Narnian Virtues: A Character Curriculum Based on C.S. Lewis’s Chronicles of Narnia

This project gets you thinking, like, "Oh, no — I've probably been doing that most of my life,"
and it makes you think about how you can change it. - 11-year-old boy

Does reading good books make us better people?   Many authors have held that stories play a key part in leading us into the virtues. 

One particularly promising literary resource, however, has been overlooked by character educators:  the Chronicles of Narnia  by C. S. Lewis.  To date, this much-loved series has sold 100 million copies in 47 languages.  In 2015, The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe was included in Time magazine's 100 best books for young adults.  Given the extraordinary popularity of the Narnia stories and their strong character themes, we believe these novels are a rich resource waiting to be tapped.

"The Fantasy Advantage," in Scientific American (March/April 2016), reviews new research indicating that young readers "absorb some lessons better when they are wrapped in magic and imagination."  Fantasy literature like Lewis's Narnia novels can be an effective vehicle for character education. 

With a 1-year pilot project grant from the John Templeton Foundation, we designed and tested, in five diverse schools in the North of England, a literature curriculum that had 11- to 13-year-old children read and reflect on one of three Narnia novels.  Eleven-year-olds read The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe; 12-year-olds, Prince Caspian; and 13-year-olds, The Voyage of the 'Dawn Treader.'  

These three titles form a unit in that they all feature children from the Pevensie family as protagonists.  Working with teachers and two C.S. Lewis scholars, we identified 12 virtues that are, at various points in the stories, exhibited by one or another character. (see "12 Narnian Virtues")

Every act of justice or charity involves putting ourselves in the other person's place. - C.S. Lewis

Besides providing captivating, character-rich stories, Lewis's Narnia novels offer a philosophical grounding for character education in that they depict a universe governed by moral laws that he called "the Tao."  In his 1943 book on education, The Abolition of Man, he explained that the Tao is a Chinese term for the moral order of the universe, "the way life works."  The Tao is innate and universal, a law like gravity in the physical sciences but with one important difference: We have a choice as to whether we obey it — and have harmonious and flourishing lives — or not. 

In The Abolition of Man, Lewis cites the many cross-cultural affirmations of the moral laws comprising the Tao — laws commanding justice, condemning greed and cruelty, specifying duties to children and elders, and the like — that can be found in the great texts of different religions, cultures, and traditions as diverse as the ancient Egyptian, Babylonian, Old Norse, Chinese, Indian, Roman, Greek, Australian Aboriginal, and American Indian. 

This empirical evidence of a universal moral law provides important support for a central tenet of character education:  There are "core ethical values" that all persons are obliged to recognize and respect.  That principle stands in opposition to the moral relativism of the age that regards morality as just a matter of opinion.  The Tao can be summed up, in Lewis's words, as "the doctrine of objective value, the belief that certain attitudes are really true, and others really false, to the kind of thing the universe is and the kind of things we are."

Our Narnian Virtues project draws encouragement from the recent success of the Knightly Virtues project of the University of Birmingham's Jubilee Centre for Character and Virtues (www.jubileecentre.ac.uk).  That project developed a literature-based character education curriculum using four well-known stories — Gareth and Lynette, El Cid, Don Quixote, and The Merchant of Venice — and to date has been experienced by nearly 30,000 9- to 11-year-olds in schools across Britain.  Its popularity suggests a hunger on the part of schools for high-quality, virtue-laden materials that can be integrated into the regular academic curriculum.

 The Narnian Virtues project expands previous literature-based character education interventions in that it:

• uses stories whose protagonists are similar in age to that of the students reading the novels
• focuses on helping students translate better understanding of virtues into more consistent virtuous behavior
• investigates the difference parents make when they work with their child on fostering the Narnian virtues in family life.

The Pilot Project

In the Narnia classroom, the teacher explains to students that virtues are good moral habits and vices are bad moral habits.  This emphasis on the role of habits in the life of character is consistent with classical thinking going back to Aristotle, who taught that a virtue is not a mere capacity or ability, but a disposition — a tendency to act in a good way. 

Every teacher receives a Teacher's Guide.  Every student gets a Student Workbook, Student Journal, and a copy of the Narnia novel under study.  As children read their novel, they do a "virtue analysis" in their workbook of selected extracts from the story.  They highlight in green the virtues shown by the story characters in a given passage, and highlight in yellow the vices shown.   

Students then explain (in writing) how the character in question displayed the vice or virtue — and write about a time when they displayed the same virtue or character flaw. 

Our goal in the Narnian Virtues curriculum is to foster character development in the full sense: knowledge, feeling, and behavior — "head, heart, and hand."  We want students to understand the virtues displayed in the stories; care about these virtues (admire them, want to possess them, be repelled by their opposing vices); and, finally, act upon them with increasing consistency in their own lives, both inside and outside of school.

I’m more aware of when I’m showing fortitude and determination. I can use them in my life more because now I know what they are. - 12 year old boy

That meant we had a three-fold educational challenge: Through interactive discussion of the novels and corresponding class activities, we needed to: (1) instruct students in what the virtues are; (2) inspire them to want to possess and practice these virtues; and (3) guide them in translating their understanding and desire into effective strategies for applying the virtues in their behavior.

