Month: January 2018

Basketball star learned generosity at home

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Charlotte Hornets forward Michael Kidd-Gilchrist (MKG) took 10 children to Dick’s Sporting Goods with the Partners for Parks afterschool program, each with a $100 gift card. That habit of generosity is one that he learned from his mother and one he practiced as a boy.

When MKG was a boy in New Jersey, he’d double-dip into his school lunch account to make sure a classmate got something to eat. He was taught empathy by his family and was reminded that there is always enough to share.

In the sporting goods store, MKG coaxed kids toward such necessities as shoes and clothes. If a child was attracted to an $80 pair of sneakers, he’d show them a $40 pair and asked if the difference was enough to spend most of the $100 on the more expensive pair.

MKG was formed by a strong family culture. As his mother, Cindy Richardson, told the Charlotte Observer, “That’s where it comes from: a family of service, of Christian and sympathetic people. He was raised that way, so I wouldn’t expect him to be any different.”

Richardson said she started her son doing community service when he was very young. “When he was 2, we would feed the homeless on Sunday. We adopted families for Thanksgiving and Christmas his whole life, so this is just an extension of his upbringing,” she said.

In The Tragedy of Moral Education, Institute for Advanced Studies in Culture founder James Davison Hunter contends that despite the decline of character, pockets of character-building practices survive. “This is not to say that we have seen the last of character, or the moral qualities of which it is made. It will be found, here and there, in pockets of social life—within families and communities that still, somehow, embody a moral vision.”

MKG’s family is one of those “pockets of social life . . . that still, somehow, embody a moral vision.” It leads to integrity: “That’s where I come from. That who I am as a person on the court and off the court,” says Kidd-Gilchrist.

Teachers looking to establish that kind of “pocket” of social life in their classroom or school can begin with a lesson like Make a Difference to One that teaches the basics of how to genuinely greet and welcome another person. Some years from now, those students may be able to say, “That’s where I come from.”

Can intellectual virtues deliver what grit can’t?

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A focus on instilling students with persistence and passion—a character virtue identified as “grit” by scholar Angela Duckworth—has evolved into a movement with schools across the country working to integrate it into the curriculum.

But a recent editorial in The Chronicle of Higher Education argues the singular focus on grit is likely an overly simplistic view of character education and offers an alternative “intellectual virtues” approach that focuses on multiple factors that play into student success.

David Gooblar, a professor at the University of Iowa, highlighted Duckworth’s research into role of “grit” in student success and the subsequent scramble to integrate her perspective into classrooms nationwide.

“Elementary and secondary schools across the country began integrating measures of grit into their assessment of students and teachers,” Gooblar wrote. “Organizations, nonprofit and for-profit alike, began popping up all over to help schools and students ‘get more grit’ in their education. And in short order, grit became one of the more controversial topics in recent educational discourse.”

But Gooblar points out several growing problems with the idea that grit alone will help struggling students improve academics, and he offers insight into why the phenomenon has caught on in recent years.

“Even if grit is as important as its most ardent supporters suggest, pushing one characteristic as the secret to student success says more about our culture’s love of easy answers than it does about the way students actually experience their education,” he wrote. “There is no single characteristic that will account for whether a student succeeds in school or not.”

Gooblar notes that Duckworth herself claims “We’re nowhere near ready—and perhaps never will be—to use feedback on character as a metric for judging the effectiveness of teachers and schools.” He contends the focus on grit ignores systemic problems in education in favor of blaming students, but the approach is widely accepted because “grit maps so easily into traditional American narratives of self-reliance and meritocracy.”

Loyola Marymount University professor Jason Baehr offers a more nuanced vision for character education that incorporates nine intellectual virtues in an advisory-based approach used at Intellectual Virtues Academy, a charter middle school in Long Beach, California.

