THE ROLE OF CHARACTER EDUCATION IN INCREASING THE ABILITY TO RESOLVE CONFLICTS IN ELEMENTARY SCHOOL STUDENTS

Abstract

Character education is a deliberate (conscious) effort to help people understand, care about, and apply core ethical values. It is expected that character and personality are formed by the students themselves long for the success of character education. Students are expected to understand the values given to them, completely without any misunderstanding. Kurniawan (2017:29) reveals that a person's character is formed from the habits he does, both the attitude and the words he often does to other people. Integration of character education is very important in overcoming the problem of moral crisis. Thus in the implementation of character education in schools are three methods used which involve learning, extracurricular activities, and school culture. Character education is a means of soft skills that can be integrated into learning in each subject. Learning materials related to norms or values in each subject need to be developed, made explicit, linked to the context of everyday life. Even every material in a subject needs to be integrated with character education. Thus, learning character values is not only at the cognitive level, but touches on internalization, and real practice in the lives of everyday students in society. This has become important, especially for students in Indonesia in the last decade. Lately students are experiencing a moral crisis. A crisis that attacks the younger generation, especially at school age. Indonesian youth are currently experiencing a crisis of morality and intellect at an alarming level. The case of the murder of a female student in Jakarta which ironically was committed by the victim's ex-boyfriend and his new girlfriend is an example of the latest case. The motive for the killing turned out to be very trivial, just because of hurt.