Agenda - 11-10-1998 - Attachment #10

Browse Search

early identification and remediation of problems interfering with academic success. This included clarifying the roles and responsibilities of parents, teachers, administrators and students. There was also considerable discussion of character education as a means to re- establish the permeation of basic values in schools and in relationships between school personnel and students and parents. These basic values should include responsibility, perseverance, respect, compassion, trustworthiness and honesty. The success of the educational enterprise is dependent upon creating a positive relationship between the student and the teacher that is built upon mutual respect and a commitment to work hard at teaching and learning. Parents and school administrators play a critical role in creating and supporting this important educational relationship between student and teacher. For schools to be successful they must have considerable support from parents and the community. Schools must demonstrate a commitment to provide opportunities for parent interaction and involvement in the educational process, both at schools and in the communities served. Parents need to demonstrate their support through their direct involvement in the school's activities as well as through their expectations of their children to take responsibility for their own education. Summary, • Renewed efforts need to be made to get more parents deeply involved in their school's activities. Schools must demonstrate creative methods for taking the schools into the community. • Parental support for the schools must also be demonstrated through parents' involvement in their child's learning by encouraging their child to meet all expectations and maintain the high standards set forth in the curriculum. • Parental support is also shown through a willingness to contribute to the schools' resources through the community tax structure. 6. Expect and maintain a wholesome learning environment Among the weaknesses and threats identified by the community were lack of respect and concerns about discipline and safety as well as crime, drugs and gangs and a loss of important values in our society. Respect and responsibility were identified as important values. The Task Force affirmed the belief that students should be educated in a safe, clean, inviting, stimulating and caring school environment and adults should be good role models. Character education has arisen from this growing concern about the apparent erosion of the basic values of respect, honesty, compassion, perseverance and responsibility. In recent years, public schools have avoided imposing values on students out of respect for the diversity of values in the community. However, values such as those listed above are so fundamental that, essentially, the entire community can agree on their importance and support their inclusion in the curriculum and in the daily life of each school. These values are an essential part of creating and maintaining a wholesome environment for learning. These basic values are learned through role models that we emulate at home and at school and not simply learned through a curriculum. Character education should be taught, first and foremost, by example each day. Parents, as well as teachers and administrators, must demonstrate these same values in their daily lives and in their interactions with each other if the students are going to be expected to live by these values. Each school should clearly articulate expectations for behavior in the schools. Violence, vandalism or disrespect will not be tolerated. Parents should be counted upon to assist the schools in ensuring that their students abide by these standards. The Task Force reviewed examples of character education curricula and felt that these basic values were so critical to our system that they need to be reinforced throughout the daily life in each school rather than added as a new curriculum specifically for this purpose. On the other hand, any school that wishes to explore incorporating components of character education into the curriculum should be free to do so. 13