Sweating the Small Stuff
Justin Torres
January 1, 1998
In the age of Clinton, character is hot. Character—the lack of it, and whether it matters—is the source of endless punditry from tv's talking heads. 'William Bennett's Book of Virtues is a steady bestseller. And everywhere, there are increasing calls for "character education" around the country. L'affaire Lewinsky raises some tough questions about character, its role in a human life, its importance to the body politic: Can we separate public ethics and private virtue? Is character, finally, a matter best left between a man and his God? America seems to have made up its mind—polls show that the president is as popular as ever. We've decided, at least for the moment, to compartmentalize private acts from public positions, all the while raking in the benefits of a booming economy. Who worries about the twinges of national conscience? These may seem like academic questions in the well-heeled atmosphere of Washington, but in the streets of Chicago, one of America's toughest urban landscapes, the mournful fruit of the lack of character can be seen daily: High school graduation rates hover around 40 percent in many of the city's public schools. Gang violence, drug use, teenage pregnancy, and crushing poverty are widespread—and thirty years of public funds have done little to alleviate these problems. Since 1965, a small foundation in Chicago's Near West Side has been quietly answering the question, what's character got to do with it? Their answer: character is everything, and it starts with small habits. Midtown Education Foundation operates two programs for inner-city adolescents on Chicago's Near West Side. Taking inspiration from the social teachings of the Catholic Church and the example of Opus Dei, a worldwide lay Catholic movement ...
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