highschool

California school district works with nonprofit to fight ‘culture of go, go, go,’

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The Newport-Mesa Unified School District is considering recommendations from a California nonprofit about how to de-stress students in an increasingly competitive academic environment.

Challenge Success, based in Stanford, helps more than 150 schools across the country strategize ways to reduce the burden on students and allow them to focus on other aspects of building a successful life, according to the Los Angeles Times.

“We’re fighting against a culture of go, go, go where schools are busier than we ever have been before,” Challenge Success program director Margaret Dunlap told Newport-Mesa school board members.

The Challenge Success website contends the “largely singular focus on academic achievement has resulted in a lack of attention to other components of a successful life – the ability to be independent, adaptable, ethical and engaged critical thinkers.”

“The overemphasis on grades, test scores and rote answers has stressed out some kids and marginalized many others,” according to the site.

Dunlap is working with several high schools in the Newport-Mesa district to collaborate with parents and students to develop their own plan of action to address the issue, through things like reduced homework policies, no homework nights, limits on time spent on sports, revised grading policies, and “dialogue nights” between students, parents and school officials, the Times reports.

“We don’t have a one-size-fits-all curriculum,” Dunlap said.

Other potential changes, such as an earlier start to the school year, will require district officials to negotiate with union leaders to modify the district’s collective bargaining agreement.

Teams of volunteers – eight to 10 parents of school faculty – will also attend Challenge Success conferences in the spring and fall to brainstorm ideas and craft action plans. In the meantime, district officials are distributing information from Challenge success about research on homework and cheating, with ideas about how to limit stress on students.

“Parents are anxious to learn – they have their own stress built in,” said Charlene Metoyer, vice president of the Newport-Mesa school board.

James Hunter at the Institute for Advanced Studies in Culture supports this sentiment: “One cannot understand character outside of culture, and culture matters decisively” (The Tragedy of Moral Education in America, p. 6). The question then becomes what is the shared vision of moral goods shared by a particular community.

Teachers and principals in thinking about whether academic studies override the school’s efforts to instill positive moral and character development in students can find useful information at the UK’s The Jubilee Centre by reading the Jubilee Centre’s document, Character Education: Evaluation for Schools.

Missouri teen refocuses on character in high school to earn appointment to U.S. Air Force Academy

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Republic High School senior Noah Johnson described himself as a lost “troublemaker” in middle school, but he’s transformed his character over the last five years to forge a different path.

“Before high school, I was not the best student. In eighth grade, I decided to turn my life around,” Johnson told the Springfield News-Leader. “I realized I had potential to do things, to go places, if I just tried. I came to the high school with the mindset that I needed to start fresh.”

This transformation began with a decision, was surrounded by encouragement, and focused on a goal. Noah is seen as stepping into a larger story and this is crucial for character development. James Davison Hunter, founder of the Institute for Advanced Studies in Culture, writes in The Tragedy of Moral Education in America, “Implicit in the word character is a story. It is a story about living for a purpose that is greater than the self. Though this purpose resides deeply within, its origins are outside the self, and so it beckons one forward, channeling one’s passions to mostly quiet acts of devotion, heroism, sacrifice, and achievement.”

The Missouri teen joined the Republic High School Junior Reserve Officer Training Corps (ROTC), and focused on his studies. His humble dedication earned him recognition as outstanding first-year cadet.

“After that, we knew the potential was there,” Lt. Col. Patrick Sanders, head of the Republic ROTC, told the news site.

“I’d give him a job to do as a sophomore and he’d need a little guidance. His junior year, he’d just do it. By the time he was a senior, he didn’t even need to be told,” Sanders said. “You name it, he’s grown in all the areas — maturity, leadership, behavior. It’s huge growth.”

Johnson’s grades improved, as well, and he earned a 32 out of 36 on his ACT. He also played snare in the marching band. When it came time to apply for colleges, he set his sights on the U.S. Air Force Academy, knowing only one in 12 applicants receive an appointment, and even fewer from small rural public schools.

“That seemed like a challenge and I’m up for a challenge,” Johnson said. “I thought, ‘I’m going to try for there.'”

The Academy reviewed Johnson’s grades, activities, fitness, leadership and character, as well as nominations he received from U.S. Rep. Billy Long and U.S. Sensators Roy Blunt and Claire McCaskill as the senior waited to hear back, the News-Leader reports.

