Month: March 2018

Family’s grief over son’s suicide from bullying sparks movement to change school culture

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The suicide of a 12-year-old Mississippi boy who was relentlessly tormented by school bullies is sparking a movement to divert more money to anti-bullying programs.

Cheryl Hudson told WMC Action News her son Andy Leach was teased relentlessly by kids at Southhaven Middle School – mocked as fat, ugly and worthless – and she believes it’s directly to blame for his suicide.

Her other son found Andy’s lifeless body hanging in a room at his father’s house in March.

“One minute I feel like I’m numb. The next minute I break down,” she said. “I can’t fathom another parent having to put their child in the ground the way we just did.”

Hudson channeled the grief of her son’s loss into “Andy’s Voice,” a foundation dedicated to suicide prevention and anti-bullying efforts.

Cheryl and her husband Matthew announced the new mission at a recent rally that drew dozens of folks who celebrated Andy’s life and offered messages of hope, WMC reports.

The audience included DeSoto County District 7 state Rep. Steve Hopkins, who told the news site he plans to introduce a bill called “Andy’s Law” to create a special fund to collect profits from state lotteries to fund anti-bullying programs.

“That money would be one of the sole purposes of helping our schools, resource officers, counseling, training with anti-bullying programs,” Hopkins said. “Everything that’s available to address the situations in our schools today.”

“With the representatives that we have here, with the amount of people that we have here, the noise is getting louder for change in Mississippi and that’s what we want to do,” Matthew Hudson told folks at the rally.

“This is such a big deal, not just in DeSoto County but everywhere,” Cheryl Hudson said, “and we need to start right here in our backyard and grow from there.”

While there are surveys that suggest that bullying in public schools is decreasing, Professor James Hunter of the Institute for Advanced Studies in Culture reminds us, “We can only care for the young in their particularity.” There are no generalizable abstractions or one-size-fits-all solutions to bullying. Every school culture in its particular moral ecology must be addressed. Hunter continues, “If we are not attentive to and understanding of these contexts, we are not caring for real, live human beings, but rather abstractions that actually don’t exist at all.” These parents are to be celebrated for turning their pain into concrete programs of action.

For more on creating a strong moral ecology in schools, see The Content of Their Character.

For teachers and principals interested in student moral and character formation, information can be found at the UK’s Jubilee Centre website.

 

College athletes visit MT schools to inspire students with messages about character, core values

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Young students in Billings, Montana are soaking up lessons about character and leadership from college athletes they look up to – an initiative aimed at helping students visualize their goals becoming a reality.

The Billings Chamber of Commerce’s Champions of Character program capitalized on Montana’s first opportunity to host a national basketball championship – the 37th National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics women’s tournament – to connect Billings-area elementary students with the athletes they admire, the Billings Gazette reports.

In mid-March, players from each tournament qualifier attended school assemblies, read with area students and played a little basketball with youngsters while sharing the important elements of their success.

“We (asked players) to talk about hard work, character and the importance of education,” Billings Chamber of Commerce Communications Manager Kelly McCandless told the news site.

At Beartooth Elementary, members of the Cumberland University’s women’s basketball team were greeted with enthusiasm as they spoke with students about the values that guides their success.

Few things bolster a school’s moral ecology more than the example of positive peer role models. What makes this initiative so important is that it not only highlighted “cool kids.” But it did so in the context of discussions about specific core values. Researchers at the Institute for Advanced Studies in Culture found that “The schools seemed generally successful in creating a compelling moral environment and a binding moral order for their students… when students bought into the moral logic of the school.” Student buy-in is critical and this program only serves to enhance this dynamic.

“One by one, the team introduced themselves and explained five core values: respect, responsibility, sportsmanship, integrity and servant leadership,” KULR reports.

“Students in elementary school look up to pros and things like that and take their glorified position and not understand what it takes to get there,” Cumberland player Cydney Goodrum told the news site.

Athletes with the University of Science and Arts of Oklahoma, meanwhile, met with students at Ben Steele Middle School to offer inspiration.

