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Free Lesson Plans and National Photography Contest

The fourth and final installment is available to those who register for National CC! Week 2008, and registration is open for our National Photography competition.
Register on the CC! Week page to find out more.

As well as being a week-long celebration of good character, CC! Week (October 19-25) is a great opportunity to kick off your year-long CC! program. We have created great lesson plans to help you have fun during the week and to maintain momentum when the bells and whistles are long gone.

You’re only a couple of clicks away from free lesson plans, service-learning worksheets, essay-writing prompts, promotional materials, and everything else you need to be part of the largest celebration of character in the nation.

If you haven’t already registered, sign up and get started on your organization and outreach to make National CC! Week 2008 the biggest ever.

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Jessica Berlinski, New National Director

“This is the first change in leadership in the CHARACTER COUNTS! program in nine years, and we weren’t about to lower our standards,” says Josephson Institute Executive Director Rich Jarc.

After an intensive search and 14 hours of interviews, the Institute is confident it has found the needle in the haystack it was searching for – Jessica Berlinski.

Berlinski is strongly committed to enriching education and leading CC! at a time when budget cuts and other federal mandates are making teachers’ jobs even harder. She recognizes the struggles they face and is dedicated to reinforcing the link between character education and creating an environment conducive to learning. Just like the one she experienced as a child.

“Children learn best when they want to learn, and the Six Pillars are the foundation of valuing education. First come values, then the desire to learn. Doing well is often a result of these two stages,” Berlinski says.

She also brings to the Institute excellent leadership skills and a vision for CC!’s future. We asked her to define five keys of leadership:

1. Empathy – Put yourself in others’ shoes.
2. Communication – It’s not the what but the how.
    Be a good listener.
3. Vision – Maintain and balance both short- and
    long-term goals. Keep track of the big picture.
    Build nested goals to achieve the desired result.
4. Consistency – Walk the talk and match the
    demands that you place on others.
5. Passion – If you possess it and exhibit it, it can
    be contagious.

Berlinski’s passion for CC!’s mission is immediately evident to us, and we’re delighted to welcome her to the team!

Go Back to School With Character

Our Character Development Seminars will teach you how to dramatically reduce behavior problems, integrate universal values into your existing curriculum, and build staff buy-in. Learn more.

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Taylor Mali Q&A

In last year’s Back-to-School edition of the Chronicle we highlighted the website of New York performance poet and teacher Taylor Mali. And in this issue’s Commentary, Michael Josephson adapted Mali’s poem “What Teachers Make.”

Mali spent nine years in the classroom teaching English, history, and math and has performed and lectured for teachers around the world. His one-man show “Teacher! Teacher!” won the jury prize for best solo performance at the 2001 U. S. Comedy Arts Festival.

One of the original spoken-word artists to appear on HBO’s “Russell Simmons Presents Def Poetry,” Mali is considered by many to be the most successful poetry slam strategist of all time, having led six of his seven national poetry slam teams to the finals and winning the championship himself a record four times.

To inspire returning and new teachers for the year ahead, we asked Mali what students have taught him, about the miracle of education, and why all poets love geometry.


CHARACTER COUNTS!: After reading your classic poem “What Teachers Make,” a student-teacher once said to you, “That has to be the greatest job in the world!” Is teaching the greatest job?
TAYLOR MALI: There is no greatest job in the world. Or rather, there are many. The greatest is the one you feel honored to have; the one you look forward to going to every morning. That said, people who don’t teach don’t get to see the immediate effect that their actions have on the future.

CC!: A student once told you, “You really love doing this, don’t you?” What percentage of teachers do you think love teaching?
MALI: I don’t know, but probably more than I think. The secret is connecting what you do with who you are. You can’t be one kind of person in your private life and someone else when you teach. Students sense that.

CC!: In another poem about teachers, “Miracle Workers,” you wrote: “Education is the miracle; I’m just the worker.” Shouldn’t it be the other way around?
MALI: I don’t think so. Imagine a teacher saying, “I am the miracle and education is my worker.” That’s putting the credit in the wrong place. The divine moment in education is when someone gets it. If you’re in the right place at the right time, you can see it in their eyes. The teacher may assemble all the ingredients and light the fire, but the miracle is the brew and the steam. It would be wrong to take credit for that.

CC!: On your website you refer to “America’s love/hate relationship with the teaching profession.” What did you mean?
MALI: Is it possible to admire a profession and hold it in contempt? Everyone agrees in theory that teachers should be paid more, but no one seems too concerned about doing anything about it. They’re only teachers after all.

CC!: Why don’t you like No Child Left Behind?
MALI: It assumes all children are the same and learn the same way. But they don’t. It shifts the teacher’s focus to the slowest kid in class. Entire schools are being penalized because some students need extra help.

CC!: In the 1950s, academics supplanted character development as the educational priority of our nation’s school system. Was that good or bad?
MALI: I’ll bet they thought it was good at the time. In retrospect, it’s been disastrous.

CC!: Then define educational utopia.
MALI: A system in which every student receives a quality education – with the teachers and resources necessary – and every parent feels his or her tax dollars are being spent wisely and fairly.
(Ed: And we would add character education!)

CC!: You debuted your performance poetry at a strip club called The Flamingo Exotic Dance & Catering Lounge. Would your poetry have turned out any differently if you’d started in a convent?
MALI: I would still be writing the same poetry because I’ve always kept my audience in mind. It’s the job of any poet to have at least a 20-minute set of poetry ready to present to any audience.

