can be understood in two senses. In the broader and more universal sense, it refers to the predominant orientation of a person’s will, their particular way of willing and acting; in this sense, every person has their own *carattere*. In a narrower sense, it denotes the habit of acting according to firm, fundamental principles supplied by the intellect, adhering to them so tenaciously as to produce coherence in all one’s thoughts and actions. A person of *carattere* will therefore be one who possesses this property of the will: the capacity to adhere to the practical principles laid down by reason.
The fundamental note of *carattere* is thus inner unity, constancy, and decisiveness; and the principal element—above the temperament deriving from heredity and from physical and physiological circumstances that may have influenced organic constitution, and above the psychic influence exerted by the social environment in which one lives—lies pre-eminently in the dispositions of the will. From the quality and strength of these dispositions depends the entire value of *carattere*.
1) *Carattere* is not immutable. — Some would define the theory according to which *carattere* remains unchanging throughout life as it was received from nature, without possibility of modification by external or self-directed action. Pushed to extremes, this theory produced the figure of the “born criminal” of C. Lombroso: an individual fatally destined to crime despite all contrary efforts of education, social repression, and the internal resistance of the criminal himself. In support of this view, appeal is made to common popular experience, which has forged such proverbs as “The wolf may change its coat, but not its nature,” or excuses such as “There’s nothing to be done; that’s just how I am,” or the pretext: “Take me as I am; I cannot be different.” It must certainly be admitted that in the education of *carattere* there are insuperable limits: every voluntary effort can operate only within the bounds and limits of an innate disposition, and one cannot substantially destroy or alter the original psycho-physical constitution. Even so, a certain education can still be exercised with good results. For innate dispositions are like so many materials offered to our activity; this activity cannot change the elementary possibilities contained in them, but it can reject some, select others, transform them, and consolidate them into habits. In the realm, for example, of affectivity (emotion, enthusiasm, aggressiveness, indifference, etc.), while the will cannot alter their inner substance, it can direct them toward different objects and thus avoid excesses or deviations and fill gaps.
2) *Carattere* has plasticity. — Experience and conscience show in many ways how *carattere* can and does in fact undergo modification through various factors: a) physiological: age, growth, regimen of life, physical exercise, climate; b) social: one remains, in certain respects, a person of one’s own time, country, family environment, profession; c) psychological: habits reinforce or inhibit instincts and can superimpose themselves upon other habits until the latter disappear; every idea is efficacious, carries within itself a force that is not lost and exerts its influence; two persons of more or less similar temperament and intelligence will have vastly different *carattere* according to the different principles by which they are guided—political, religious, economic, moral ideas—and every action leaves a trace that facilitates the next action; self-control, which each person can impose upon himself, makes him master of his actions even in their subtlest nuances.
All this therefore constitutes the field in which educational activity can effectively unfold; and it may be said that man is the architect of his own fortune, able to transform himself and capable of cooperating in the transformation of others. He can not only learn to direct toward good those forces that were originally capable of turning toward evil, but can also increase or diminish these very forces, stifle energies and impulses or create them.
3) Means for the education of *carattere*. — From what has been said, it follows that four means are required for educating *carattere*: a) to strengthen the will by impelling it always to will strongly and to translate this will into real and continuous acts of volition; b) to subject actions to a stable and permanent rule of conduct—not enough to have prompt and intense actions if they remain scattered and, so to speak, dependent on momentary and transient motives; what is needed is a fixed maxim that forms an ideal to be kept constantly before one’s eyes; c) the higher this ideal, the more energy and impulse it will give; d) it must, however, always conform to the moral law.
To put these general means into practice, the following will be of service: a) a profound and vigilant self-knowledge that discerns tendencies and inclinations, experiments with remedies to be applied and actually applies them; b) the cultivation of the capacity to resonate inwardly with the widest possible range of others’ vibrations, so as to escape one-sidedness that dulls sensitivity to many passions and movements of human action; c) daily effort to advance in the struggle against the inertia and laziness of nature, love of comfort, and the tendency to drift along the path of least resistance; d) self-denial that imposes a “no” even in matters that are in themselves simple and licit, so as to have the strength to repeat that “no” when one would otherwise act against the moral law; e) the ability to grasp the value and efficacy of suffering in its many forms. For suffering can on the one hand lead to rebellion or at least to discouragement and inaction; but on the other, when rightly understood and used, it can conduce to constancy, decisiveness, and heroism.