“It’s really cool to see many younger kids wanting to get involved and play,” Oklahoma athlete Becca Worthy said. “We were there once and it’s really cool to see high school and college kids come and show that it’s possible to be where you wanna be and follow your dream, if that’s what you want to do, you can make it happen.”

A total of 3,000 college athletes participated in the NAIA tournament, many stopping in at other Billings schools including Big Sky, Poly Drive, and Highland elementary schools.

For teachers and principals interested in student moral and character formation, information can be found at the UK’s Jubilee Centre website.

Canadian grad student studies impact of youth programs on social, emotional development

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A Canadian graduate student at Cape Breton University is studying whether youth programs in her community are helping students develop social and emotional skills.

Sheryl Fogarty, a senior psychology honors student, focused her thesis “Efficacy of Community Youth Programs on the Development of Social and Emotional Skills” on students in Whitney Pier, Nova Scotia, and their involvement with the Whitney Pier Youth Club.

According to the Cape Breton Post:

As part of the study, participants have been divided in two categories: Youth who are already taking part in the club’s programs and those who are wait-listed. …

Fogarty has hypothesized that students involved in the program will show a statistically significant increase in social/emotional skills compared to wait-listed students, as a result of being involved in youth programming.

Fogarty, a 35-year-old mother of two who grew up in Whitney Pier, previously worked in the mental health field, and she’s hoping the research will educate the public about the importance of positive youth programs and attract funding to support them.

“We really wanted to use the wait-list group versus the children who have been in the program – matched on age and gender – so we sort of used (the wait-listed) as a quasi-control group,” Fogarty told the Post. “We’re looking at group differences, not individual differences.”

About 30 students involved in the club volunteered to fill out questionnaires during the first phase of the study. Fogarty plans to carry out a second phase in the coming months, and to continue her work after graduation in May.

Fogarty said she was drawn to the research because she believes social and emotional learning is critical for young kids, and it’s not something that’s commonly taught in Canadian schools.

“Social and emotional learning to me was something that is a necessary skill and it’s very important for development and for understanding our emotions, managing our emotions, feeling empathy for others, creating positive relationships and responsible decision making,” she said.

“That really stuck with me. I really felt like that was something that was important for youth and something that wasn’t necessarily being taught, and definitely not taught in schools,” Fogarty added. “These types of youth development programs offer a lot of the opportunities that help to foster those skills.”

There are reasons why the “non-cognitive” aspects of child development have not been adequately explored. Researches at the Institute for Advanced Studies in Culture identified two. There is “the sense that these attributes are ‘soft’ and difficult to measure” and are also “centrally involve moral issues that can be politically sensitive in a diverse society.” Researchers state bluntly, “Even the most ‘rational’ or calculating spheres of modern life are built upon ‘nonrational’ foundations.” Clearly the development of these skills is a necessary developmental foundation for further moral instruction and so this research is timely and welcome.

For more information about the distinction between non-cognitive development and the default psychologistic account to moral formation, see The Content of Their Character.

For teachers and principals interested in knowing more about character and citizenship formation, information can be found at the UK’s Jubilee Centre.

 

‘Peace teacher’ highlights how social and emotional learning impacts school culture, safety

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Linda Ryden is a “peace teacher” at Lafayette Elementary School, and she contends her job “has never felt so important.”

Ryden recently explained her unique role at the Washington, D.C. school in a column for The Washington Post, detailing how her work to resolve conflicts between students ultimately developed into something more profound.

“I started out 15 years ago teaching conflict resolution, but I realized that children had a hard time remembering how to use conflict resolution skills when they are in a real conflict and are actually angry. They didn’t have any skills to help them recognize their emotions and calm down enough to work things out peacefully,” Ryden wrote. “This is what led me to bring mindfulness into my classes.”

Years ago, students dubbed Ryden the ‘peace teacher,’ a title she’s embraced.

Ryden argues that recent school shootings highlight the importance of teaching students to make good decisions and maintain healthy relationships – a realization that’s also fueling interest in social and emotional learning programs in schools nationwide.

