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1. Dare to Care
I have recently completed writing an article for the August Back
to School Issue of the Association for Supervision and Curriculum
Development (ASCD) newsletter "Classroom Leadership." It is called
"Teaching Caring, the Essential Subject." I was asked to include
a 'call to action.' If you look up the ASCD "800" number
through their website and speak to customer service, they will be
happy to mail you a copy of the article. Marty Kirschen
http://www.ascd.org/
In your classroom
• Look at the examples of caring ... such a full one way
listening and see what happens.
• Keep in mind your students hobbies, interests and
learning styles when designing lessons.
• Value the power of repetition and ritual that can come
by having a morning circle each day.
• Try classroom meetings (Glasser, Nelson) to help students
help solve difficulties - Less is more
• Find a child that is not very likable and find a quality
about them that you can like and attend to it.
At your school
• Conduct an in-servce / retreat on caring at the start and
end of the year to discuss this topic
• Have self-help session with your grade level teachers
discussing situations and how to handle them.
• In the Teacher’s Lounge, avoid calling a child or their
parent bad or a loser.
• Have morning outside gatherings to sing songs ...
Being on common ground, we find common ground.
• Practice caring with office staff, crossing guard, parents
In the country
Through much communication and gatherings
including a consensus convention ...
• Articulate language of terms as well as meaning of caring
• Recognize that whether we are resolving conflict or
planting flowers, both are part of caring
• Come up with National Campaign, slogan, poster, song, work
with a national celebrity such as Oprah Winfrey or Bill Cosby.
• Come to understand caring in the context of individual
values and ethical decision making in general
• Study impact of standardized testing
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2. Call to Action by Kurt Krueger
Dear Editor, 30 August 00
"To educate a person in mind and not in morals is to educate
a menace to society." - Theodore Roosevelt
The world is a mess because we have some educated
people who have little character. I propose that we dramatically
change this through societal education, in each county and/or state.
Societal education includes all levels of society - see some ideas
below.
We should have a set of character traits that all
people could easily support. We would truly transform education
into a continuance of a QUALITY CULTURE. We would have less violence,
an improvement in test scores, and less social ills. I am a Physical
Education teacher in the process of integrating Character Development
in Van Nuys Middle School.
I realize that it should be a component in all schools
of the world. Could we design a task force to develop a Character
development program for sharing with ALL educators? Keep the focus
on the higher reasons for education, developing our future compassionate
leaders and conscientious and wise followers.
> > How can you help?
President Kennedy once stimulated America to a greater vision for
our society. He stimulated the creation of the Peace Corps and the
landing of people on the moon. We had a focus of the three R's and
achieved great things in science and medicine. But our social structure
was degenerating.
> > We need a greater vision to manifest for America
for the new millennium. Let's focus our efforts on creating a better
society by bringing America's focus to developing character qualities
in everyone. This may be done through the full inclusion of character
education throughout the curriculum of our education systems.
> > Here are some ideas for stimulating our schools
and our society in the area of character consciousness:
> >1 By setting up a task force as was done for
the space program, bringing together the best academicians, practitioners/teachers
at all levels of education, and experts in the field of character
development/education.
> > 2 Individuals now could share the vision with
their elected > representatives (school board members too) and
all their friends, etc.
> > 3 Organizations may do the same and put it
on their web page, offer grants for implementation, and more...
> > 4 Who would support it? The UNESCO, National
and State/regional governments, interested business and industries,
and in general, the public.
> > 5 The Music industry could suggest the singers
to create discs that are focused on one or several character.
This could be at all levels of music from children's to adolescent
and adult styles.
> > 6 The television/movie industry could have theme
movies illustrating a > particular or set of character traits.
A set of 52 character traits could be spread out for one a week,
on each station.
> > 7 The print media could emphasis the character
traits daily, weekly or > monthly with a feature article/story/page.
A good example is the Investors Business Daily's - Leaders & Success
page.
> > 8 The Internet could have as site banners some
great character quotes, stories or illustrations/cartoons depicting
character qualities.
> > 9 The art scene could have murals developed
for the cities of America illustrating particular character traits.
Students at all levels could be the artists that paint murals
around the schools, and cities, thus empowering them to manifest
the quantities depicted.
