Subject: News from Living Values Education Org
 
Vol 1, Issue 1 October 2006

Quotes
"Nonviolence is the answer to the crucial political and moral question of our time -- the need for man to overcome oppression and violence without resorting to violence and oppression."
-- Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

"It is not enough to have great qualities, we should also have the management of them."
-- Francois de la Rochefoucauld, French writer, 1613- 1680

"Only in growth, reform, and change, paradoxically enough, is true security to be found."
-- Anne Morrow Lindbergh, The Wave of the Future 1940

Watch your thoughts; they become words.
Watch your words; they become actions.
Watch your actions; they become habits.
Watch your habits; they become character.
Watch your character; it becomes your destiny.
-- Chinese proverb

"Let me not pray to be sheltered from dangers, but to be fearless in facing them.
Let me not beg for the stilling of my pain, but for the heart to conquer it."
-- Rabindranath Tagore, Indian philosopher, writer and poet, 1861-1941

Letter from LVEP President
We hope you have had a great start to the school year and are enjoying those first weeks of getting to know your students.

The Living Values Education Board of Directors has been busy this summer, building a newsletter. It will begin on-line but we hope to build it into an off-line newsletter over time. We have a new look and will continue to ask for your guidance on what would support your needs. Each issue will have a key theme in education, designed to give teachers, parents and other community leaders the practical tools and information they need to guide meaningful reform. We plan to overhaul our website over the next year to enhance your experience. You'll find more online- only resources and interactive features there, such as a weekly poll, and photos of real-life teachers with their students as well as engaged in their own learning.

Please do visit our website and contact us with your suggestions for what you want to see on the website.

Anne Rarich, LVEP President



Promising Practices Award to ACES

Aventura City of Excellence School (Miami, FL) has received its second "Promising Practices" award from the Character Education Partnership. This award recognizes schools that implement unique programs or strategies in character education that can be replicated.

In 2004, ACES won the award for its "Living Values Knock Your Socks Off" parent workshops. The current award is for a unique "ACES Human Rights" curriculum developed by the school which draws from Living Values and the UN Declaration on the Rights of the Child. ACES' principal, Dr. Katherine Murphy, will receive the award at the 13th National Forum of the Character Education Partnership "The Future of Character Education: Challenges and Successes" October 23-28, 2006 in Arlington, VA. Aventura City of Excellence School was also recently honored as one of the top 7 combination schools (i.e. elementary and middle school) in the State of Florida.

www.character.org
www.aventuracharter.org
www.livingvalueseducation.org


Success Story from a Colleague

Yesterday was the day for our Living Values kick-off meeting at MDS. I was initially hoping to do the values reflection that Ed has led in the past, but when I couldn't find it, I decided to do AI with the faculty. I edited the questions slightly to make them specific to our school and to LV at the school.

The interviews and the group sharing at the end were amazing. The energy in the room was transformed after a morning of otherwise long, logistic-covering meetings. Smiles and shining eyes abounded. Teachers responded that this was the most powerful meeting they had ever had at MDS, that they had never felt such space to have these discussions before, that they wanted to have these opportunities regularly!

It's such a gift to have been trained and encouraged within the Living Values program. Thanks for stewarding this in my life!

Jeremy, Music Teacher at Mizzentop Day School

Please send us your success story. We want to feature one each month that will inspire us and give us new insights.

Contact Us...


Value of the Month: PEACE

Here are some resources: (We will be focusing on a different value each month) Please contact us with resources that you have found useful.

www.nonviolenceworks.com
www.esrnational.org/home.htm
www.livingvalues.net/values/peace_focus.htm

eMail Us...


Story to Inspire
Several years ago, a teacher put a carpet mat in the classroom and told the children it was a 'Quiet or Peace' mat and they could take it and sit quietly on it when they wished. It was moderately successful.

Last year, the teacher added a small tray with a one- minute timer and the word "peace" to the shelf and it was an instant hit. The children love to take the mat and the tray and sit quietly while they watch the sand shift.

At a Back-to-School night at school, and near the end of the evening, someone asked what the peace mat was.

After the teacher explained a hand went up and a mom said, "Thank you so much for clearing up a mystery at our house." She went on to explain that her husband is a contractor who works from home. One day when he was especially harried, little just- turned-three Mikayla went to the kitchen and got an egg timer and then got a door mat and dragged it into his office and said, "Here, Daddy. You need peace." and then left. The parents had been totally baffled...

We wish you all have at least a few minutes of inner peace in your busy day.


Upcoming Events
December 6-8, 2006 -- Aventura City of Excellence School, Florida

"Creating Value-Based Schools and Communities." Dr. Neil Hawkes is well known for his pioneering values work as Headmaster of West Kidlington Primary School in Oxford, England. In 1996 he worked with a group of international teachers at UNICEF headquarters to produce Living Values: An Educational Program. He is currently a values education consultant and Director of ALiVE, the Association of Living Values Education headquartered in Geneva, Switzerland.

For more information eMail Us...

Contact Info
National Coordinating Office
Anne Rarich, President, LVEP Inc.
518-589-7577
Living Values Education Org | Peace Village, PO Box 415 | O'Hara Road, Haines Falls, | NY | 12436