At Lafayette Elementary, Ryden explained that her sole focus is to help students to process their emotions to maintain their composure and share kindness and compassion with their classmates. Through individual talks, a weekly peace class for all of the school’s 500 students, and other measures, students are learning to think before they act and work out their problems peacefully.

“What started out as a little experiment quickly grew into a schoolwide program with all classroom teachers leading daily ‘mindful moments,’” Ryden wrote. “We even have an alternative recess space called ‘peace club,’ where kids can go do decompress.”

“In class, we turn out the lights, and I tell students to count breaths or focus on one of their five senses. It calms them down and allows them to connect with their emotions and think about their bodies. They become more aware of their feelings and learn how to recognize anxious thoughts but not be consumed by them — the foundation of emotional smarts,” she wrote.

After only one year, the results have been encouraging. Researchers at the Institute for Advanced Studies in Culture can help explain why. Two important aspects are demonstrated here. First, individual character change happens when there is change in the surrounding culture. Many character programs wrongly focus merely on the individual. But individual character change happens when the group is aligned. So the fact that the weekly peace class is offered to all of the school’s 500 students is significant.

Second, too many character programs focus on the psychological preconditions or the thinking processes without any content specific moral direction. Here the focus on mindfulness is coupled with an emphasis on kindness and compassion. It is not a morally neutral process but one with content and direction. The proof is in their outcomes. For more on this perspective on character formation see James Davison Hunter’s book, The Death of Character: Moral Education in an Age Without Good or Evil.

Reports of fights and bullying are down, and Ryden contends students are more focused and calmer, kinder and more compassionate.

“Some students started telling me they were even doing (mindfulness practices) at home to relax or fall asleep at night,” Ryden wrote. “Kids said mindfulness made them feel kinder, less nervous, more confident and better rested.”

She believes the focus on mindfulness, as well as character virtues like kindness and compassion, deserve as much attention in helping to protect students against school shooters and other threats as increased security measures and armed officers.

“I see schools spending more and more money on guards and staff whose sole purpose is to break up fights and discipline kids. Instead, how about getting to the root of these problems?” Ryden questioned. “Yes, we must make sure our schools are physically safe. But we also need to be sure our kids have the skills to deal with these difficult emotional times.

“Of course, no amount of school-based intervention can completely compensate for serious problems in the home or the community, but I believe we owe it to our students to give their hearts as much attention as we give their heads.”

The UK’s Jubilee Centre for Character and Virtues provides resources for educators on character formation curriculum.

 

Cincinnati arts and technology program helps students refocus their lives

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Students attending the Cincinnati Arts and Technology Studios are getting a second chance at graduating high school, along with lessons about character many are carrying with them to college.

Aislynn Bell told the Cincinnati Business Courier she came to CATS for education and training services, but later discovered the program offered much more than practical skills.

“I needed guidance and I needed some discipline and I needed a path to follow,” she said. “It gave me a goal. It gave me something to shoot for.”

CATS isn’t technically a high school, but rather a “credit recovery program” for teens at risk of not graduating on time.

“We’re using the visual arts to reconnect disenfranchised students,” said CATS CEO Clara Martin, a former Cincinnati Public Schools teacher. “The public high school can definitely provide the core curriculum, but if they need that elective credit in fine arts, they can come here to get that at off times.”

According to the Business Courier:

ATS’ mission is to give urban teens from across the region a chance to become productive citizens by providing arts education as motivation to stay in school, graduate and advance to higher learning. It offers five studio courses in tandem with character building, and through its Bridging the Gap program, it offers education and training services to graduates. These services provide a chance to change their lives when unemployment is a reality. 

Bell, a 2014 graduate who followed CATS’ digital multimedia track, also used the Bridging the Gap program to become a patient care assistant at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital. She said CATS offered a different experience that allowed students to own their work, while helping them to improve it.

“My favorite thing about it is they don’t tell you how to edit your picture; they teach you how to edit how you want to do it,” she said.

