Character lessons at high school

Workshops teach students core values.

By: Melissa Hayes
   South Brunswick High School freshmen and sophomores will get a lesson in character education over the course of the school year thanks to two teachers and an administrator.
   Last spring math teacher Kathleen Choma and English teacher Elizabeth Trent attended a workshop on Creating a Caring High School Through the Integration of Character Education and the New Standards.
   Ms. Choma said they developed three core values for the ninth and 10th grade Foundation School at the high school as a result of the workshop — respect, understanding and kindness. There are posters throughout the high school annex, where the freshman cafeteria is, that state the core values and pose the question "Are you kind?"
   "We needed to do more than say we have three values," said Christine Chrabaszcz, an assistant principal.
   In addition to teaching the students about the three core values, Ms. Choma and Ms. Trent also wanted to share with the students the six pillars of character education that they were taught at the workshop.
   So the teachers, with the help of Ms. Chrabaszcz, scheduled free time together every other school day to work on lesson plans that teach students the six pillars of character education: trustworthiness, fairness, respect/understanding, responsibility, caring/kindness and citizenship.
   The teachers gave their first character education lesson in mid-October after a teacher volunteered his study hall class for the pilot lesson.
   "It really was worthwhile. You could tell that kids were thinking differently after they left after just one course," Ms. Choma said.
   The first lesson introduced the students to the six pillars of character education.
   Ms. Choma said one student in particular illustrated how useful lessons such as these are in high schools.
   She said that during that pilot lesson there was a student in the room who was not happy or enthusiastic. Within moments of breaking the class into groups and asking students to discuss how they felt and how they liked to be treated, she said, the student was actively participating in the discussion.
   "At the end of the class he said, ‘I didn’t know that anybody cared and I didn’t think that teachers thought about this,’" Ms. Choma said.
   She said the study hall teacher noted that he had never seen that student so happy and so involved in a class activity before.
   Ms. Choma said the idea behind the lessons is to teach students how to treat each other.
   "We’re not standing there and lecturing them," Ms. Choma said.
   "It’s coming from the kids," Ms. Chrabaszcz added.
   Ms. Choma said, "They really have a lot of knowledge but they don’t talk about it with each other."
   The school’s goal is to expose every freshman and sophomore to at least one lesson of character education by the end of the school year.
   "Creating a caring high school is a district goal," Ms. Chrabaszcz said.
   The two teachers have taught three classes, exposing students to two different lessons.
   Next week they hope to go back to their original class to teach a third lesson. After the lesson they will ask the students for feedback, Ms. Choma said.
   Ms. Chrabaszcz will begin teaching these lessons during sophomore study halls in the near future, she said.
   "It sometimes seems that they’re afraid to be kind," Ms. Choma said.
   The women said they hope to teach students that they don’t have to be afraid.
   "We want it to be where that’s the norm," Ms. Chrabaszcz said. "We want them to be nice to each other."