Johnson’s family and counselors encouraged him to apply to other schools, as well, and he earned full-ride scholarships to several. But his family’s history of military service and interest in aviation made the Academy his top pick.

“If you want to be a pilot, one of the first things you look at is the Air Force,” he said. “The prestige of going to the academy interested me.”

A year after starting the application process – five years after refocusing his life – Johnson received word that he was selected for an appointment, a value of more than $400,000 that includes tuition, room and board, medical, and a monthly stipend, according to the news site.

“I never had any doubt in him,” Sanders said. “He started excelling later, in his high school career, and now he’s the top dog.”

When teachers and principals think about how to motivate students who could do more with their lives than just pass time in school without accomplishing much there are lesson plans at the UK’s The Jubilee Centre.  These lessons plans focus on flourishing from the margins and can be found here.

 

Kentucky students prepare for civics test graduation requirement that starts next year

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Students in Kentucky must pass a 100 question citizenship test to graduate starting next year, a requirement they’re already preparing for at many schools.

The new graduation requirement spawned from a Senate bill sponsored by Sen. Jared Carpenter approved in 2017 that tasked the Kentucky Department of Education with creating an exam with questions from the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services test, the Lexington Herald-Leader reports.

Carpenter told The Richmond Register students must score at least 60 percent, but can take the test as many times as necessary. A passing grade within the last five years meets the graduation requirement.

“A lot of students I spoke with thought we needed a bill like this,” he said. “They thought people needed to be more engaged. They wanted their fellow classmates to have an understanding of our history and how our government works.”

Central Hardin High School students started taking the test this year as sophomores and juniors, and they seemed to have different takes on the test.

“It’s the stuff you learned over the years,” junior Caden Wilson told WDRB. “You should know most of it.”

Skyler Lucas, also a junior, thought it was a little more in-depth.

“Not all of it is common knowledge,” he said. “You have to know more about the government than what you learned.”

WDRB quizzed several adults around Cecilia, Kentucky with questions from the test – such as the number of amendments to the U.S. Constitution or the number of U.S. Senators – and many couldn’t correctly answer. Even folks who allegedly took advanced placement history in high school were baffled.

Professor James Hunter, founder of the Institute for Advanced Studies in Culture, reminds us “Individuals are social creatures inextricably embedded in their communities. As such, their identity, their most meaningful relationships, and their morality can only develop from a healthy connection to the social fabric of which they are a part.” Civic education is not only needed for immigrants, but for all citizens. It serves to strengthen our national identity. It is not so much about the facts, but the framing story that is told herein.

Central Hardin teacher Emily Wortham said she understands why lawmakers approved the bill.

“It is important, because if you look at all the things happening in the world today, everything is shaped by things that have happened in the past,” she said.

 

Michigan students earn $500 for campaign to fight community opioid troubles

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Eight students at Michigan’s Adrian High School wanted to make a difference in their community, and after six months of strategizing and brainstorming, their effort is paying dividends.

The teens – sophomores Hunter Comstock, Julia Harke, and Carter Merillat; juniors Zac Daniels, Liam DiPietro, Jacob Schwartz, and Trinity Keene; and senior Alexia Ferguson – designed a comprehensive plan to help tackle the student opioid epidemic and presented it to the Adrian board of education in late April, The Toledo Blade reports.

The main feature of the plan involves a tip line to allow students to report suspected drug abuse anonymously, through calls, text, email or an online form. The students also suggested a stronger partnership with juvenile courts, increased education, and a mandatory drug abuse evaluation for teens busted with drugs, which is optional under the current system.

“What’s so impressive about these students is that their goal was to educate and prevent,” student advisor Erin Gilmore told the Blade. “They looked for ways to be less reactionary and more proactive to combat this issue at this school.”

A good indicator of a school’s moral ecology is the degree that students take ownership of its culture. Here students addressed a pressing problem, developed tools for prevention, and gave candid counsel on the value of routine punishment procedures. In each case, it demonstrates their ownership of thick moral culture. Researchers at the Institute for Advanced Studies in Culture observed, “The thicker the moral culture of the school, the more coherent it was and the more cohesive an environment it provided for the young. These are the environments within which personal and public virtue is both learned and absorbed; both ‘taught and caught.’”

