We're here to help your students learn how to be real-life Superheroes. Image: Flickr user raleighwoman

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Dear CC!

This is the time of the school year that we as classroom teachers like to focus on heroes both past and present.  We just celebrated Dr. Martin Luther King’s birthday, and are getting ready to learn about both Abraham Lincoln and George Washington as we celebrate their birthdays.  I need fresh material and I also need help on how to teach their “stories” and relate them to the Six Pillars of Character.

Signed,
All About Heroes

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Dear All About Heroes,

We have great news for you.  Our educational consultants and curriculum writers here at the national office have developed a book list for each of the Six Pillars of Character, and for each grade level.   Let’s say, for example, that you are teaching a lesson on Abraham Lincoln to third graders. You can find books and references here appropriate to third grade.  You can also search for materials related to a particular Pillar.  So, if you want to spend time teaching your class more about caring and respect, you can search the book bank and find books that illustrate and reinforce these traits.  In addition to our book list, we have a Lesson Plan Bank.  This is neat because it works the same sort of way.  Find you grade level and character trait, and you will be led to appropriate lessons.

Another one of my favorite tools is our Quote Bank.  Teachers use these daily or weekly, as prompts for journal writing or small-group discussions.  There is lots of freedom here to use as you please.  Many of them are quotes from “Superheroes” both past and present!

All of the examples I have mentioned are available online for free. We love to share these resources with you.  If you need more help or one-on-one consulting, please don’t hesitate to contact our national office to speak to one of our program specialists  (800-711-2670, 8:30 to 5:30 Pacific Time).  And last but not least, check out our online catalog. You will find even more materials relating to classroom lessons here.

Good luck with your lessons on Superheroes.  But may I just say in closing that you, the teachers, are the greatest and grandest Superheroes of all.  We at the Josephson Institute of Ethics and CHARACTER COUNTS! appreciate all you do to teach, enforce, advocate and model good character.  Your commitment and dedication help to make this a better world for us all!

Regards,
CC!

Now Scholastic and the volunteering advocacy organization HandsOn Network are offering grants of between $1000 and $5000 for community projects that promote good character among kids.

Why not submit your idea? The application process is fairly short, and you never know! You could enc up with the funds you need to complete that dream project you’d like to finally bring to fruition.

Last year, winners ranged in age from 17 to 70, and the grants supported projects like bringing dance classes to poor children, providing birthday parties for homeless kids, recycling crayons that would otherwise be thrown out by family restaurants, and providing free cell phones for homeless veterans. Visit the website for a slideshow of all the winners.

We’re very pleased to announce that we’ve just completed a major revamping of of the CDS — we have brand new lessons, strategies, and approaches, and we’re calling it CDS 4.0.

The CDS 4.0 uses the latest research to prepare you to reach today’s students like no previous training we’ve offered.

Here’s what to expect:

• Highly interactive and multimedia experiences

• Engaging material presented with various methods to appeal to visual, auditory, and kinesthetic learners

• Effective strategies for achieving positive outcomes in the four CDS 4.0 domains: the Academic domain, the Character domain, the Physical domain, and the Social-Emotional domain

• Greater emphasis on expert teaching strategies and classroom management tactics

• Numerous  resources and handouts (collected in this very binder!) for you to start using immediately in your home institution

• Lessons that are still based on the tried-and-true foundation of the Six Pillars of Character and the Best Possible Result, our decision-making paradigm

Our goal is for every participant in a Character Development Seminar to be able to return to his or her home institution and establish or contribute to a model CC! structure that is meaningful, measurable, and sustainable. We want to empower you to create and sustain change that deeply impacts your community.

A list of upcoming CDSes is below. Check out our website for a complete list of Seminars planned for 2012, registration information, FAQs, and video testimonials from participants.

• February 8-10, 2012, Phoenix, AZ
  Details on location, lodging
  Register online or use printable form

• February 27-29, 2012, Seattle, WA
  Details on location, lodging
  Register online or use printable form

• March 7-9, 2012, Oklahoma City, OK
  Details on location, lodging
  Register online or use printable form

• March 14-16, 2012, Los Angeles, CA
  Details on location, lodging
  Register online or use printable form

• April 25-27, 2012, Chicago, IL
  Details on location, lodging
  Register online or use printable form

• May 7-9, 2012, Baltimore, MD
  Details on location, lodging
  Register online or use printable form

• June 13-15, 2012, San Antonio, TX
  Details on location, lodging
  Register online or use printable form

• June 20-22, 2012, Indianapolis, IN
  Details on location, lodging
  Register online or use printable form

• June 26-28, 2012, Los Angeles, CA
  Details on location, lodging
  Register online or use printable form

Participation is FREE for schools in select states.
We’ve already signed up hundreds of schools for the next survey, but yours can still participate for free if you’re located in one of these states:

Northeast: Connecticut, Delaware, District of Columbia, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermont

Southeast: Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia, West Virginia

(Schools in other states may participate for a fee. Call 800-711-2670.)

