Character Education Is A Partnership

CHARACTER EDUCATION IS A PARTNERSHIP

At The Mabin School we strive to meet the social and emotional needs of students through positive peer relationships, citizenship in the school community and the direct teaching of conflict resolution strategies.

Partnership: Parent and School

We believe that parents are the experts when it comes to knowing their children. Throughout our program, we support and validate all families and ensure that they are represented and included in the daily life of the school, as well as the care and education of their children.

At various times during the year, there are scheduled opportunities for active involvement in your child’s life at school. This kind of participation enhances the parent school partnership. Examples of parent involvement include Open House, Curriculum Night, Goal Setting Interviews, Parent Information Evenings, Student Led Conferences and Parent Teacher Interviews. Ensuring that parents engage fully in this process allows the school to meet the needs of each child at an optimal level.

A child’s sense of security and esteem comes from consistency in his or her daily life. Strong, shared communication between parent and school allow for the messages and expectations to be fully understood by the child. Examples of consistent expectations include respectful behaviour, self-help skills and independent problem solving. On an on-going basis, teachers and parents work together to develop strategies that fully support the development of each child.

This partnership reinforces a central tenant of the Mabin School’s philosophy — the idea of “mattering”, the empowerment of children in their own lives. It involves adults giving children the right to take up space, in their family, their school and their community.

Partnership: Teachers

One of the sustaining principles at the school is integration, not only of curriculum, but also of information. The staff shares a commitment to clear, detailed and ongoing sharing of information about each child, class and community. Through the use of multi-faceted communication strategies, there is on-going dialogue about daily life at school.

Teachers at the Mabin School guide the behaviour of the students with a long-term goal that each child will be able to make appropriate, independent decisions that are intrinsically motivated. The staff is committed to using positive language in all interactions with children, and to share the rules and expectations that the children have helped to develop in a way that the children can understand and respect.

In order for our school to be effective in our communication and teaching strategies, we regularly share in-depth information and develop individual goals and proactive strategies for the children. This commitment allows us to understand each child individually as well as to support his/her place in our community. The regular methods of information sharing between teachers include:

Division meetings: weekly gathering of classroom and specialist teachers to discuss both the needs of individual children and classes.
Primary/Junior Conference: consistent, on-line communication to discuss the needs of both individual children and classes.
Faculty Meetings: weekly and monthly whole staff gathering to share community information and foster professional development.
Impromptu Meetings: gathering of teachers to share immediate, relevant information.

“A single minded focus on academic achievement and test performance is simply inadequate to create each new generation we must raise up. To succeed, schools must focus on character and service; they must teach the personal values of academic integrity, perseverance, cooperation, self-discipline and self respect and the community values of respect for others and responsible citizenship.” — Bruce Boston, Their Best Selves, 1997.

Partnership: Child and Community

At The Mabin School we believe that children are intelligent, capable individuals who should be entrusted with the responsibility of problem solving.

The children are empowered to think deeply about their community and how their actions affect the people around them. Every action has an effect — positive or negative, immediately or some time in the future. We often ask the students “How is your behaviour affecting the community around you?”

In every situation within the school community, (e.g. cross talks, recess play, classroom group work and integrated activities), the children are consistently negotiating their own boundaries and expectations for participation in the group. By creating their own rights, responsibilities and rules for work and play, the students are able to be successful participants in their community.

The Playground Peer Mediators is a program in which Grade Five and Six students can choose to become conflict resolution mediators for their younger peers during recess times. A mediator metaphorically “stands in the middle of a conflict” and assists other children to navigate the steps of negotiation so that an agreement is reached that all believe is fair and workable. An older student mediator does not make a decision, or solve the problem for younger students. The goal is that the role modeling inherent to the process can both facilitate a positive, immediate resolution and ensure that children develop strategies so that they can solve similar problems independently in the future.

Conflict resolution is typically a four-step process. The children learn to:

1. Lay the ground rules - no put downs, no interruptions, work for a solution

2. Get the story - listening to everyone’s side, paraphrase

3. Brainstorm for a solution - the children involved do the brainstorming

4. Choose a solution that is win-win for the individuals involved

Every child has the right to be physically and emotionally safe and respected at all times. As individuals in a community negotiate their relationships, conflict can occur. Teachers and students mediate conflict on an ongoing, situational basis, always maintaining an optimal balance of the needs of the group and the needs of the individual child. If a situation arises in which a child’s rights are not respected, the school will take action, in partnership with child and parents, in a developmentally appropriate and timely fashion.

Unacceptable behaviours at the Mabin School include: exclusion, teasing, put downs, physical aggression and bullying. There is no one method that guarantees a healthy community, but the practice of integrating our school philosophy, character education, healthy behaviour guidance strategies and a commitment to teamwork between the partners in the school (children, parents and teachers), fosters a sustainable community.

“Developing a moral community means fostering an ethic of interdependence - the feeling that one person’s problem is everyone’s problem, and one person’s gain is everyone’s gain.” — Thomas Likona, Educating For Character: How Our Schools Can Teach Respect and Responsibility, 1991.