The students researched student drug suspensions – currently set at 10 days, or seven days with a drug evaluation – and interviewed administrators, concluding that the system in place doesn’t do enough to dissuade repeat offenses. The students advocated for community service on top of the suspension.

“We believe it should be harsher because a lot of students see it as a vacation when really it should be harsher, and they can learn from it,” Schwartz said.

The presentation to the school board earned the group $500 from the Lenawee County Education Foundation to turn the tip line into a reality, as well as recognition from school officials for focusing on an important issue in the school community.

“This is a group of students stepping forward and saying ‘this should be done,’” Adrian Public Schools Superintendent Bob Behnke told the Blade, “and that’s much more powerful as far as implementing and changing our policy compared to a group of administrators.”

Teachers and principals working to strengthen moral and citizenship formation in their students will find information, strategies and teacher lesson plans at the UK’s The Jubilee Centre.

MT teens learn real life lessons through student-run business

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Sidney Fox, coach for the Little Braves basketball team, asked local high schoolers to design and print team shirts with a logo created by his father, but he wasn’t sure what to expect.

“They were able to bring it to life,” Fox told KTVQ. “I was kind of expecting something like a beginner. But when I first seen this, I was amazed. It looked professionally done, like I ordered it from an online company. I was really surprised.”

In reality, Fox did order the shirts from a professional company: Braves Ink.

The business is almost entirely run by students at St. Labre High School, a Roman Catholic school that serves students from Montana’s Crow and Northern Cheyenne tribes. Instructor Robyn Lei started the program to help students take ownership of their work in a real-world environment, a situation that’s offers practical lessons about business, character, responsibility and community pride.

The student business started small, but initial sales, training from a local printing company, and a grant from Congressman Greg Gianforte helped Braves Ink to upgrade equipment and expand. St. Labre teens design and print shirts for the school’s athletic teams, memorials for lost loved ones, and others, sometimes on short deadlines.

Students learn best from hands on experience. Researchers at the Institute for Advanced Studies in Culture found that when the “moral and missional ethos of a school was reinforced through a range of practices, or routinized actions—some formal, some informal—all oriented toward giving tangible expression of the school’s values and believes,” the moral endowments of the school are strengthened.

Senior Bree Deputee handles the finances, while senior Jayson Fisher focuses on technology and others work the presses. Students sometimes put in long hours, and are rewarded with pizza or other treats when they hit big deadlines. At the end of the year, Braves Ink profits are paid out to students in the form of college scholarships, KTVQ reports.

“We work hands-on with stuff instead of sitting at a desk,” Fisher said. “We learn things that are useful for business by actually doing it, learning through trial and error.”

“Some days we have a deadline, like a strict deadline and I have to help other people,” he said. “It’s hard work, but I like doing that.”

Lei told KTVQ he’s also learned a lot from students who “work so hard and really put their hearts into it,” adding that they’re eager to build on their progress.

“It’s something I would wanna do when I get older, run my own business,” student Camron Spotted Elk told the news site. “I can design these T-shirts and sell them at powwows.”

Teachers and principals working to strengthen moral and citizenship formation in their students can find information and strategies at the UK’s The Jubilee Centre. In The Jubilee Centre’s own words, the following illustrates how the centre views it work.  “The Jubilee Centre is a pioneering interdisciplinary research centre on character, virtues and values in the interest of human flourishing.  The Centre is a leading informant on policy and practice through its extensive range of projects contributes to a renewal of character virtues in both individuals and society.”

MA students lobby lawmakers to improve civics education with new graduation requirement

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Massachusetts high schoolers Mike Brodo and Zev Dickstein may not see eye-to-eye on politics, but they both agree on one thing: state lawmakers should pass a bill to promote civics education, including a requirement for a student-led civics project.

“I think that the political environment being highly polarized contributes to this indifference and ignorance of politics you see in the media, and there’s always two sides going at it and no one talking about the state issues, local issues, how do we collaborate and work together face-to-face,” Brodo, a senior at Xaverian Brothers High School and chairman of Massachusetts Teenage Republicans, told South Coast Today “It’s always just divisiveness and tweets, and none of that’s going to get anyone interested.”

Brodo trekked to Beacon Hill, the site of the Massachusetts Legislature in early April to advocate for Senate Bill 2375 alongside Dickstein, vice chairman of the Massachusetts High School Democrats. The legislation, which cleared the Senate in March and is now in the state House, would enhance the state’s civics education curriculum requirements and mandate that students complete a civics project for graduation.