Just for having your students fill out the survey, you will receive a comprehensive and confidential report of your students’ results.

Participation is easy.
You let us know you’d like to take part and tell us how many students you have.* We mail you the survey forms, which your students can fill out in 20 minutes. You send the surveys back to us, using pre-paid mailing labels we provide. We scan the surveys and send you your students’ results side-by-side with the national figures. That’s it!

Confidentiality is ensured.
This survey is a great way to better understand the values, attitudes, and behaviors of your students. You will be able to identify areas where your students are doing well and areas that need your attention. We publish the national results, but we do not publish the results of any individual school.

Don’t miss this opportunity. Sign up now »

Gordon Hirayabashi as a college student

Instead, he willingly went to jail. “I was not sure that I could abandon my values, goals and self-respect and still serve my family, community and country,” he later explained. “[I was] doing something on behalf of the American Constitution, the freedom of religion, the freedom of decision.”

Considering Hirabayashi’s life can provoke inspiration and questions around the Pillar of Citizenship. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Day is right around the corner, a time when many classes discuss historic civil rights struggles and the ways responsible citizens fight for change. Whenever the topic comes up, Hirabayashi and his co-resisters are worthy of remembering as well.

Hirabayashi was relatively young when he took his stand against internment – a college student at the University of Washington in Seattle. His parents ran a fruit and vegetable stand, and his family had little money. In 1942, after the Japanese military attacked Pearl Harbor, the federal government first ordered all Japanese Americans living on the West Coast of the U.S. to observe an 8 p.m. curfew.

As described in a 2006 story in the University of Washington alumni association magazine,

For a week, Gordon Hirabayashi followed the rules. He would be studying with his friends. “They’d say, ‘Hey Gordon, five minutes to go,’ and I’d gather up and beat it home,” he recalled. Then came a revelation. “I said, ‘Why am I dashing back when my fellow American dorm mates are continuing to do what they were doing?’ The obvious factor of my Japanese ancestry, that’s the only reason that differentiated me on this order, and I said to myself, ‘Gee, if the American Constitution means anything at all, this is wrong. And if I believe in the Constitution, I’ve got to object to this.’” After that, Hirabayashi refused to follow the curfew.

Then news spread that internments were coming. Japanese Americans had to quickly settle their affairs and prepare to leave their homes for an unknown length of time. Farmers and other business owners had to hastily sell their land and businesses, or trust them to the care of others. Students tried to make arrangements to finish their courses by correspondence.

Despite the orders, it was hard for many students to believe the internments were really going to happen. “I was an American citizen and nothing would happen to me,” Hirabayashi said later, remembering his initial attitude. “We really believed that. In fact, later, as we were being picked up, even as it was happening, we could not really believe it was happening to us!”

Today, the fact that the U.S. government forcibly interred its citizens in camps for years is acknowledged as a gross violation of civil rights. However, it can be shocking to today’s observers that very few people — either in the Japanese American community, in various U.S. human rights groups, or in the general population — protested these laws. During wartime, citizens felt tremendous legal, social, and military pressure to show complete loyalty to the state. And that meant going along with orders without question.

Gordon Hirabayashi in 1985 (United Press International)

But Hirabayashi was one of the exceptions. On his campus, he discussed the internment orders with his classmates. Some young people agreed with him that  the interments were wrong, but in the end, did not resist the orders because of family pressure. Hirabayashi had one particular friend, a fellow Quaker and fellow pacifiist, with whom he discussed his feelings.

“There was no question. This was wrong as far as we were concerned, and if we were good citizens we’d point this out by refusing it,” recaleed Hirabayashi. Nevertheless, his friend decided to go to the camps with his parents, who desperately wanted their whole family to stay together.

Hirabayashi’s family also wanted him to accompany them, but he stood fast. After the last bus of Japanese Americans left Seattle for the camps, Hirabayashi turned himself in at the local FBI office, and gave the agents a statement he had spent many hours and careful thought preparing.

