Should character development place more emphasis than academic excellence?

I agree that school should place more emphasis on character development than academic excellence. This is because a student will not achieve anything if he has the academic excellence but not character development. One’s character development will also define how he treats things in life. However, academic excellence is more important in some points of time too.

A student will not be able to gain the trust of others or even be able to succeed in life if he does not have character development. Though the student might have academic excellence, such as all straight As in the A Levels and O levels, diploma and master degree in a certain courses, he might misuse his intelligence if he does not have the right moral values to guide him in his actions. For example, nowadays, there are many incidents whereby intelligent people commit crimes such as corruption, outrage of modesty or even blackmailing. These people are smart, as they used their intelligence to come up with all these methods to make their life better or for their own desires. An example is Osama Bin Laden. He is intelligent, as he is the leader of the terrorists in the world and thinks of all sorts of ways to harm others. However, he misused his intelligence. Thus, character development should be more emphasized to make sure that he uses his intelligence wisely.

A student’s character determines how he treats and sees things in life. Therefore, academic excellence is limited in one’s future, as it could only assist him in applying for jobs etc. But a character development actually determines how he treats his colleagues, his family and friends. Though a person might be smart, he will have no friends if he is arrogant and thinks everyone is inferior to him. Though a person might be smart, he might have little moral values and not be filial towards his parents. Therefore, a person may have the intelligence, but without proper education of the importance of character development, one may in the end lost trust and neglect every one surrounding him, and eventually lost all his support an accompany, which may lead to his failure instead.

However, at times, academic excellence should as emphasized as character development. This is especially a person’s future is into concern. Though a person may have character development to ensure he succeeds in life through honest ways and to treat the people surrounding him with care, he should also have some qualifications to allow him to succeed in life easier too. Thus, students should put equal emphasis in academic excellence when their future is in concern, such as applying for a job.

All in all, character development should be place more emphasis so as to ensure one earn his living through honest means and to have moral values and know how to treat others politely. However, when one’s future is at stake, academic excellence should place equal emphasis to ensure the student’s qualifications for easier applying for jobs.