'Virtues Project'

'Virtues Project' encourages students to find the good in themselves
Baltimore Sun, By Arin Gencer February 4, 2009

In a skit on the day's highlighted virtue, honesty, Shayna Falwell (second from right) plays a dishonest salesperson with other Kenwood High ninth-graders (from left) Alex Mehall, Walter Scott, Zuryna Smith and Stevie Slaughter. (Baltimore Sun photo by Amy Davis / November 26, 2008)
Standing in a locker room at Baltimore County's Kenwood High School, the teenage girl kept her cool when one of her peers passed by and hit her with a book bag. "Under normal circumstances, that would have been a major fight in our building," said teacher Nancy Hanlin, recounting the incident. Instead, Hanlin said, the girl told her classmate that she would have hit back "if I wasn't working on my virtues."

The fight that wasn't illustrates the changes that school officials say they are seeing at Kenwood, where a new character education initiative called the Virtues Project has begun altering the way teachers, administrators and students communicate with one another. The "virtues" are 52 good character traits, such as truthfulness, patience, responsibility and self-discipline.
"Our kids are so used to all of us telling them what they did wrong," said Hanlin, who, along with physical education and sports science chair Tammy Jackson, suggested trying the project. "Instead of looking at the behaviour, we're actually looking at the kids." Teachers use the virtues to acknowledge, guide and correct students, said Dara Feldman, director of education initiatives for the project and a former Montgomery County teacher who used its principles in her classroom.

Teachers might take a moment to thank someone for his honesty in returning a missing item or suggest a teen consider what traits she needs to call on to deal with a crisis, according to Jackson and Assistant Principal Allison Seymour. The State Department of Education encourages, but does not mandate, character education. Such initiatives vary throughout the state, and even within districts.

"We want students to become good students, but we also want them to become good citizens," said Paula McCoach, an education specialist in the state agency's youth development branch. "Character education ... has influences on the climate of the building and the school itself." Kenwood appears to be the first Baltimore County school to adopt the Virtues Project. Feldman has also trained educators in Anne Arundel, Howard and Montgomery counties and in Baltimore City, she said, but Kenwood has taken "a holistic, excellent approach."

The school draws students from the Essex and Middle River areas, which have many struggling families, said Paul D. Martin, the principal. Students come from "a tough environment," Hanlin said. "They just want to survive in their neighbourhood. They bring that into our building." Still, fighting at Kenwood has declined over the past several years, Martin said, and the project has helped even more.
"The virtues that are on that paper, all of us possess," Jackson said, referring to the list of character traits. "It just takes someone to verbalize that."

Among the educators' tools is a set of cards, each featuring a different virtue and providing a description of that trait. A virtue is spotlighted every month. "Basically, what it's all about is teaching social skills," said Tom Zirpoli, an education professor at McDaniel College who has written books about behaviour and classroom management and parenting.

Character education programs "teach kids, and they teach teachers, to focus on ethical behaviours - honesty, caring about other people ... judging right from wrong," Zirpoli said. Family involvement is key, he said, and such programs should be integrated throughout the curriculum. Yet implementation can be difficult at the high-school level, with so many other demands, such as tests and graduation requirements, said Lisa Boarman, coordinator of school counselling and related services for Howard County schools. There, dozens of schools use a framework highlighting 40 traits that are integral to success, she said.

In Anne Arundel and Carroll counties, and other areas, many schools follow a model called Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports, or PBIS. Its goal is to promote safe and supportive schools and change behavior, said Virginia L. Dolan, an Anne Arundel schools facilitator on the state PBIS leadership team.

While schools in Baltimore County can choose their programs, the district is trying to "bring a more consistent character development program in our buildings," to ensure that everyone is "speaking the same language," said Glenda Myrick, coordinator of the office of safe and drug-free schools.