The statement laid down Hirabayashi’s reasoning. “I consider it my duty to maintain the democratic standards for which this nation lives. Therefore, I must refuse this order for evacuation,” he wrote, adding that he appreciated the “sympathetic and honest efforts” of military personnel carrying out the order. He also refused to condemn Japanese Americans who obeyed the edict. “They have faced tragedy admirably,” he wrote.

Hirabayashi served a prison sentence in Tucson, Ariz. His case, along with those of two other resisters – Minoru Yasui, an attorney in Portland, Ore., and Fred Korematsu, a welder from Oakland, Calif. — eventually reached the U.S. Supreme Court. In all three cases, decided while World War Two still raged, the Court sided with the government, and said that ordering internment, or special rules like curfews, on the basis of race was not unconstitutional.

But in 1987, the conviction was overturned in federal court, thanks to a researcher who uncovered a U.S. Navy report from 1941 that concluded that there was no legitimate military reason to move Japanese Americans away from the West Coast. When the federal government had argued its case in front of the Supreme Court, it had illegally suppressed this report, which proved that the evacuation order was rooted in racism and war hysteria, not in military necessity.

In 1988, the U.S. government formally apologized for the internments.

In 2000, Hirabayashi said, “There was a time when I felt that the Constitution failed me,” he explains. “But with the reversal in the courts and in public statements from the government, I feel that our country has proven that the Constitution is worth upholding. The U.S. government admitted it made a mistake. A country that can do that is a strong country. I have more faith and allegiance to the Constitution than I ever had before.”

Hirabayashi died this month at age 93, in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, where he had worked as a sociology professor for many years.

But how do you do that, exactly? Todd Fronce, a counselor at Eastwood Avenue in El Paso, Texas, has developed one answer.

About 30 students at Eastwood, home to about 1000 7^th and 8^th graders, have formed a group with a mission — Mission “I’mpossible,” that is. The group meets with Mr. Fronce and other counselors on a regular basis to talk about ways they can inject more kindness, caring, and community into the daily life of the school. Then the counselors assign them a “secret mission” to carry out in the school.

One time, it was secret notes with happy thoughts. The students wrote positive quotes or other supportive messages on notecards, decorated them, and then hid them around the school anywhere they could think of – in the cafeteria, the locker rooms, in desks in classrooms. Or a student would drop a folded note in a crowded hallway, and another student would dive to pick it up, thinking it would have juicy, private information inside.

“It was a big mystery at our school who was doing it,” Mr. Fronce said. “The kids had a ball.”

Another time, the mission was deliver positive praise in a specific way to three to five people every day. The students had to state what they saw, why that action makes the school a better place, and what specific aspect of good character it demonstrates. For example, Mr. Fronce, said, “John, I saw you waiting in line and not pushing, that makes it safer for everyone and shows patience. Thanks!”

During weekly meetings, the students journal about their secret missions, and discuss what they’ve achieved.

The idea of the school’s staff, Mr. Fronce says, was to work on the “inside” of students (developing values, ethics, and character) rather than the “outside” (saying ‘no’ to violence, bullying, cheating , drugs). “We decided to see how it worked out,” he said.

And, so far, so good. In addition to the secret missions, Mr. Fronce tries to “challenge the kids, and make them think about who they are and who they want to be.” The idea, he said, is that if students think hard ahead of time about who they are and what they stand for, when it comes time to make a decision, they won’t have to make a decision, because they’ve already done the planning that’s required.

Next up on the group’s to-do list: a Wall of Kindness, on which notes will be posted by students to recognize peers for doing something supportive, helpful, or thoughtful.

The mission I’mpossible project isn’t the only effort at Eastwood Middle School designed to build a more caring school culture. There’s also a Welcome Committee, that helps new students get adjusted, with both practical information like rules and logistics, and with a social group to join for lunch. (Eastwood had 16 new students just between Thanksgiving and New Year’s.) And there’s a group of Ambassadors, who meet weekly with counselors, and then teach lessons about character in their home rooms.

For other schools looking to create a culture change “from the inside out,” it’s critical, Mr. Fronce said, to build buy-in from teachers and administrators. “We’re lucky here, in that everybody works together for the betterment of the kids,” he said.

Congratulations to Mr. Fronce and to everyone at Eastwood Middle School!

So many younger and middle-aged people want to know how to be happy and how to reach the end of life without regrets, he thought – why not ask the experts: people who have actually reached their 70s, 80s, or 90s and have learned a thing or two along the way.