“The intellectual-virtues approach initially appealed to me because it seemed to avoid the simplistic logic of the grit-promoters. Rather than a single characteristic, Baehr argues that there are nine core virtues we should be encouraging in our students: curiosity, intellectual humility, intellectual autonomy, attentiveness, intellectual carefulness, intellectual thoroughness, open-mindedness, intellectual courage, and intellectual tenacity,” Gooblar wrote.

Gooblar contends educators are always teaching character, through everything from assignment selection to discouraging or encouraging certain habits, and points to Baehr’s framework as a way to intentionally assess and promote good character.

“An intellectual virtues framework can provide educators with the concepts and language to better understand, articulate, and practice much of what they already value and are trying to accomplish with students,” Baehr wrote in a 2013 article published by Journal of Philosophy of Education.

The clarity that the intellectual virtues framework offers is critical for establishing a moral community.

James Davison Hunter, the founder of the Institute for Advanced Studies in Culture at the University of Virginia, writes in The Death of Character that “it is precisely these kinds of social worlds, defined by a clear and intelligible understanding of public and private good mediated consistently through integrated social networks of adult authority, that moral instruction has its most enduring effects on young people.”

The intellectual virtues that charter schools have are the strength of both a clear statement of what they’re pursuing and an advisory system that continually mediates this understanding.

Intellectual Virtues Academy offers a video with more details on its philosophy for those who recognize the complexity of students and seek a more multifaceted approach to helping them learn. Baehr also maintains a website with a 500-page resource guide for educators.

Inspired to homeschool for relationship with children

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As school-choice options continue to proliferate across the country, the Monadnock Ledger-Transcript delved into the experiences of New Hampshire homeschoolers.

Homeschooling is a distinct education option for parents who are looking to meet the unique needs of their children or who want their family relationship to extend into the classroom. For those who wish to craft in a careful way the moral ecology in which their children develop, homeschooling is an ideal option.

Since 1999, homeschooling rates have been on the rise in New Hampshire, according to the Monadnock Ledger-Transcript. George D’Orazio, chairman of the state’s Home Education Advisory Council, admits that it is hard to know exactly why. However, he has an inclination that many families decide to homeschool even if they know the local public school would provide just as good an experience in terms of academics.

It seems that homeschoolers are considering more than just academic content. They are concerned with the culture or moral ecology in which their children are raised, and they recognize the formative power of family life.

Homeschoolers also point towards community engagement as a benefit. Freed from the restrictions of a normal school day, parents can take their children to visit and learn from local businesses, community organizations, government agencies, and homeschooling support groups. They can ensure that their children are active members of the moral ecology that makes up their community.

Donna Straitiff, a local library director, described the monthly programs that she and her staff put on for homeschooling families. This month she included a demonstration of a 3D printer, and last month a representative from a large soft drinks company attended to discuss recycling.

Researchers at the Institute for Advanced Studies in Culture echo parents’ intuitions about moral ecology in the Culture of American Families report, published in 2012: “It is true that the seedbeds of virtue are found within many overlapping domains that would include the school, peer relationships, places of worship, the internet, and popular culture, but most important of all is the family and its culture. Family culture acts as a filter for the larger culture, and its role in forming character ideals among the young is fundamental and irreducible to other factors. Whether or not parents are deliberate about it, they create a moral ecology through which children come to understand and internalize the moral life of the larger world.”

Homeschoolers, almost invariably, are those who deliberately choose to craft the moral ecology of the home. Given what we know about the impact of moral ecology on a child’s character, it makes sense that parents would want to be deliberate about the task.

Many homeschoolers are inspired to begin homeschooling by the writings of Charlotte Mason, who eloquently contended that, “Education is an atmosphere, a discipline, and a life.” This short introduction offers a view into how a particular approach to home education can shape the moral ecology of the home.

Parent survey points to school climate and culture

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A recent survey at Goetz Middle School in New Jersey shows parents are looking for improved communications with teachers, feedback that underscores the important connection between home and school.

