In my culture, dreams are invitations, as valid as any form of knowledge transmission. After years of becoming more aware of my roots and more open to my dreamworld, I’ve learned that when dreams arrive, it’s best to pay attention.
Perhaps it was the anticipation of an upcoming academic conference that led my sleeping mind to wander into that setting one night in 2024. In this particular dream, I was attending a panel on character in America, a fitting topic just before the presidential election. But questions of how universities shape the character of people and communities have animated my work in the academy for a long time. Much longer, in fact, than I’ve been paying attention to my dreams.
I stumbled into character education over the years as an educator and administrator. Broadly speaking, the term refers to those things that implicitly or explicitly shape the moral imagination and habits of young people toward particular ways of being. It can help orient students toward what is good for the world rather than what is merely good for them.