Since 2004, he and his research team have collected “practical advice for living” from 1500 elders by asking the question: “What are the most important lessons you have learned over the course of your life?” The team began a blog to share the insights with the world, and now there’s a book: 30 Lessons for Living: Tried and True Advice from the Wisest Americans.

The elders’ advice ranges from “how to be happy on a day-to-day basis, the secrets to a successful marriage, tips on raising children, ways to have a fulfilling career, strategies fordealing with illness and loss, and how to grow old fearlessly and well,” Dr. Pillemer writes. The blog can be sorted by category, so you or your students can look up advice on “Love and Marriage,” “How to be Happy,” or “Worry and Stress,” for example.

A review of the book in the New York Times summarized a few of the elders’ salient points:

ON CAREERS Not one person in a thousand said that happiness accrued from working as hard as you can to make money to buy whatever you want. Rather, the near-universal view was summed up by an 83-year-old former athlete who worked for decades as an athletic coach and recruiter: “The most important thing is to be involved in a profession that you absolutely love, and that you look forward to going to work to every day.”

ON REGRETS “Always be honest” was the elders’ advice to avoid late-in-liferemorse. Take advantage of opportunities and embrace new challenges. And travel more when you’re young rather than wait until the children are grown or you are retired.

We heard versions of advice like this before, but there is real poignancy and impact in hearing it directly from the mouths and minds of people who have earned their insights the hard way, are looking back on many decades of experience, and who are keenly aware that of the approaching end of their lives.

Website and blog: The Legacy Project: Lessons for Living from the Wisest Americans

New book on Amazon.com: 30 Lessons for Living: Tried and True Advice from the Wisest Americans

See videos of the interviews with elders on YouTube.

Watch Dr. Pillemer explain the project here:

]]> http://charactercounts.org/chron/2012/01/13/want-to-know-how-to-live-without-regrets-ask-the-experts/feed/ 1 http://charactercounts.org/chron/2012/01/06/looking-back-our-readers-favorite-stories-of-2011/ http://charactercounts.org/chron/2012/01/06/looking-back-our-readers-favorite-stories-of-2011/#comments Fri, 06 Jan 2012 21:55:25 +0000 CHARACTER COUNTS! http://charactercounts.org/chron/?p=3538 What stories on the Character Educator blog this year did our readers find to be the  most thought-provoking, inspirational, or enjoyable?

We decided to answer that question by looking at which posts had the most Facebook “likes” — not a perfect measure, of course, but these are the posts that you felt worthy of sharing with your friends, family and professional contacts, so that must count for something!

Which was your favorite character education story of 2011?

Top Ten Most “Liked” Character Educator Blog Posts of 2011

#10 – Give the earth a break
In March, millions of people around the world celebrated “Earth Hour” with a commitment to turn off their lights and other electrical appliances for one hour. In the process, they recognized the importance of environmental responsibility and good citizenship.

#9 – A One-of-a-kind find
Barbara Gruener reviewed Spaghetti in a Hot Dog Bun: Having the Courage to Be Who You Are, a fun picture book that can be used as a tool for teaching younger kids about bullying.

#8 – Children, violence, and ethical video games
In July, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled it unconstitutional to restrict children’s freedom to buy video games on the basis of extreme violence depicted in the games. Most of readers strongly disagreed with the Court.

TIE: #7/#6 – For both rich kids and poor kids, “What if the secret to success is failure?”
A detailed article in The New York Times profiled two very different NYC high schools and their respective quests to instill good character and future success in their students.

TIE: #7/#6 – TV movie highlights bullying
What happens when the star quarterback finds out his teammates are bullying the new kid? A made-for-TV movie  called Field of Vision told the story. Now available in DVD at Wal-Mart.

#5 – Puerto Rican teacher models kindness and caring
As a lesson in caring and kindness to her students, Mrs. Rosario Rivera encouraged her students to make donations to the American Cancer Society (total = $32), and then donated her long hair to make wigs for chemotherapy patients. Mrs. Rivera is one of hundreds of elementary school teachers who schools use Tus Valores Cuentan , the version of CHARACTER COUNTS! implemented in Puerto Rico.

#4 – Decrease Bullying by Increasing Empathy
Regular readers know that the CC! approach to reducing bullying emphasizes creating a school culture of kindness, caring, and empathy. This post summarizes recent psychological research that backs up this approach. Did you know that if you’ve recently experienced social exclusion yourself, you’re more likely to stick up for others around you are being bullied or left out?