“Civics education will allow student to decide whether they want to get involved in politics and be active,” Dickstein said. “I’m not saying that everyone has to be involved, but everybody needs to know enough about politics so that they can decide if they’d like to get involved.

“This bill will ensure that all students in public school districts will have the support they need to develop civic skills and knowledge necessary to be informed and voting citizens of the commonwealth of Massachusetts and the country.”

The Massachusetts bill is sponsored by Rep. Linda Dean Campbell, who urged students to “do a really hard sell on the projects component of this legislation,” South Coast Today reports.

This effort is consistent with  the findings of sociologist James Davison Hunter at the Institute for Advanced Studies in Culture. He reports findings from James Coleman that “calls for the creation of ‘new environments’ in which young people could perform public service and other important civic roles.” The heart of his synthesis “specifies three decisive components of virtuous character: moral knowing, moral feeling, and moral action.” The goal of this program is to correctly incorporate these aspects into the daily education experience of students.

“This is what’s going to make it real,” Rep. Linda Dean Campbell said.  “When we talk to lower-income districts in the commonwealth of Massachusetts, this is what the teachers told us: ‘Make it real. It’s real for us now, we have issues that we’re concerned about now. Allow us to get that experience, hands-on experience, as to how to make politics work for us.”

Teachers and principals working to strengthen moral and citizenship education in their schools will find helpful information and strategies at the UK’s Jubilee Centre. In the Jubilee Centre’s own words, the following paragraph illustrates how the centre views its work:  “The Jubilee Centre is a pioneering interdisciplinary research centre on character, virtues and values in the interest of human flourishing.  The Centre is a leading informant on policy and practice and through its extensive range of projects contributes to a renewal of character virtues in both individuals and societies.”

Of particular note to educators is the Jubilee Centre’s document, “A Framework for Character Education in Schools” which provides an excellent description of virtue definitions and the building blocks of character and provides a list of teaching resources for teacher use.

Focus on character in high school, when decisions have consequences

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Character education is of fundamental importance; however, it can be harder to agree on the time in a child’s life when it can have the greatest impact.

Arguments in education have gone back and forth on this question, and a recent meta-study presented at Oxford University has aimed to provide some clarity to the discussion, reports Religion News Service.

The Religion News Service reported that, “[C]ombining the results of 52 studies of character education, including over 225,000 students indicated that character education had the greatest impact on youth, when it took place in high school.”

The meta-study was conducted by William Jeynes, Professor of Education at California State University, Long Beach, and Senior Fellow with The Witherspoon Institute in Princeton (New Jersey).

Jeynes noted that, “The results are particularly intriguing, because the sparse number of character education school programs that there are, emphasize ‘getting them when they’re young.”

In some ways, the results of the meta-study do seem to defy conventional logic. We know that childrens’ minds are exceptionally malleable at a young age. Therefore, wouldn’t it make sense that this is the time to focus on the development of their character?

Jeynes responds to this point, “Although these results go against the tide of the current thought that character instruction should primarily take place when pupils are young, upon further examination, they really do make sense. Students begin the process of making some of the most important decisions of their lives when they are in high school. If there is ever a time in which they need moral guidance, this is the time period.”

The important decisions that Jeynes references can have reverberations throughout a student’s lifespan. As our young adults make critical choices regarding life, career, and community, they should be making these decisions with a firm sense of the ideals to which they will give themselves, and to which they will submit.

The Institute for Advanced Studies in Culture at the University of Virginia has also argued that adolescence is a period of fundamental importance. During this time, young people actively embrace a vision of “the good.”

As James Davison Hunter, the Institute’s Executive Director and founder, details in The Death of Character, “[C]haracter is shaped not by a cowering acquiescence to rules imposed externally but as a conscious, directed obedience to truths authoritatively received and affirmed.”

Hunter’s distinction between “rules imposed externally” and “truth’s authoritatively received” is useful to keep in mind when considering the potential causes of Jeynes’s findings.

It is realistic to expect that a young child is only capable of understanding character education as rules that they must obey. We know that rules can only govern human behavior to a certain extent; they are not binding on the soul in the same manner as character.

However, a high-school student is intellectually capable of grappling with the “Why”inherent in moral education. If they are able to ascertain the reason for submitting one’s self to timeless truths, they could be more likely to internally receive them, as Hunter describes.