Researchers at the Institute for Advanced Studies in Culture commend programs of this type that use visual and fine arts. By their very nature these disciplines engage the more holistic right-brain phenomena. Rather than demanding or encouraging right and wrong answers, this participation in the arts takes the student’s own voice seriously. This is something that is often in short supply in the worlds in which they have been raised. This sense of ownership and voice strengthens their sense of agency. With agency comes hope that they can overcome their circumstances.

And while strengthening agency, they are also infusing the art with content specific virtues. These exercises are more than “pedagogies of permission,” that simply foster the unconstrained individual will. For more on the danger of “pedagogies of permission,” see The Tragedy of Moral Education in America.

CATS infuses art and technology lessons with a focus on character virtues like citizenship, perseverance, accountability, and the importance of higher education, while an ancillary Bridging the Gap component offers students training on everything from interviewing skills and email etiquette to certification training for nursing, manufacturing, construction, financial and other professions.

As the CATS program celebrates 15 years in downtown Cincinnati, many graduates returned to speak with current students about how the program changed their perspective on life.

“I feel like having the time and the ability to share my experience with these kids will give them a different outlook and a different way to see the program as a whole,” Ellen Pierce, a 23-year-old who went through the Bridging the Gap program, told students. “This could really lead to life-changing events.”

Pierce said she turned to CATS when she needed credit to graduate from Clark Montessori High School in 2012. Her success in the program gave her the confidence to become a State Tested Nursing Assistant through Bridging the Gap, and to earn a double-major at the University of Cincinnati. She now works two jobs, one at the Lindner Center of HOPE and another at the Cincinnati Children’s Hospital.

“If I didn’t get the credit, I wouldn’t have graduated on time,” she said. “That most definitely would have killed my self-esteem and my drive to keep going with life. If I wasn’t going to take the (State Tested Nursing Assistant) class to be certified, I probably wouldn’t have worked at Children’s.”

Educators and education leaders who are interested in the type of strategies used in the CATS program in Cleveland can learn more by going to

NY preschoolers learn to manage their emotions with PEDALS program

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Students at St. James Head Start in Depew, New York are learning to manage their emotions with coping mechanisms teacher Allan Hittle said they’ll likely rely on throughout their educational careers.

Hittle and other teachers at St. James are using a program called PEDALS – an acronym for Positive Emotional Development and Learning Skills – to help students aged three to five adjust to life at school by working through their feelings in fun and engaging ways, WBFO reports.

“We had a lot of behavior issues at the beginning of the year when kids would first come in and had no school at all and then working through, with the program, you can see change almost immediately,” Hittle said. “There’s a lot of catchy music and puppets and stuff, so they get into it immediately.”

The teacher explained that PEDALS focuses on helping youngsters recognize and identify their emotions, as well as the emotions of their friends and teachers, to guide how they interact with others. Hittle said preschool is the perfect time to introduce the character education program because students

“Three year olds are very self-centered – not in a bad way, but they really only care about themselves and how they feel. Somewhere between three and five they learn that they’re not really the center of their universe – there’s other people, they make friends,” he said.

“I think making a friend and seeing a friend get sad or mad and learning they have that same kind of feelings you have kind of really opens it up.”

St. James principal Kathy Karan contends students catch on quickly.

“I’ve been involved with the PEDALS program since its inception,” she said, adding that all classes at St. James use the program. “I’ve seen a growth from day one with these children.”

PEDALS is run through the Health Foundation of Western and Central New York with funding from the Tower Foundation. It’s currently in use in more than 150 classrooms, including many preschools in Erie and Niagara counties, reaching more than 4,500 students.

The intent, Karan said, is to help students learn to manage their emotions while they’re young, a skill that will undoubtedly help them in school for years to come.

“If you can deal with your problems now and your feelings now, and you can get a handle on that – you’re just going to flourish so much more in life and just be able to cope,” she said. “Coping mechanisms is such an important part for these children and their daily lives here. They need to start now to be able to get those mental feelings they deal with when they go to kindergarten.”

