About the Maxims Research Grant Program

The primary purpose of the Maxim Research Grants Program is to increase our understanding of an approach to character education that involves learning and using maxims, proverbs, aphorisms, and wise sayings. Rooted in classical thought and pedagogy, memorizing and employing wise sayings is a classic method of character education in the United States and a vital part of the moral education of many outstanding early American leaders, including Benjamin Franklin, George Washington, and Booker T. Washington.

Sir John Templeton has benefited greatly from this character education approach and is a great admirer of its usefulness in developing the virtues needed for a productive and fruitful life. His award winning book Worldwide Laws of Life (ISBN 0-8264-1018-9) is a collection of 200 maxims that highlight and reinforce principles of optimism, self-control, humility, forgiveness, and goal setting, among others.

To launch the Maxims Research Grant Program, the John Templeton Foundation sent out a Request for Proposals in the fall of 1998. Proposals were evaluated and ranked by an independent panel of educational and academic experts. Based on the panel's recommendations, grants were awarded to seven teams, each comprised of teachers and researchers.

During the 1999-2000 school year, the research teams are conducting small pilot projects that explore how to best teach maxims, and how meaningful and motivational maxims can be for students. Each team of researcher and teachers is involved in an action research collaboration. Together, they are investigating different teaching strategies in the classroom and are assessing and evaluating them. In doing so, the teams will be able to identify the strategies that most effectively encourage young people to learn and use maxims.

The findings of the research teams will help develop a body of educational literature on the use of maxims as a key component in an effective and comprehensive character education program. We invite you to learn about the funded research projects and to get to know the grant recipients!