High school teachers should not feel that they are without resources to form their students’ character. The Jubilee Center for Character and Virtues, for example, offers a unit on Joan of Arc that engages students in literary and historical study of inspiring heroes for teenagers.

The use of such lessons can begin to orient high school students towards ideals that will enrich their lives for years to come.

Small towns struggle to keep football alive

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The football team at North Dickinson County School in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula is going through changes, adapting to a new version of the game to preserve a community tradition that dates back decades.

The North Dickinson Nordics have dominated their conference, making it to the state playoffs for 23 years in a row from 1991 to 2013, but declining participation in the aging former lumber town forced school officials to make a decision: end its decades-old football program entirely or move to a smaller eight-player league.

North Dickenson officials resisted the move as long as possible, but ultimately opted to make the downgrade.

“Your football team is really on life support when you’re on eight-man, because there’s no place to go after eight-man,” North Dickinson Athletic Director Michael Roell told The Washington Post. “We’re hoping we can still have a football team for school pride, for homecoming, for all the things that should stay in high school.”

It’s a situation facing many schools in Michigan and beyond.

According to the Post:

As the game of football faces challenges nationally—head injury concerns, rising costs, sport specialization—the effects are being felt first and most acutely in small towns such as this outpost in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula. 

Michigan has lost 57 11-man high school football teams in the past five years, but most, state officials say, moved to the eight-player ranks. The state has poured resources into creating separate junior varsity leagues, varsity conferences and playoffs for eight-player teams.

Eight-player leagues are growing in other states, as well. The National Federation of State High School Associations reports enrollment for eight-player teams is up 12 percent since 2009, data collected before Washington, Wisconsin, and Hawaii added leagues.

At many schools like North Dickinson, the choice boils down to eight-man football, or no football at all.

Senior tight end Jared Miller said that after the departure of last year’s talented senior class, there weren’t even enough players to fill out an 11-man team.

“Nobody wanted to go, but nobody said anything bad about it,” Miller said. “It was this or nothing. We only would have had eight players on varsity.”

And while many folks at the school and other small towns across the country mourn the loss of football as they know it, eight-player leagues are providing a way to carry on a tradition that plays a critical role in the moral culture of their communities.

University of Virginia sociologist James Davison Hunter, author of The Tragedy of Moral Education in America, writes that “moral education can work where the community, and schools and other institutions within it [like athletics], share a moral culture that is integrated and mutually reinforcing.”

Maintaining high school athletic opportunities, even on a smaller scale, is important because “the difference a coach can make in a youth’s life is enormous,” according to Los Angeles Clippers coach Doc Rivers.

Rivers, who advises the Positive Coaching Alliance, contends that positive influence begins with “showing high school and youth coaches how to teach life lessons while preparing them to win on the scoreboard.”

The Positive Coaching Alliance provides a wide variety of resources for coaches to help students form good character through athletics, from training sessions to workshops to online courses and other tools.

Virtual approaches to real-word problems

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Nevada’s Office of Safe and Respectful Learning recently launched a new website for students and parents to report bullying online, raising questions about how the virtual approach will correct real-world problems in schools.

“The legislature made the reporting system possible,” Christy McGill, director of the Office of Safe and Respectful Learning, told KOLO. “They took a real hard look at the bullying that had gone on in the past in our schools and they decided enough is enough.”

In 2015, lawmakers appropriated funds to the Nevada Department of Education to create the Office of Safe and Respectful Learning, which is tasked with maintaining a 24-hour, toll-free statewide hotline, as well as an internet site, for anyone to report bullying.

Both the hotline and the site, bullyfreezone.nv.org, are reportedly designed as avenues to report bullies without having to confront them, according to the news site.

“If you think back to when you were bullied,” McGill said, “your worst fear is to meet your bully head-on.”

According to bullyfreezone.nv.org:

The Bully Free Zone web site is designed to assist students, parents and school staff with bully prevention methods. The resources and information included in this web site are structured to be easy to use for everyone. This is not an inclusive list of resources.

The mission of the Office for a Safe and Respectful Learning Environment is to train, empower, educate, collaborate, advocate, and intervene in order to ensure that every student in Nevada, regardless of any differing characteristic or interest, feels fully protected physically, emotionally, and socially. We believe that by creating a safe environment, one which is fostered by a caring adult relationship, all children will thrive to meet their passions and aspirations. This office is responsible for the foundational four levels of a hierarchy of learning: physical needs, safety, belonging, and self-esteem.