CC!: You once said, “I love geometry. All poets do.” What did you mean?
MALI: Poetry is about creating images using specifics that are widely accessible. Geometry is the reverse: universal laws that govern shapes and how they can be applied to specific examples. Poets don’t have heads for numbers. But shapes, yes.

CC!: Poet Ralph Waldo Emerson said genius is believing what is true for you in your heart is true for all men. You said, “I want to be a genius in the eyes of Emerson.” What would he think of your poetry?
MALI: Emerson would love me if he heard me, but probably dismiss me as vulgar if he just read me. He’d tell me to experience nature more directly (which I should), try to open people’s hearts more (which I should), and meditate more (which I should). I’d tell him to have another beer (which he should).

CC!: Who was your most unforgettable student?
MALI: I wrote a poem called “Tony Steinberg: Brave Seventh Grade Viking Warrior” about a kid who died of cancer. The boy that was based on was unforgettable. Two weeks into his first year, he was already escorting prospective new students around. He was a gentleman.

CC!: What was the most valuable thing a student ever taught you?
MALI: That it’s more important for me to love my students than it is for them to like me.

CC!: What was your most satisfying ah-hah moment as a teacher? As a poet?
MALI: I once had a moment teaching math that I’ll never forget. Robert was having trouble understanding the Identity Property of Zero, which says any product will be zero if just one factor is zero. When he finally got it, he said, “This changes everything!” As a poet, I knew I’d struck gold when I wrote the line, “It is not enough these days to simply question authority. You have to speak with it, too.”

CC!: We loved your analogy: “Teaching isn’t about filling a bucket; it’s about lighting a fire.” Could you expound on that?
MALI: Isn’t that a great quote? It’s Yeats. Teaching is not about pouring knowledge into something until it’s full; it’s about starting a process that will continue on its own.

CC!: Another of our favorites is: “I know the difference between questions to answer and questions to ask.” What’s the difference?
MALI: I once had a teacher in graduate school, Dr. Jerome S. Dees, who never asked a question he knew the answer to. That meant he spent a lot of time thinking of questions to bring to class. I found that very honorable. Often the best answer to a student’s question is, “What do you think?” Questions indicate places in the brain that are smoking. My job as teacher is to coax that smoke into a flame – and then get out of the way.

To learn more about Taylor Mali and how you can book a workshop at your school or in your community, visit his site: www.taylormali.com

Comment on this story in our blog »

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Monthly Lesson Plan: Back-to-School Lesson

Back to school is a hectic time for teachers and pupils. With so many stories to catch up on and so many schedules to coordinate, new students can often feel lost and left out.

This lesson plan helps create a welcoming atmosphere in the school for new students through the collaborative efforts of staff and students. Newcomers won’t ever feel lost again with maps, important names and numbers, and other useful resources to help them find their feet and make new friends.

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The ACT and College Board (SAT) cancel test scores of students who they determine have cheated, but they don't disclose the information. They also allow the students to re-test. They say their primary objective is to ensure the validity of scores and not to identify or punish offenders.

Should the ACT and College Board release information about cheaters to high schools and colleges?

Respond and see the results »

Last Month's Poll Results

In June we asked if energy drinks cause kids to behave badly.

Your Response:

Your Comments:

Yes   "I’m an SRO and once I was sent to a high school to see what drug a student was on. He was agitated and aggressive. He had slammed four Red Bulls since breakfast. His parents had to take him home."

"I don't encourage any drink with caffeine for kids. Caffeine, like other ‘eines,’ is addictive."

No   "If a child is going to behave badly, he or she will do so regardless of the consumption of an energy drink."

"I don't think it necessarily causes misbehavior in anyone, but it probably increases the likelihood that students who already behave poorly will behave worse."

What Do You Make?

During a dinner party, a self-important business executive said, “The problem with our education system starts with teachers. What can our kids learn from people who decided their best option in life was to become a teacher? Those who can, do. Those who can’t, teach."

A guest protested, “I’ve been a teacher for 20 years, and that’s simplistic and unfair.”

“Really?” the executive said. “Then be honest, what do you make?”

“I suppose you’re thinking of money,” the teacher replied. “I earn enough, but let me tell you what I make.

“I make other people’s children read, think, write, wonder, and talk about important things such as the world and their role in it.

“I make them appreciate the value of education, not simply as a way to make a living, but as a way to make a life.

“I make them work harder than they want to and accomplish more than they thought possible.

“I encourage them to be skeptical without being cynical, and to be optimistic without being naïve.

“I make them understand that the quality of their life will be determined by their choices, and I make them take responsibility for their actions.

“I make them feel proud, capable, and worthy when they try hard.

“I make them appreciate the importance of integrity and honor in a world that too often shows little regard for either.

“I make them respect themselves and treat others with respect.

“I make them feel proud and grateful to live in America where people are entitled to be treated fairly and with respect and judged by their accomplishments and character, not by their color, creed, or by the size of their bank account.

"Most of all, I make a difference.

“So now,” the teacher said to the executive, “tell me what you make.”

* Note from Michael: A few days after broadcasting this commentary, I learned that the anonymous version that inspired this adaptation was itself a diluted and sanitized version of an original work by a poet named Taylor Mali. I should have looked harder to find the original source and included his name in the radio commentary as he deserves full credit.

This is Michael Josephson reminding you that character counts.

Adapted from Michael Josephson's Gabriel Award-winning radio commentaries, airing every day across the nation. They also appear daily in the Commentary blog, where you can post responses and see what others have to say.

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