Today has been given to me fresh and new. I can learn from it, or throw it away. I will choose to do my best in thoughts, words, and actions. This day will be used, not lost. –

Bob is a Minister in the Rio Grande Valley in South Texas Isn’t it great when we recognize some potential in children or students? We can see that they have an ability to write or communicate well. Maybe we see a knack for understanding math, or the sciences just seem to come easily, or maybe… Read more »

A Reading List The Bridge Dancers – C. Saller – Minneapolis: Carolrhoda Books, Inc., 1991 Call It Courage – A. Sperry – New York: Macmillan (Collier Books), 1978 The Courage of Sarah Noble – A. Dalgliesh – New York: Scribner’s & Sons, 1954 El Chino – A. Say – Boston: Houghton Mifflin Co., 1990 The… Read more »

Using Tom and Huck to Develop Moral Reasoning Brief Description Demonstrates how to use dilemma situations for literature to develop adolescent moral reasoning. Dilemmas involve questions of responsibility, fairness, rightness and wrongness, empathy and caring, and motive or intention. Sample activities focus on The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. Adapt these activities to any piece of… Read more »

CHARLOTTE — Student assaults and threats against school employees surged by almost 60 percent in North Carolina over the past three years, and some teachers say it’s time to fight back. Teachers say they’ve become frightened of some of the children they are supposed to serve: a small population of angry and defiant students, habitual… Read more »

Poor me-Nobody likes Me-I can’t do anything right-Why am I always the one that did it?-Might as well not try it never works anyway! Contributors 1. Adults who accuse and excuse childs behavior. 2. Adults who are too Restrictive or Permissive. 3. Adults who fail to help children discover their gifts and purpose! 4. Adults… Read more »

Cheating is so widespread among high school students that it has become almost as traditional as the prom. Posted honor codes and signed honesty contracts haven’t put so much as a dent in a problem whose abuses and sophistication increase every year. I was recently invited to a forum on cheating at a South County… Read more »

Dear Families, Last month all the students completed “Respect Check-Ups” in class. The Check-Up is a questionnaire with ten areas of Respect listed. The students evaluated themselves and then had a classmate and the teacher rate them. They were asked to decide whether they demonstrated the various respectful behaviors consistently, sometimes, or never. In the… Read more »

For all the debate about the Golden State Warriors’ decision to fire Latrell Sprewell for assaulting his coach, let us remember there was a time when even celebrity athletes were held accountable for their misdeeds. We forget because of the recent coddling of multi million dollar sports celebrities and the indulgence of their spoiled-brat tantrums…. Read more »

Chip Wood, co-creator of the Responsive Class-room gave the June 25, 1996 keynote at the Center’s Second Annual Summer Institute in Character Education at SUNY Cortland. In his concluding remarks, he outlined seven promises he believes we must make to our children schools, and each other if we are to move our beliefs about character… Read more »