Impact in Elementary Schools
Mizzentop Day School in New York implements LVEP school-wide, along with the STEP program. Amy Farrell reports that LVEP was strongly adopted by the whole school five years ago. Educators from pre-school through eighth grade do a different value every month and relate it throughout the curriculum. Small groups of children meet to do the values activities and discuss the issues that are current for them. The students contribute to a values bulletin board and have done a 10 by 20 foot mural on values. Mrs. Farrell noted, "LVEP creates such a positive environment and attitude for everyone ; for the whole school community. The students use the positive skills they have learned to solve challenges and use values in their everyday language."
In Florida, the Aventura City of Excellence School (ACES) began implementing LVEP school-wide in the Fall of 2003 after an LVEP Educator Training.
The Aventura City of Excellence School Vision Statement is to join with the community to become the premier Charter School in the nation where academic excellence coexists with the promotion of social responsibility grounded in an atmosphere of human dignity. Our Living Values program supports the ACES Vision.
The ACES Living Values Education Program provides students with a safe, caring environment based on values to assist students in developing social skills and making wise choices. Students learn how to treat themselves and others with respect and dignity. Values inform discipline, e.g., no bullying goes on at ACES. In addition, the ACES Living Values Education Program provides Parenting Workshops so the entire family can learn to practice these Values. ACES Parents enthusiastically participate in the "Knock Your Socks Off" Parent Workshop series, which won the 2005 National Award from the Character Education Partnership.
As the Miami Herald's Monica Hatcher reported in the newspaper on November 29, 2004 in "Educating with Values":
In the cafeteria at Aventura City of Excellence School, where the lunchtime noise sometimes sounds like a 747 at full takeoff power, Principal Kathleen Murphy has a solution for silence.
She brings some noise of her own.
"Ladies and gentlemen. Ladies and gentlemen!" says Murphy, her voice blasting through the din.
The quiet was immediate. And then Murphy had the floor.
"It is WAAAY too loud in here." she boomed. "You are showing a lack of respect to your peers when you talk while you're eating."
Then Murphy flashed one of her million-megawatt smiles and squeezed the shoulders of a student seated in front of her.
"You big social animals, you," she laughed, as the room began to hum again, but at a considerably lower decibel level.
Whether they realized it or not, the students at Aventura City of Excellence School, known as ACES, got a mini-lesson in the experimental Living Values Character Education program, one facet of academic and social life that sets this public charter school apart.
"As a charter school, we can push the envelope a little bit," explained Murphy, who has headed Miami-Dade County's only city-sponsored charter school since it opened in the fall of 2003.
The Living Values program seeks to integrate 11 core values, such as respect, responsibility, honest and love into the school day, beginning with reflection on a special values message in the morning.
Cheating is against the rules, of course, but it's a topic of frequent discussion among the 600 students at ACES.
"It also means we have no bullies," Murphy said.
The Living Values program is one way administrators and teachers say they try to mold child as both good citizens and good students at the only public school within Aventura's city limits.
"It's important because love, peace and respect are values to have in our lives," said Julianne Garber, an 8-year-old in third grade.
Parents agree--because there are 600-plus families on the admissions waiting list. ....
ACES students with letters received from students doing LVEP in India!
LVEP students in India wave hello!
