Many academic leaders remember the Character Counts! initiative from the 1990s and early 2000s. It was visible in schools and youth programs nationwide, emphasizing as core values the Six Pillars of Character: trustworthiness, respect, responsibility, fairness, caring, and citizenship. It served to teach and promote a shared ethical foundation and has proven highly effective in character development, improving school climate and culture, social-emotional behaviors, and academic success.
Beyond the Credential Factory: Why Higher Education Must Shift from Management to Flourishing
For decades, higher education leadership has obsessed over “student success” as a purely operational metric. We track retention and graduation rates and postgraduation outcomes with the same linear precision that
Yoshitaka Iwasaki
August 3, 2026