In addition to the online reporting system, the site also offers lesson plans, an educator “share fair,” “students in the spotlight,” and bullying information by school district. There’s also tips for families, safety pledges, and advice on how to deal with bullies.

Once a bullying report is made, “a school official will promptly begin to investigate the situation,” according to EdScoop.

What’s not apparent, however, is how the reporting system will correct the underlying problems that are driving the problem in schools, particularly a lack of support for educators to take action.

Murray Milner, senior fellow at the University of Virginia’s Institute for Advanced Studies in Culture, notes in his book Freaks, Geeks, and Cool Kids, that “bullies have always been a problem.”

“Part of growing up is learning to deal with them,” he wrote. “But this does not mean that young people should be without assistance in this regard.”

Milner’s research shows high-schoolers do not receive much support against bullies, in part because teachers ignore cruelty unless it spills over into actual violence. The situation, Milner argues, stems from teachers’ lack of power and support from school officials to take action.

Teachers are also often tasked with monitoring hundreds of students in as many as five classes per day, which is further complicated by a lack of authority to issue sanctions against bullies.

Many parents are aware of the situation and many have struggled to convince school officials and teachers to take a more active role in policing bullies.

Increasing knowledge of the problem is good, but an online reporting system does not ensure teachers have the knowledge or authority to take action when necessary.

Virtual means cannot correct the flaws in real communities.

And it begs the question: If parents don’t feel comfortable reporting problems directly to school officials, why would they have any confidence those officials will follow through on the electronic alerts?

H.S. Football: West Milford seniors pay it forward

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West Milford High School football coach Don Dougherty is teaching his players how to “Punt, Pass & Read.”

The New Jersey coach told NorthJersey.com that when he took over as head of the varsity team in 2012, his focus was as much on devising offensive and defensive strategy as it was on what his players are doing off the field.

“From the beginning I felt the need and importance for our student athletes to give back to their community,” Dougherty said. “I wanted to put academics and athletics together for a good cause. Introducing that combination to the younger kids in our community makes a lot of sense and it promotes the importance of education and hometown pride.”

The effort also puts school sports in the proper context as a model for life, one that shows students there’s more important things than the numbers on the scoreboard.

Six years ago Dougherty launched the “Punt, Pass & Read” program to get West Milford players into local elementary schools, where they spend two days reading to youngsters throughout the school district.

Now, the program is spearheaded by seniors on the team who don their game jerseys to visit all six of the district’s elementary schools. Each year, they spend about an hour at each school reading to and talking with students, and the result is bringing the community closer together, they said.

“It’s really cool to see the students’ reactions and their smiles when we walk into the classrooms,” said senior captain A.J. Bakunas. “It means a lot to them for us to come in and read and just spend time with them. I know about this program when last year’s seniors participated and it’s something I’ve looked forward to being a part of.”

“I saw a lot of joy and smiles on the kids’ faces,” added senior Dylan Purdy. “They all wanted to interact with us and I thought that was great. I hope this program makes the kids want to read more. The younger students look up to us as role models and if they see their idols interested in reading hopefully it will want them to read more.”

Dougherty contends local elementary students aren’t the only ones benefiting from the program.

“The entire week is a humbling experience. It allows the seniors to reflect and see where they came from and how far they’ve come as student athletes. We’re constantly preaching hometown pride and staying home. This program touches on everything and it’s something we plan on continuing for years to come,” he said.

“All the students and staff at the schools really embrace the program and it’s something they look forward to every year,” Dougherty told NorthJersey. “The younger students ask the players for autographs and the teachers get to spend time with their former students who are now seniors in high school. It’s just a rewarding experience for everyone involved.”

Parents “want their children to develop into loving, morally upright, and hard-working adults who preserve close ties to their families,” according to the “Culture of American Families” report from the Institute for Advanced Studies in Culture.

Parents believe that “fame, athletics, popularity, and power matter little in the larger scheme of their children’s lives,” so it’s a powerful dynamic when athletics can be a means to forming the good character that parents want for their children.

The Positive Coaching Alliance helps coaches, leaders, and parents understand double-goal coaching: winning and teaching character.

©2017 Advanced Studies in Culture

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