Jackson School District Assistant Superintendent Nicole Pormilli explained to the Asbury Park Press that officials use parental surveys to gain insight into strengths and weaknesses in individual schools, and a recent poll at Goetz suggested ways to improve.

“Most recently, Pormilli said, the input gained from a survey showed parents were seeking more opportunities for communication with teachers and administrators, and a way to improve ‘climate and culture in the school,’” according to the news site.

The feedback prompted school officials to offer parent-teacher conferences at night, better promote back-to-school nights, and expand email contacts. Other survey results prompted an emphasis on “character education—social and emotional learning,” Pormilli said.

A strong connection between schools and parents is critical for not only students’ academic performance, but also their character formation. It may also relate to parental satisfaction.

The Asbury Park Press points to Parental Satisfaction Surveys conducted by Gallup every other year that show three-quarters of parents were “broadly satisfied” with the education of their oldest child in 2016, while about 36% were “completely satisfied.”

Those figures, which have remained fairly stable, include an interesting trend: 28% of public school parents were completely satisfied, compared to 62% of private school parents.

Gallup contends the difference is likely because “private school parents have made a deliberate decision about what school their child attends, and they are free to change it if they aren’t satisfied.”

“It may also reflect something unique about private schools, whether that be a high quality of education, smaller class size, more parent involvement or greater symmetry between the parents’ and school’s values,” according to Gallup.

James Davison Hunter, founder of the Institute for Advanced Studies in Culture, at the University of Virginia noted in The Tragedy of Moral Education in America:

Moral education can work where the community, and schools and other institutions within it, share a moral culture that is integrated and mutually reinforcing; where social networks of adult authority are strong, unified, and consistent in articulating moral ideals and their attending virtues; and where adults maintain a ‘caring watchfulness’ over all aspects of a young person’s maturation.

Family engagement will continue to be of central importance to schools, whether or not parents reflect it in surveys. The Virtual Lab School offers a family engagement framework for teachers and administrators that includes communication strategies and suggestions for working with military families, or those with special needs students and other challenges.

Winning isn’t everything for this sports nonprofit

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The Indianapolis Colts are sponsoring Indiana’s rollout of the InSideOut Initiative to transform the current “win-at-all-costs” sports culture in which value is defined by the scoreboard, into one that defines and promotes sports as a human growth experience.

“Sports engage more individuals, families, and communities in a shared experience than any other cultural activity, organization or religion,” wrote the Indianapolis Recorder.

“For sports to provide students with human growth opportunities and moral development, we must move beyond defining success by the scoreboard and create space in the culture for a higher purpose,” said Jody Redman, InSideOut Initiative co-founder and executive director. “The InSideOut Initiative provides a blueprint for systemic change—and guides communities into reframing the purpose of sports and building a system that focuses on the development of the educational, social, and emotional well-being of each student athlete.”

Bobby Cox, commissioner of the Indiana High School Athletic Association, said, “The InSideOut Initiative stands as a critical opportunity for Indiana high schools to reclaim the narrative about what high school sports and youth sports in general should really be all about. We are excited to continue to implement the InSideOut Initiative in Indiana and enhance the student athlete experience in the Hoosier state.”

Youth sports has evolved into an $8 billion industry that promotes early specialization, private one-on-one coaching, and significant financial and emotional investment by parents. Fewer than 3% of high school athletes, however, go on to play college sports, and fewer than 1% percent of those will play professionally.

Sports provide countless teachable moments and a strong system of authority. In part because of the nature of competition, sports provide a context in which young people can learn what is more important than winning.

Writing in 2000 in The Death of Character, Institute for Advanced Studies in Culture founder James Davison Hunter saw the cultural dynamics that the InSideOut Initiative is seeking to remedy. He writes: “When one couples the steady evacuation of a cultural habitus [i.e., shared assumptions taken for granted about the way the world is and ought to be] with the weakening of key socializing institutions, one has, in effect, undermined the social and cultural conditions necessary for the cultivation of good character.”

