Making History

All of the copyright and privacy readings kept sending me back to thinking about how we model and teach values in the classroom.  We joke about not being able to remember the Five Cs (Conscience, Courage, Charity, Courtesy, and Character — if you have trouble remembering, it helps to think of 3 that start with co and 2 that start with ch, and the last one should always be character, since they all add up to character), but I do get the sense that students want us to talk about these things.  Maybe I am just an optimist, but it seems to me that the more we teach ethics in the classroom, the more we live up to what we say, the more we earn the respect of students and the more we are able to support those students (I believe the majority) who WANT to do the right thing.

The question is how do we do this.  And as we move into the 1-1 laptop program we will face new versions of how do we do this.  

I was struck by the terrible modeling by so many of the adults involved in some of the case studies in our reading.  Much of the blame must go to parents. How do we help support the parents who are doing it right?  How do we support administrators and teachers and students doing it right? And how do we have good conversations about what it means to do things right?  Much thought for advisory here.

The good news is that I kept thinking as I read the horrible case studies, “I really don’t think this is how Castilleja students (or teachers, or administrators, or parents) would act.”  I know I am an optimistic person, those rose colored glasses, yes, they are mine, but I really don’t think we break the rules of community in such terrible ways.  Our problems are smaller.  They are real, and important, and cannot be ignored, but they do seem, to me, smaller.