“It’s such a big topic in education right now, because even just five years ago it really wasn’t, so hopefully giving these kids all these tools – learning to be kind to each other or even just learning how to handle their own emotions if someone isn’t kind to you – hopefully will open up a bunch of doors for these children,” Karan said.

While there is much value in early childhood education that includes appropriate socialization, the fostering of non-cognitive skills is a critical foundation for subsequent moral formation. Empathy places a priority and an awareness of others and their feelings. The development of these skills is critical. James Hunter and Ryan Olson write, “By ‘non-cognitive,’ scholars and educators tend to mean the attitudes, behaviors, and strategies that are believed to underpin the success in school and at work—capacities such as self-motivation, perseverance, and self-control, but also empathy, honesty, truthfulness, and character more broadly…. Surely the instinct is a good one: For children to flourish in schools and in their future lives, it is essential that these dimensions of their lives be developed too.”

Educators and education leaders interested in the PEDALS program may find out more by viewing the PEDAL’s website.

 

Private school officials discuss how faith shapes school culture, breeds academic success

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St. Joseph Catholic School Principal Wade Laffey wants parents to know that the private religious school is more than a public school with a religion class.

“The faith and the catholicity of the school just appears throughout the day in the form of prayer, in the form of the type of uniform the students wear, to the morals and behaviors that are expected of the students and families,” Laffey told the Enid News & Eagle.

Laffey and other religious school leaders recently spoke with the news site about the benefits of a school culture steeped in strongly held religious beliefs, including ways it improves student discipline, engages parents, and encourages students to excel in academics.

Lois Nichols of St. Paul’s Lutheran School explained that the school’s focus on the love of God plays an important role, allowing misbehaving students to reflect on what Jesus would do and how their actions impact others.

“Most of the time they step up to the plate and change that behavior … it is very effective,” Nichols said.

At both St. Joseph and St. Paul’s, parents are also expected to invest in their child’s education through volunteer work, such as serving lunch, tutoring students, and helping with fundraising and school events.

“The students see that, they see the sacrifices that their parents are making for them,” Laffey told the News & Eagle. “That just helps to create that much more of an environment where students realize, ‘We must be worth caring about.’”

Small class sizes at many private religious schools also allows educators to provide more attention to each student than in other schools with large classes, Nichols said.

“The nicest thing about it is that each teacher works really hard with each individual student to make sure their needs are met,” he said.

The combination of factors – a school culture centered on religious beliefs, led by adults with a shared set of values, along with small classes that help teachers focus on each student’s needs – produces students who excel in academics and life.

Researchers at the Institute for Advanced Studies in Culture agree that the holistic approach being adopted by these schools is what makes them uniquely effective in character formation. Values when influential are not generic. Professor James Davison Hunter writes, “No one has ever believed in kindness or honesty without understanding them in the concrete circumstances of a moral culture embedded in a moral community.”  Only the particularity of moral community, such as those that these religious schools provide, can bind empathy with right behavior. This is further explained in the brief monograph, The Tragedy of Moral Education in America, which is itself a shortened version of Hunter’s The Death of Character: Moral Education in an Age Without Good or Evil. Creating a moral culture embedded in community is key.

St. Joseph serves students through fifth grade, while St. Paul offers instruction through eighth grade. And it’s when students move on to high school that some of the biggest benefits of a religious education come into focus, Laffey and Nichols said.

“Every other school in town wants the St. Joe’s kids,” Laffey said. “More often than not, they’re placed in honors classes and advanced curriculum.”

“We have kids that score higher above most public schools because of the small classrooms and individualized attention,” Nichols added.

Principals and other education leaders interested in strengthening Roman Catholic teachers in their schools can turn to the National Catholic Education Association for support.

 

Vincencia Nyaminde on “School success is about culture not just academics”

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Vincencia Nyaminde, is a teacher at a Bridge International Academies primary school in Kenya. She teaches children in their last year of primary school, and uses an e-reader with detailed lesson guides to help her prepare and deliver classes. This is her story of how she is bringing high quality learning to some of the poorest children in sub-Saharan Africa, a region of the world where 9 out of 10 children reach the end of primary school age unable to read or do basic maths.