As InSideOut’s video states, “The problem with sports today is that we’ve placed the value in all the wrong places.” If you’re interested in bringing InSideOut to your school, check out their implementation pathway.

Leadership academy will thrive on partnership

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Business leaders in Wisconsin have offered to help fund a leadership academy that would “develop a servant leader-minded workforce.”

Festival Foods Board Chairman Dave Skogan asked more than 50 business and community leaders and high school superintendents in the Coulee Region for pledges totaling $600,000 to pay for a character-building curriculum.

The Character Lives curriculum arose from a 2013 survey in which more than 700 employers said they had trouble finding recent grads to hire because, although technically competent, the applicants lacked adaptability, as well as the communication, decision-making, and problem-solving skills needed for the job.

Character Lives brought in John Norlin, co-creator of the CharacterStrong curriculum on which Character Lives is based, to introduce students to the concept and to train teachers. Part of the $600,000 will be used to pay Norlin, a Washington state-based motivational speaker, whose goal is to train 120 teachers before May.

Research shows that if schools teach students only for test scores, they will learn only one-third to one-half of what they need to know, Norlin told the Wisconsin community leaders. He said students can engage in five different conversations on six different platforms on a cell phone, but many are lost when it comes to face-to-face conversations.

“If you ask them to meet someone and talk, it’s like a death sentence,” he said.

Norlin said Character Lives teaches students to relate to each other and develop character, the foundation for improving the community and the world. The idea that leaders are born and not made applies only to a few and lets everyone else off the hook, he said. “We all have skin in this. Personality is a gift. Character is a habit.”

Can an initiative such as Character Lives make a difference in the lives of students? Possibly, answers Institute for Advanced Studies in Culture founder James Davison Hunter, in The Tragedy of Moral Education in America. “[E]vidence suggests that character education programs can work better if children work and live within a moral culture that sets boundaries and offers ideals and makes the moral demands seem to be the way the world is.”

The public-private partnership represented in the proposed leadership academy is one way to help set those boundaries and offer ideals, such as that of servant-leadership for young people.

The Character Lives website, where teachers can learn more about the program, says, “Schools can’t do it alone.” They’re right. It is always the work of a community.

Suspensions plummet in NC school with restorative practices

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A restorative practices program at McDougle Middle School in North Carolina has resulted in a 74% drop in major discipline referrals. That has convinced Chapel Hill-Carrboro City Schools to take the approach in all of their schools.

Language arts teacher Stephen Rayfield and behavior and academic support specialist Wendy York started talking to each other about restorative practices about five years ago, when McDougle had a higher number of in-school suspensions than administrators liked. They talked Principal Robert Bales into sending them to Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, to the International Institute of Restorative Practices graduate school.

Rayfield told the Durham, NC, Herald-Sun that restorative practices draw from Native American and African traditions. “A big part is restorative circles,” he said, “where the wronged and accused come together to discuss how to deal with an offense, or where a whole class can get together to discuss something.”

York said the focus becomes relationships, not punishment or who’s right or wrong. “Now when you’re called down to the discipline office, you’re called down for a conversation” about what happened, who’s been affected, and how to make it right.

As students have become accustomed to the circles, they have asked for particular problems to be addressed. Three years ago, for example, a Latina student who grew tired of hearing slurs asked for a circle to discuss the problem.

McDougle started small but smart—using their “shoestring budget” to send two passionate leaders to learn the system. Restorative practices take time to learn, and after five years of growth, now other schools are ready to begin.

James Davison Hunter, founder of the Institute for Advanced Studies in Culture at the University of Virginia,  notes in The Tragedy of Moral Education in America that “The components of morality are expressed in a community’s institutions, including its moral rules.” Hunter continued, “When it functions well, our moral culture binds us, compels us, in ways of which we are not fully aware.”

Restorative practices reform teachers’ and students’ expectations.  Students know that they must both listen and speak and that the offender bears responsibility for making amends. The moral culture is starting to compel them in powerful ways.

