Character Education Programs

Due to my background and travels, a lot of educators will ask me about character education / discipline management programs.  Which ones work best, which one to avoid, etc.? 

There are lots of good ones out there.  Personally, I endorse Girls and Boys Town.  Girls and Boys Town is to discipline management what Benjamin Bloom and Madeline Hunter are to instruction.  Everything else is a derivative of the original breakthrough thinking and practice.

That being said, it really doesn’t matter which fundamentally sound program you pick. Success and failure isn’t based on the program. It is based on you. 

If the program your select is implemented with full fidelity by every adult on the campus, it will work.

Every modification (no matter how logical) and every adult who opts out, “My kids behave just fine, I don’t need a program,” increases the both the speed and inevitability of failure.  But it is not program failure, it is implementation failure. And implementation failure is leadership failure.

Think. Work. Achieve.

Your turn...

• Call Jo at (832) 477-LEAD to order your campus set of “The Fundamental 5: The Formula for Quality Instruction.” Individual copies available on Amazon.com!  http://tinyurl.com/Fundamental5 
• Upcoming Conference Presentations: The Fundamental 5 National Summit (Keynote) 
• Follow Sean Cain and LYS on www.Twitter.com/LYSNation  and like Lead Your School on Facebook

Hoo-Rah!

The Marine Corp is going to sponsor / support / manage a public high school near Atlanta, Georgia. The following link will take you to an article that will give you more specific details, http://www.ajc.com/services/content/printedition/2009/04/06/marine0406.html

For the record, I love the concept and here are the reasons why:

First, a number of the significant role models that I had growing up were Marines.

Second, it has been my experience that former Marines make excellent teachers. I never had to either recommend termination or terminate a Marine.

Third, I use a number of Marine Corp management principles when I coach and train aspiring and new administrators. It is hard to argue against the long term success of the Corp.

Finally, I am a big believer in the value of JROTC. In fact, in my dream high school, 9th grade PE would not be offered. Instead, 9th graders would have to enroll in either a sport, a performance arts class, or JROTC. Not being connected to coaches and mentors would not be an option.

Other than the concept, there were two other things that bear conversation. First, in predictable fashion, there are people who are protesting the Marines involvement. It doesn’t matter that this is a school of choice, so the students who attend actually want to go to the school. It also doesn’t seem to matter that there is no requirement that the students enlist in the military after they graduate. Evidently, to the protesters, patriotism, freedom, discipline and security are just natural by-products of the human condition.

Second, the Marines get “it”. William McHenry, national director for the Marine Corps’ Junior Reserve Officers’ Training Corps states, “Our mission is to build leadership and character in the kids of America. And it provides a niche for kids. All kids need a niche. It might be on the football field, it might be on the stage as a member of the drama club. Or it might be in ROTC.”

Every student would be better served if the adults at their school understood the need to work everyday to build leadership and character in their students and to make sure that each student is intimately connected to the school community. Great schools and great principals make this happen.

I won’t be surprised if the Marine High School quickly achieves excellent results and that the neighboring schools create a long list of reasons why they shouldn’t be held to the same standard

Think. Work. Achieve.

Your turn…

Book Review - Beyond Character Education

I just finished reading, "Beyond Character Education," by Mawi Asgedom.

I can't come out and recommend this book. It's not bad, but I wouldn't bump anything off my reading list to get to it.

That being said, I don't disagree with the author or his premise, that character education is more than a guest speaker, a food drive, and/or a field trip. And in many cases, the author and I preach the same sermon.

Specifically, Asgedom is dead solid perfect when he writes, "...(the good kids) don't actually have to do anything distinctly good; just avoid the bad things and they will be on par. The metric is the absence of something bad not necessarily the presence of anything good."

We both believe that the focus of character education must be increasing positive behaviors, not decreasing negative behaviors.

Think. Work. Achieve.

Your turn...