 

They say that doing what you like is freedom while liking what you do is happiness, an adage that tells my story since joining Bridge.

After I graduated from the government’s teacher training college in 2017, I joined a low cost private school within my local community, and things were a bit challenging. There were too many pupils in the class and no materials. From payment to teacher motivation, there were difficulties and teachers often missed school.

I wanted to join Bridge International Academies, an institution with a strong organizational culture where those in the school feel more like a family. The bond at Bridge and the feeling of being appreciated  is comparable to none. And they have tackled the challenges of class sizes, learner materials and training, issues which are important to address in Kenya. So, because you are not worrying about everything else you have a culture where teachers and pupils take responsibility for learning. And, you know that you are teaching pupils important values about life, not just academics.

My move to Bridge was not in vain, I handled the class eight pupils, the most senior group at the primary school level. It was a duty I took with zeal and my efforts were rewarded through children like Vanessa Mueni who was the best female candidate among all Bridge schools in the 2017 KCPE and who went on to a prestigious national secondary school.

Success can be measured not only by the excellent marks that students like Vanessa Mueni are earning, but by changes in their persons and joy in learning. I have seen pupils who are shy with low self-esteem wanting to answer with a smile on their faces.  At my school,  creating this culture is important in the same way academics is important.

How can we do both when there is so much to do –  teacher guides. They simplify my work so, I have enough room to support children in their areas of struggle.  This means that I can offer remedial classes to slow learners to ensure they keep up with the fast learners. With Bridge’s method of teaching I have been able to get a deeper understanding of my pupils’ abilities. My day in Bridge has never gone to waste. I see growth in my pupils as the days go by. I have seen pupils who are shy and with low self-esteem wanting to answer with a smile on their faces. And I get some lessons myself to improve my teaching from teachers with more experience.

It is always fulfilling when learners perform well in school but most importantly to see pupils, whose childhood dreams were almost reduced to hallucinations, believing in their dreams once more. This is the power of school culture to help me as a teacher and my students for learning and success in Kenya.

Tom Vander Ark on “How shared values at DSST shape youth development”

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During her critical high school years, Karen (middle above) missed a lot of school attending medical appointments with her mother who spoke limited English. Karen attended to translate but often felt inadequate to the task given the technical terminology.

Karen discussed the challenges with Jeremy Wickenheiser who directs Entrepreneurial Studies at DSST Public Schools, a high performing network of secondary schools in Denver. Wickenheiser encouraged Karen to recruit two colleagues and delve deeper into the problem.

“These students identified a very real problem that they became experts in,” said Jeremy. “They did over 60 interviews with community members, hospitals, and clinics. As a result, they learned that existing solutions for translation and interpretation services are not effective.”

Karen and her classmates turned the problem into a business proposal for a startup called Aorta. The project was particular to Karen’s challenge but typical of the work students do at DSST. “Each of our business consulting or new venture creation projects demonstrate creativity, problem-solving, critical thinking, and an entrepreneurial mindset,” said Jeremy.

Shared Values at DSST

The STEM-focused (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math) schools send all of their graduates to four year colleges. DSST not only delivers on academic results but prepares young people for careers and civic contribution.

Shared values are central to life and learning at DSST. “We’re a values first organization,” said CEO Bill Kurtz. The shared values are alive in the DSST culture, practiced in the advisory system, and applied in real life learning opportunities.

The six values at the heart of DSST include:

Respect:

  • Appreciating the value of a person or an object through your words,
  • actions and attitude—treating people appropriately with common courtesy.

Responsibility:

  • Able to be trusted and or depended upon to complete tasks, follow directions and own up to your actions.

Integrity:

  • Being truthful, fair and trustworthy in your words and actions
  • doing as you say and saying as you do.

Courage:

  • Possessing confidence and resolve to take risks and make right decisions in the face of pressure and adverse or unfamiliar circumstances.

