Medal of Honor character development lesson encouragement passed by House

State statute says that “the legislature encourages districts to integrate or offer instruction on character education,” including truthfulness, peacemaking and respect for authority and others.

Sponsored by Rep. Bob Dettmer (R-Forest Lake), HF3167 would encourage schools that voluntarily provide character development education to include Congressional Medal of Honor history and values in the curriculum.

Rep. Bob Dettmer

Passed 129-3 by the House Wednesday, the bill goes to the Senate where Sen. Bruce Anderson (R-Buffalo) is the sponsor.

“Anytime we can add character development, this is good for our schools,” Dettmer said.

Presented by the president, the Congressional Medal of Honor is the highest award a military member can receive for valor in action against the enemy.

Per the bill, “Character development education … may include a voluntary elementary, middle, and high school program that incorporates the history and values of Congressional Medal of Honor recipients and may be offered as part of the social studies, English language arts, or other curriculum, as a schoolwide character building and veteran awareness initiative, or as an after-school program, among other possibilities.”

The national Medal Of Honor Convention is scheduled to be held in the Twin Cities Oct. 4-8, 2016. The convention has partnered with the Congressional Medal of Honor Foundation to design a character development program that will be made available to schools at no charge. The program’s overriding message is that everyone has the capacity to be a hero.

Dettmer said the program is already being incorporated in the Robbinsdale and Columbia Heights school districts, and 59 districts and 140 teachers from across the state have participated in training.

Rep. Alice Hausman (DFL-St. Paul) and Rep. Kim Norton (DFL-Rochester), who joined Rep. Tina Liebling (DFL-Rochester) in voting against the bill, questioned putting this in law, when other programs, such as the Beyond the Yellow Ribbon campaign, would, too, like to have their values in school curriculum.

“When you write one program or one model into state law, I’m concerned that that model is elevated,” Hausman said.

Rep. Sondra Erickson (R-Princeton) said more than 100 encouragements already exist in law.