The International Institute for Restorative Practices in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, is the world’s leading provider of professional development, conferences, and symposia in the field of restorative practices. They offer graduate degrees and certificates, continuing education, and trainer licensing programs.

College sophomore inspired to employ refugees

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Riley Benner, a sophomore at College of the Holy Cross, was inspired by a panel discussion on challenges facing refugees to be part of the solution. With the help of several funding streams, he’s restarting Phoenix Haberdashery, employing refugees who make handmade reversible ties.

The Catholic Courier interviewed Benner to learn more about Phoenix Haberdashery and his motivation for starting the venture.

While adjusting to life as a freshman at Holy Cross, Benner attended a panel discussion that reminded him of the countless adversities faced by refugees. “The stories that I heard reminded me that when we picture refugees, we falsely imagine a mass of people hoping to hoard into our country and disturb our system,” he said.

The panel also demonstrated that the current refugee crisis was not something only playing out across the ocean or in distant lands. In fact, Worcester, Massachusetts, where Holy Cross is located, is the new home for many refugees and their families.

Undergraduates are provided plenty of time to think about such problems, but Benner was driven to do something further. He was driven to act.

Also, he was uniquely positioned to help in that he had owned and operated Phoenix Haberdashery during high school. Then, and now, the business employed refugees to manufacture reversible ties for sale. Upon entering college, he had assumed that he would be too busy with his studies to also handle the business. He had closed it down with regret.

Benner raised startup capitol through an entrepreneurship program at Holy Cross and Kickstarter to get the business back off the ground. As of mid-December 2017 he had acquired the funds necessary to begin hiring.

As rosy as the story has been thus far, it is worth remembering that the work hasn’t been easy. Benner says he has been burning the candle at both ends to meet his responsibilities at school and at work. It is clear that this college student is equipped with both a clear vision to orient his life and also the discipline to see this vision through.

In an age when simply clicking “Like” on a post about a social problems can be seen as enough, Benner is a reminder of the true nature of compassion. Though we can’t solve problems like the refugee crisis ourselves, “we still have a duty to help,” he says.

Benner exhibits what Institute for Advanced Studies in Culture founder James Davison Hunter calls moral attachment in The Tragedy of Moral Education in America. It’s a strong “yes” that “reflects the affirmation of our commitments to a larger community, the embrace of an ideal that attracts us, draws us, animates us, inspires us.” Benner also demonstrates what Hunter calls moral autonomy—doing good without anyone telling him to do it. Benner isn’t doing this for community service hours, or for a class project. He’s putting in the hours late at night because of his commitment to do what is in his power to empower refugees in his community.

Benner’s ties are available at Phoenix Haberdashery, and each one ships with the story of the seamstress who made it.

Resources from the Jubilee Centre can help students develop moral attachment and moral autonomy through practicing care for others in their communities.

EL Schools leave their mark on students

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Inspired by the hit musical, Hamilton, 5th-graders at Two Rivers Public Charter School in Washington, DC. spent weeks researching colonial history and composing rap songs to explain what they learned about the period. In their EL School, this is how deep learning happens, and the projects leave a mark on students beyond just the content that is absorbed.

EL Education is a New York-based nonprofit that supports 165 schools in 30 states to implement EL’s model. Kate Stringer, writing for The 74, reported on EL’s model, which is grounded in “content, character, and craftsmanship.” EL Schools weave these three Cs throughout all of their students’ learning.

The Hamilton-inspired project, and others like it, are known as “expeditions.” Stringer explains that expeditions are processes, “of inquiry, discovery, and creativity . . . [and that] teachers and leaders say this form of whole-child, project-based learning is the key to the network’s success across geographies and socioeconomic backgrounds, reaching more than 50,000 students last year, and 1 million in its history.

Expeditions provide a singular opportunity for character formation. Stringer says of the projects, “[I]t’s not enough to simply learn about a subject and create a project. EL students are expected to give back to the communities they learn from, so many of the projects are designed as lessons that students can use to share their newfound knowledge.”