#3 – Dalai Lama urges ethics education in America
In an address in May in New Jersey, the Buddhist leader cited the need for the teaching of secular ethics in school. By secular ethics, he explained, he did not mean disrepect for religion, but respect for all religions and for non-believers. Dialogue, forgiveness, and fairness were among the values he emphasized.

#2 – Teaching kids to care for animals and for one another
Readers loved this interview with Dr. Kris Haley, a veterinarian and educator for the Arizona Humane Society who weaves CHARACTER COUNTS! into her lessons for kids about humane treatment of animals. She sees strong connections between efforts against bullying and against cruelty to animals.

#1 – Photographer stands up to bullies
It wasn’t even close. The runaway favorite story of the year was about independent portrait photographer Jen McKendrick, who defined what it means NOT to be a bystander. When she found out that three of her scheduled clients, seniors in high school, were bullying fellow students in public on Facebook, she canceled their sessions, and explained why to their parents. “I don’t photograph ugly people,” Jen said, noting that, to her, ugliness comes from a person’s attitudes and actions, not from their looks. Jen’s actions generated a firestorm of publicity and appreciation from parents, teens, and formerly bullied people all over the country.

So that was 2011! Did your favorite character education story make the list?

]]> http://charactercounts.org/chron/2012/01/06/looking-back-our-readers-favorite-stories-of-2011/feed/ 0 http://charactercounts.org/chron/2012/01/06/dear-cc/ http://charactercounts.org/chron/2012/01/06/dear-cc/#comments Fri, 06 Jan 2012 21:54:30 +0000 CHARACTER COUNTS! http://charactercounts.org/chron/?p=3541 Dear CC!,

Our students wear uniforms to school. During CC! Week, we allowed them to wear their favorite Pillar of Character color on Pillar Friday.  Now that CC! Week is well over, we are thinking about celebrating Pillar Friday at least twice a month.  Do you have any celebration or material ideas to last throughout the year?

Signed,
Forever Friday

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Dear Forever Friday,

What a great idea! And what a marvelous way to continue embedding traits of CC! Week throughout the year.

Your Pillar Fridays can be a great way to get your school community, and even your city, involved.  The first thing that comes to mind, and what we do in many of our schools, is to hold school-wide recognition assemblies on Fridays.  Each teacher nominates a student to be recognized for a particular Pillar trait.  The students do not know they are receiving the award, but the parents do. A letter is sent home beforehand and the families are asked to keep it a secret.

The students are called to the stage to shake hands with the principal and receive their award, usually a certificate.  What a photo opp!  A few schools have invited local business owners to be present at the ceremony, and often, they donate a book or gift certificate to the student.

A variation on this idea is to hold the same sort of recognition assembly, but rather than honoring a student, we recognize a parent or family member who displays good character. Boy, do the students get excited over that!  Invite the community to your celebration and have classes perform a song or a skit. Kids tell it the best, and what a way to spread the word!

There are any more ideas and materials to be found in our Resources section of our website and in our Lesson Plan Bank.  We have downloadable materials that could be sent home on your Pillar Fridays  via backpack mail, or by going green on your school’s website.  A parent section would be fun to include, and there are many materials and ideas for ways that parents can celebrate the Six Pillars with their children.  You can also find book titles for each Pillar and every grade level that encourage the love of reading and enforce the Six Pillar traits on our website.

The ideas are endless, but if you are still stuck or need additional resources please don’t hesitate to contact any of our Program Specialists (800-711-2670, 8:30 to 5:30 Pacific Time), here at the National Office.  They talk and work with teachers and others across the nation just like you and have a lot of ideas as well.

Sincerely,
The CC! National Office

Do you have a question about how to implement CC! at your school or organization? Write to us at charactercounts@jiethics.org. Be sure to include “Dear CC!” in your subject line.

]]> http://charactercounts.org/chron/2012/01/06/dear-cc/feed/ 1 http://charactercounts.org/chron/2011/12/16/give-peace-for-the-holidays/ http://charactercounts.org/chron/2011/12/16/give-peace-for-the-holidays/#comments Fri, 16 Dec 2011 22:44:55 +0000 askinner http://charactercounts.org/chron/?p=3530 This month’s featured lesson plan focuses on one of the real meanings of the holidays — peace.

Older students are encouraged to use their critical thinking skills as they analyze historical conflicts and create peace agreements through role play.

Students will draw on history and social science knowledge to define conflict cause and effect and develop conflict resolution skills they can put to practical use in the school and classroom setting.

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