Countless schools across the nation strive to make character a feature of education. Whether through classes on social-emotional learning, mindfulnessexercises or reminders about the virtues of gratitude, thousands of students are exposed to messages that deplore cheating and bullying and celebrate kindness and consideration. In spite of the lecturing, however, 51 percent of high school kids owned up to cheating on exams, according to the Josephson Institute. Another 62 percent believe that teachers value academic achievement over kindness to others.
Carrollwood Day School, a private school in Tampa, Florida, set out an ambitious plan to alter those numbers. That effort began in earnest about a year ago, after a handful of guidance counselors attended a conference on kindness put on by Harvard's Making Caring Common project; they vowed to bring compassion back to their school.
Two of the most fruitful exercises Carrollwood Day embraced, both borrowed from the Harvard project, were Circle of Concern and Relationship Mapping. In the former, all students were asked to think about who they cared for most, those in their inner circle. Then they were challenged to widen that circle, to consider who was outside and might be welcomed in. The goal was to prompt students to think beyond themselves and their narrow group and to begin to care for others.
During the Relationship Mapping exercise, faculty studied the names of all the children in school and sorted them into two groups: students they were concerned about, and those with whom they had relationships. At the end, the exercise uncovered the most vulnerable students: those identified as potentially troubled and lacking a connection with an adult. At the end, these students were paired with a teacher to serve as a mentor. This was eye-opening for teachers, Diamond said.
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