Character Education @ FRH
Character Education
This year staff introduced a new character education program to FRH students based on the Habits of Mind by Art Costa and Bena Kallick. The Habits are derived from studies of traits that were skillfully and mindfully employed by characteristically intelligent, successful people when they were confronted with problems where the solution was not immediately apparent. Although there are a total of sixteen habits, FRH staff have prioritized twelve of them for our character education program. During the three years of junior high, students will be taught and reinforced in the following Habits:
1. Persistence
2. Listening with Empathy & Understanding
3. Managing Impulsivity
4. Striving for Accuracy
5. Taking Responsible Risks
6. Thinking and Communicating with Clarity & Precision
7. Thinking Interdependently
8. Finding Humour
9. Thinking Flexibly
10. Applying Past Knowledge
11. Creating, Imagining, & Innovating
12. Remaining Open to Continuous Learning
Each Habit will be a focus for a ten week block. During that time the Habit will be taught and supported through both classroom activities and school-wide initiatives.
Listening with Empathy and Understanding
Over the next ten weeks, FRH students and staff will focus on the Habit of Mind Listening with Empathy and Understanding. Highly effective people spend an inordinate amount of time and energy listening. Some psychologists believe that the ability to listen to another person, to empathize with, and to understand their point of view is one of the highest forms of intelligent behavior. We often say we are listening but in actuality, we are rehearsing in our head what we are going to say next when our partner is finished. Some students ridicule, laugh at, or put down other students' ideas. They interrupt, are unable to build upon, consider the merits of, or operate on another person's ideas. We want our students to learn to devote their mental energies to another person and invest themselves in their partner's ideas. We wish students to learn to hold in abeyance their own values, judgments, opinions, and prejudices in order to listen to and entertain another person's thoughts. This is a very complex skill requiring the ability to monitor one's own thoughts while, at the same time, attending to the partner's words. This does not mean that we can't disagree with someone. A good listener tries to understand what the other person is saying.
- Parents can support this Habit in the following ways:
- point out examples of empathy and understanding in books, a television program, the news, or a movie
- comment when your child uses the Habit - for example, "When I was speaking with you, you were listening very thoughtfully to what I had to say."
- be a role model and lead by example
