Character Education
Elevating Character
The goal of the GMC Character Education Program is to do what can be done, in the short time students are enrolled, to ensure that they leave the college and
preparatory school better prepared to meet future ethical challenges and better prepared to be leaders and participating citizens in their communities.
GMC has long recognized two equally important components of a true quality education:
- Development of the intellect
- Elevation of character
At Georgia Military College, the first is achieved through accredited academic programs leading to an associate’s degree and a high school diploma. The second is achieved as a consequence of implementing a deliberate and intensive character education program—a program that occupies a position of critical importance in the college mission.
Required Course
Junior college students attending Georgia Military College are required to complete successfully PER 201 (Critical Thinking and Character Development) as a prerequisite for graduation. The course introduces GMC students to the values and character development expectations of the college.
Students further develop critical thinking and decision making skills by examining the foundations of ethical reasoning through familiarization with selected traditions of ethical thought. Instruction is given on a small set of moral theories including Aristotle’s Virtue Ethics, Immanuel Kant’s Ethics of Duty, and John Stuart Mill’s Theory of Utilitarianism. Students apply critical thinking and reasoning skills to study and debate contemporary ethical issues.
Message to Garcia
A Message to Garcia, by Elbert Hubbard, is recommended reading for every member of the Georgia Military College family. Hubbard, a popular author, editor, and lecturer of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, wrote numerous articles and a number of books about the importance of character and values.
In his essay, A Message to Garcia, Elbert Hubbard uses events leading up to the Spanish-American War in Cuba to illustrate the essential nature of “Initiative”. This is the story about the journey of a U.S. Army officer named LT Andrew Summers Rowan who was commissioned by President McKinley to take an important message to the leader of the Cuban insurgency against Spain.
Read A Message to Garcia to see how LT Rowan’s actions and display of initiative over a century ago still have the power to inspire us today.
Also available is LT Rowan’s account of his journey entitled “How I Carried the Message To Garcia.“
Academic Excellence.
Since 1879.
We’ve been educating bright minds for well over a century. That’s why a degree from GMC means more than just a great education. It means success.