In this way the students begin to see how character is a concept that permeates their life. It has an impact not only on their academic work and success but also in the ways that they treat others and contribute to their community.

Ron Berger, chief academic officer of EL Education says, “Once a child finishes her schooling and enters her adult life . . . for the rest of her life she will not be judged by test scores. She will be judged by the quality of work that she does and the quality of person that she is”

In a presentation at the Institute for Advanced Studies in Culture, David Brooks argued that some people find balance in their life through living in “dense organizations . . . some schools are thick and they do leave a mark.”

Dr. Ashley Berner of the Johns Hopkins School of Education delves into school culture in Pluralism and American Public Education: No One Way to School, “A strong school culture means something very different from a friendly school, or a high-achieving school, or a school with few discipline problems. Rather, it means a school where the moral vocabulary, rituals, discipline, academic expectations, and relationships align. Such a school can define its mission, hire faculty, and attract students and parents based upon a shared vision.”

EL Schools provide this coherence through their learning expeditions. Students know that they will be judged by the quality of their work, the depth of their knowledge, and their content of their character. This school culture makes all the difference.

Becoming an EL School is a slow process—often taking four to five years—because culture changes take time. But thick cultures leave their mark and can have an impact on students through their life.

What is calculus courage?

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Destiny, a junior at Springfield Renaissance School, stands at the whiteboard in her math class and tells her classmates, “I’m not sure if this is right.” Admitting such vulnerability, especially as a high school junior, takes courage. Destiny is lucky that her school is forging ahead to try and intentionally form courage in all the members of its community, teachers, and students alike.

Ron Berger, chief academic officer of EL Education, which partners with Springfield, described the approach that EL partner schools take to cultivating “differentiated courage.”

It’s a natural reaction to walk into a successful school, such as Springfield, and wonder what the “secret sauce” is to get 98% of your students graduating on time and 100% of graduates accepted into college. Berger’s answer is, “many things. But one of the most important factors is academic courage.”

Berger explains that EL Schools have an understanding of courage, what they call “differentiated courage,” that they think helps students intuitively connect with the concept and apply it to their own lives. For instance, some people show courage through their service in the armed forces, and others exemplify it by taking the stage in front of an audience. Berger clarifies, “We all have courage in certain realms and less in others. And we can all work on our courage where we need it.”

Berger has seen this understanding and approach to building courage have an impact across EL’s schools. Students begin to see that school provides a breadth of opportunities to display courage, “science courage . . . art courage, or their Shakespeare courage.”

Berger elaborates on the specific case of Destiny and calculus courage, “It means you don’t hide in calculus class, pretending you understand things when you don’t, or pretending you’re too cool to care about the work. It means you take the risk to raise your hand and ask questions, to share your thinking with others, to take critique from peers.”

While some critics might argue that it’s questionable whether or not courage is a virtue that can be formed, Berger says it one hundred percent can be and it should be. He says, “Cultivating courage in students must start with teachers. In fact, the best way for students to learn it is for teachers to model it.”

In EL Schools, teachers lead by admitting their own learning struggles, and then the class courageously works together to master bodies of knowledge that still perplex them. In this way, teachers can not only teach the content but model the virtues of humility and courage that their students will need to take the same learning journey.

Courage and humility are not formed in social isolation. Children need role models to orient themselves to when they are in the initial stages of understanding a virtue like courage. Institute for Advanced Studies in Culture founder James Davison Hunter explains in The Death of Character, “Character is not . . . solitary, autonomous, unconstrained; merely a set of traits within a unique and unencumbered personality. Character is very much social in its constitution. It is inseparable from the culture within which it is found and formed.”

The Renaissance School shapes culture by beginning with teachers, and the students learn by practice. There is hardly a better recipe for learning.

EL Schools offers recommendations for building a culture of grappling to help educators build courage in themselves and in their students, whether for calculus or public speaking or essay-writing.