Looking at an education model example:
Statistics in a three school study that I am aware of show that
character education helps to drop detentions, as well as physical
and verbal aggression. And at least as important, many behaviors
correlated with academic success improve. All these schools did
was to integrate each character building activity into their daily
lesson plans.
> > How do you want to help?
Truly,
Kurt Krueger
kakrueger
, if busy 377-4012
Please recycle and reuse
Blessings
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3. Fostering Courage, Strength, and Compassion in
Adolescent Girls: The First Step
By Susan Fitzell
As a parent and educator, I continually search for ways to reach,
nurture
and empower girls so that they may value their caring nature and
keep the
strength of their child spirit. The task is challenging because
adolescent
girls not only face the age old issues of coming of age, they must
also deal
with attitudes, problems and pressures that were once reserved for
adults.
Parents and teachers must overcome tremendous obstacles to accomplish
the
task of fostering courage, strength and compassion in our girls.
A recent Nike Ad featuring a female runner being pursued by a chainsaw
wielding attacker brought the issues young women face to the fore
for me
once again. Horrified, I got on my activist soapbox and encouraged
all who I
knew to protest. Why? Because if our voices are not heard as a unified
plea
to help our children, the media's assault to our senses and sensibilities
will continue. When we speak out against actions that diminish our
girls, we
present ourselves as strong, caring and courageous role models.
Advertisers and scriptwriters continually present women in violent,
degrading scenes and we, as parents and educators, must deal with
the
fall-out. Rather than become discouraged, we need to stand up and
be
noticed. We have a powerful voice! Our girls hear us rise up to
speak and
learn from our words and actions. The first step in the process
of raising
strong girls is to be a positive role model.
Positive role models are critical to a child's development. Girls
need
adults in their lives who model assertiveness, strength, caring
and
responsiveness. They need to see the women in their lives value
and foster
positive relationships. We need to empower them to make decisions
and solve
problems within the safety net of our love and guidance. Girls need
to see
us working to continually improve our ability to communicate our
needs,
hopes, and concerns so that we nurture others but don't lose ourselves.
In a
world defined by clothing labels, media hype, and gender stereotypes,
girls
need role models who base their identity and self-worth on who they
are as
people, rather than how pretty or fashionable they are.
Given the power of the media and the negative messages it sends
about women,
we must educate our girls to recognize and reject this conditioning.
First,
we must work to understand how the media and our culture impact
our
thinking, and with that understanding learn to revive our true selves.
Only,
then we can help our young women understand this conditioning and
make
conscious choices about who they are and what they want rather than
subconsciously conform to society's expectations.
Each one of us is a powerful role model for the adolescent girls
we reach.
We cannot be too assertive in sharing our views or providing a good
example.
They need us desperately at this point in their lives. Let your
voice be
heard!
Copyright 2000
SUSAN FITZELL, M.Ed. is the author of Free the Children: Conflict
Education
for Strong, Peaceful Minds, a book that offers a unique approach to
helping
ourselves and our children break free from negative cultural and media
conditioning that creates aggression and conflict. Susan is professional
speaker, trainer, and educational consultant specializing in developmentally
appropriate curriculum for character and conflict education, empowerment,
and special needs.
sfitzell
Check out http://www.aimhieducational.com
for information about my book,
workshops and programs.
For resources on Conflict Education click here:
http://www.aimhieducational.com/books/books.html
Check out http://www.aimhieducational.com
for information about my book, workshops and programs.
You can call me at for information about customized
programs.Join an informal discussion list to reflect, share and learn
from others whohave an interest in a more peaceful society:
http://www.egroups.com/subscribe/Empower_wPeace
Join a support network for public and/or professional speakers who
present
on topics of human interest:
http://www.egroups.com/subscribe/Wisdom_Speaker
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4. Regarding the Value of Standardized Testing
Archive transcript of focus session from Teachers.net
"Caring or Coercion - What are the costs of high stakes
testing
and other methods of coercing students?" with Professor
Nel Noddings.
(You may view some of her writings on caring on our own site)
The discussion took place Thursday, March 23, 2000
http://teachers.net/archive/testing032300.html
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