To try to achieve depth of impact, we asked every student to choose, from the 12 Narnian virtues, the 3 virtues in which they "most wanted to improve."  Then, in their journals, students were to write out a specific plan for improving in each of their chosen virtues and, over the weeks of the project, record their efforts and progress. 

As children took responsibility for their own character growth in this way, the teacher encouraged them to persevere in their efforts, understanding that the quest for character is a humbling journey, one which we are all traveling:

No one is perfect.  We all make mistakes; we all often act in ways that don't reflect our best self.  Developing good character means trying to be our best self more of the time.  Most of us possess these virtues to some degree.  Our challenge is to make progress — to practice the virtues more consistently, acknowledge when we don't, and keep on trying to improve.  Everyone's character is a work in progress.

Evidence of Student Growth

In their workbooks and journals, and in interviews and focus groups, a number of students provided evidence that they were taking this challenge to heart: 

My friends don't really respect people and it's like peer pressure — they're trying to push me into it.  Usually I would go with it, but when we started the virtues, I knew wisdom meant, like, right or wrong — and now I have to think, "Is it right or is it wrong?"
— 12-year-old boy

This project has taught us what kind of person we are.  It's actually helped us to realize what we do.
— 11-year-old boy

I never used to read at home.  But after we read this book together, I took it home and read it.  It was different, wasn't it?  — 11-year-old girl

Parents as Partners

Just as C. S. Lewis has been overlooked in character education, so have parents. 

The family is the first school of virtue.  Parents have the potential to be the most important influence on their children's character development.  Marvin Berkowitz and John Gryce, in their article "Fostering Goodness" in the Journal of Moral Education, emphasize the crucial role parents play in developing the "building blocks of morality."  Good parenting, they maintain, can be taught and learned. 

Because parents are so important, character educators are increasingly calling for greater collaboration with parents.  James Arthur, director of the UK's Jubilee Centre for Character and Virtues, states:

Character education should be viewed as a joint responsibility.  It is more effective when teachers and parents talk the same language of virtue to children.  

In the pilot project, students' journals included space for parents' or guardians' comments.  One mother wrote:

This project has been a good opportunity for my daughter to reflect on the virtues and vices in the books she is studying but also on how they relate to her own character traits.

Wisdom of C.S. Lewis:

- In reading great literature, I become a thousand men and yet remain myself. If you don’t read good books, you will read bad ones.

- Don’t waste time bothering whether you ‘love’ your neighbor; act as if you did.

- Right actions done for the wrong reason do not help to build the internal quality of character called a virtue.

In principle, the character education movement has always recognized the importance of parents.  In practice, however, the character education initiatives of schools have often neglected to involve parents in a meaningful way. 

Schools often ask, "How do you reach unengaged parents?" Our answer is, "If you can't get the parents to the program, get the program to the parents." (See Tom Lickona's Character Matters for ways schools have done this.)  To get the Narnian Virtues curriculum to the parents, we are designing "family homework," activities that students will do with their parents at home.

Character education researchers to date have not attempted to assess the extent to which involving parents makes a measurable difference in student character outcomes.  In our project, we will compare students whose parents work with them at home on project-related activities, with students in other schools that are not implementing parent involvement. 

We hope our school-parent partnership in the Narnian Virtues project will encourage — in the UK, the US, and other countries — a greater emphasis on the role of parents in character education.  School-home collaboration is especially important in contexts where, by choice or circumstance, parents do not normally show strong involvement in their child's education.  The importance of parents spending time with their children, actively engaged in their interests and activities, has been emphasized by the Parenting Matters report of the UK's Centre Forum. 

The Next Stage of the Project

We are currently seeking schools to join us in the expansion of the Narnian Virtues project from 200 students in the pilot year to 5,000 during the upcoming 3-year phase (fall 2016-2018).  (See Invitation below.) 

We have five goals: (1) to demonstrate how to integrate Narnian Virtues into a school's regular English classes; (2) to refine the curriculum through continued field-testing; (3) to continue to study the impact of Narnian Virtues on students' understanding and behavioral application of the virtues; (4) to assess the extent to which involving parents improves students' acquisition of the virtues; and (5) to include as implementation sites, high-need schools where parent involvement and educational outcomes have been historically low.  

Invitation to Join the Narnian Virtues Project

• A 12-week curriculum (2 hours per week) in which 11-13-year-olds study 3 Narnia novels, one a year, over 3 years.
• Free resources by Mark Pike and Tom Lickona will be available from www.narnianvirtues.leeds.ac.uk
• Each year, schools administer two surveys assessing students' understanding and application of the virtues.
• School implementation begins Sept. 2016 and will involve 5,000 students in the UK, USA, and other countries. 
• Would your school like to be part of the Narnian Virtues project?  For more information or questions, contact Dr. Peter Hart: P.J.Hart@leeds.ac.uk