COLUMBUS — No longer are reading, writing, math and science the only lessons taught in schools. Teachers also are promoting respect, kindness, fairness and other values.

        It's called “character education,” a movement that in the past decade has grown steadily with the federal and state governments awarding millions of dollars in grants to schools for programs that instill values in students.

        At the heart of character education is the idea that children should be taught the values society expects them to hold when they leave school and enter “the real world.”

        With pressure on schools to boost student achievement, should they also be responsible for teaching kids morality when churches and families for years have been expected to do so?

        Many say yes, arguing that incidents of school violence over the past few years have forced schools to take a more active role in teaching values.

        Schools didn't have to do that decades ago because churches, families and communities took on that responsibility, said Stewart Muszynski, founder of Project Love: Remember the Children Foundation.

        The Cleveland-based nonprofit group teaches teen-agers to promote kindness in their schools.

        “Now, you have a lot of institutions abdicating that responsibility, so schools have kind of become the necessary ven ue because that's where all of our kids go,” he said.

        Schools began implementing character education programs in the early 1990s when the U.S. Department of Education began offering states $1 million grants spread over four years to support pilot character education projects within schools.

        Ohio was awarded a grant in 1998 and about a dozen school districts started programs.

        Two years later, the Ohio Department of Education set aside $1 million for 2000 to distribute 100 character education grants to Ohio's public schools.

        The department proposed doubling that amount for next year, but the Legislature eliminated all funding for character education in the budget, which Gov. Bob Taft expects to sign this week.

        School officials whose districts have embraced character education stand by their involvement in teaching morality. They credit their programs with helping lessen disciplinary problems and improve academic achievement.

        “There's a definite need to build a positive learning community in every school, and values shape that,” said Cheryl Johnson, Dayton Public School's assistant superintendent for elementary education. “It seems to me that our society has forgotten that there's a need for good manners.”

        Since 1991, Dayton schools have created several character education programs, including one in which students learn about a different value each week.

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