Curiosity:

  • Eager to learn, explore and question things to gain a deeper understanding.

Doing Your Best:

  • Putting your best effort into everything you do.

“Each human being strives to be fully known and affirmed for who they are and to contribute something significant to the human story,” said Kurtz. These values that encourage courage, curiosity, and contribution are visibly present in all DSST schools.

A morning meeting (below) kicks off the day at Stapleton Middle School (feeder to the flagship DSST high school). It proves a quick check in a reinforcement of shared values. During an advisory period, students receive individual feedback on how they are living the shared values.

“Our program is really built around three things,” Wickenheiser said, “‘Who am I?, How am I going to create impact?, and How can I start now?

Each junior completes an internship. Seniors frequently take the knowledge and relationships from their internship to develop a senior project like Karen’s startup proposal.

Through visual aids, cultural practices, regular feedback, and application opportunities, DSST students develop important values and habits of mind that will serve them for life.

Dr. Beth Green on “Do as I say not as I do”

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Author: Dr. Beth Green Director, Cardus Education

Biographical Note: Beth Green is Program Director of Cardus Education. She previously directed the National Centre for Christian Education at Liverpool Hope University in the United Kingdom where she also ran the Professional Doctorate in Education (EdD). Dr Green has a DPhil from the University of Oxford which was funded by a prestigious Economic and Research Council Scholarship; she is a Fellow of the Royal Society of the Arts and also a graduate of Cambridge and London Universities. Dr. Green took the Hans Prize in Education for her MA thesis in Education Management. Dr. Green has an international reputation for her expertise in religious school ethos; leadership and management; teaching and learning and social theory in education. She regularly publishes her empirical research in international journals including the British Journal of Sociology and Education and the Cambridge Journal of Education. Her consultancy regularly takes her to Europe and Australia where she advises on effective approaches to measurement, professional development, and pedagogy in the religious school sector. Dr. Green is a former high school history teacher who has worked in both government and non-government schools in the UK.

 

‘Do as I say as not as I do’ is the familiar adage of weary parents, teachers and leaders. The problem is that the growing body of research into teaching, learning and moral formation shows us that telling people what to do is the least effective way for them to learn. Research at Cardus Education into graduate outcomes and the mission of schools repeatedly demonstrates that practices orientated towards a clearly defined moral vision shapes the character of students. In other words, the kind of school you attend makes a measureable difference to your moral beliefs and behaviors as an adult.

Character, ‘that ability to dig down and find the strength even when things are going against you’ grows out of a mindset that follows you through life (Dweck, 2016, p42). One of the issues facing Christian schools in North America is that they can no longer count on the fact that the character shaping habits traditionally associated with moral and religious formation are happening at home.

This trend is still catching us out, but it isn’t necessarily that people care less about finding the strength to live well. So what if the answer is a combination of rediscovering old habits, developing some new ones and creating the opportunities to practice character formation in a new location – within teaching and learning?

Cardus education has been working with schools who belong to the Prairie Centre for Christian Education in Alberta to help them to identify character forming perspectives and practices in their own learning communities. The survey data we collect for them supports annual reviews and peer learning for leaders. It has informed some intentional choices about how to do teaching and learning and build community life differently. For example, one school has appointed a storyteller to bridge the gaps between how the mission of the school is perceived by students, parents and the wider community. Another school discovered that students were not reading the bible at home and so reorganized the curriculum to encourage parents and students to read it together, regularly. Another school has created liturgies of devotion and prayer in the daily order of the day because students did not have the opportunity to participate in these practices at home.

Our next step is to refine our survey tool so that it collects and provides feedback to individual students about their own character formation in the context of the faith. We believe that recovering for students the experience of being responsible for shaping their own character is vital. It certainly moves us beyond wearily telling them to do the things that our culture is no longer doing.

Note: Cardus Education is pleased to be working in partnership with the Kuyers Institute for Christian Teaching and Learning at Calvin College on this initiative and you can contact either Dr. Beth Green or Dr. David Smith for more information.

 

 

©2017 Advanced Studies in Culture

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