The man who created the “Character Counts” program visited Iowa this week with stops at some of the schools which advocate the program designed to teach character to kids. Michael Josephson’s first stop was in Webster City. Josephson says some people just post posters and have coffee cups, but he says Webster City seems to understand th program. Joseph says the program is “about what the core values of the next generation is” and he says the program will make a difference.
Josephson says his trip to Iowa was prompted by an invitation from Drake University in Des Moines. He says Drake Law School was the first school to adopt the six pillars of character from the program. Josephson says he came to speak at Drake and decided to visit some of the schools involved in the Character Counts program.
Josephson says he’s pleased with the program has accomplished in 13 years. He says it’s not accomplished nearly as much as he’d like, but much more than most people expected. He says over six million kids are now involved. Josephson says, “It’s been as compared to other programs of this sort enormously successful, but we’ve just scratched the surface, we have to go both deeper and wider.” Josephson , who lives in Los Angeles, California, also visited schools in Urbandale and Des Moines.