Carrie Marchant, standing, Character Counts program director in Northeast Tennessee, illustrated a variety of character education-related hands-on activities during a recent training session with Doak House Museum volunteers. (Tusculum College photo)

Doak House Museum, Character Counts partner in educational program

Providing an education to help students build knowledge and character was the goal of the Rev. Samuel Doak, and his son, Samuel Witherspoon Doak, in founding a school on the East Tennessee frontier in the early 19th century.

Today, Tusculum College continues the commitment to a values-based education started by the Doaks not only through its Civic Arts curriculum, but through such efforts as a partnership between the Doak House Museum on campus and the Character Counts program in Northeast Tennessee.

Through the partnership, the Doak House Museum will be incorporating Character Counts into its "Quill Mark & Ink Spot" educational program for all grades. The museum, located in the circa 1830s home built by Samuel W. Doak, offers educational programs related to the early 19th century in which more than 7,000 school children from Northeast Tennessee participated last year.

To help Doak House volunteers learn more about Character Counts, Carrie Marchant, the program's director in Northeast Tennessee, provided a training session recently at the museum. Marchant gave a brief history of the program and shared various hands-on activities that can be used with students to illustrate the "Six Pillars of Character" emphasized in Character Counts.

The "Six Pillars" are trustworthiness, respect, responsibility, fairness, caring, and citizenship. Character Counts helps provide schools, organizations, businesses, and other institutions with resources and training to enable them to teach their students, employees, or the public about these values and the importance of good character.

"It is refreshing that Tusculum College has taken on this endeavor to help promote character education," Marchant said. "It is exciting to see an institution that has emphasized character education for so many years helping public school systems in their efforts to teach their students about the importance of character."

Cindy Lucas, associate director of the Doak House Museum, said that the museum is excited to be part of the character education effort and to incorporate Character Counts into the "Quill Mark & Ink Spot" program. "We look forward to encouraging young people to adapt the model of the 'Six Pillars of Character' and being a resource for educators," she said.

Reservations are now being taken for the "Quill Mark & Ink Spot" program. Call the Doak House Museum at 636-8554 or 1-800-729-0256 ext. 5251 to participate in the program, which helps fulfill the state-mandated character education requirement.

During the week of Oct. 20-24, National Character Education Week, the Doak House Museum will provide character education pencils and "Who I Am Makes a Difference" blue ribbons to students, teachers, and parents, who participate in the "Quill Mark & Ink Spot" program. A limited number of spaces are available.

The Doak House Museum and the President Andrew Johnson Museum and Library are administered by Tusculum's Department of Museum Program and Studies.