Smart & Good High Schools - The Flippen Group

Letter to the ReaderBut we also do well to remember that a single adult canmake a significant difference in the life of a young person.That is what the research on resilience tells us:Young people who manage to overcome adversity in theirbackgrounds often cite a single teacher, coach, or otherinspiring role model who helped them believe in themselves.1One veteran educational researcher underscored thispoint: Even as we strive for schoolwide change, we mustnot lose sight of the potential and responsibility of everyindividual school practitioner to have a positive impact onthe character of students:Changing whole-school climate is very important but will bea slow, difficult process in most high schools. The Power ofOne really matters and is at the heart of most high schoolstudents’ character-forming school experiences. Thereforeevery high school educator needs to ask, ”What can I dobetter to foster character in my work with students? Howam I modeling character for my students? How can I assessmy perceived effectiveness in these areas?”“The Power of One matters.”Bottom line: Do everything possible to work toward awhole-school environment that supports excellence andethics. But in the meantime, work at the micro-level—on1J. Garbarino, Raising children in a socially toxic environment. (SanFrancisco: Jossey-Bass, 1995); see also B. Benard, “Fostering resiliencyin kids,” Educational Leadership, 1993, 51, 3, 44-48.your own practices, in your own sphere of influence—tooptimize your personal contribution to the characterdevelopment of every student. In our study, we foundmany individual practitioners who were doing just that, inspite of less than ideal working conditions.A note on reporting style: In describing promising practices,except when we draw from published material, wedo not name the school or teacher. We do gratefullyacknowledge the help of participating schools on pagexix. In the narrative of the report, we describe the particularsnecessary for understanding a given practice—keepingthe focus on the practice, not the person or theschool.We also want to avoid seeming to hold up, as “exemplary,”any particular school or teacher. Unlike an awards program,whose purpose is to give a stamp of approval, ourstudy was not aimed at producing a list of schools or programsthat others should go and emulate. Rather, we setout to identify promising practices for high school characterdevelopment and ended up, from the many goodthings we saw around the country, developing a newvision: that of a Smart & Good High School in whichexcellence and ethics are fully integrated—in which everyphase of school life is shaped by that dual mission.We invite everyone, whatever your role, to consider themerits of a hedgehog focus on excellence and ethics as astrategy for helping our high schools—and our youth—flourish.TOM LICKONA AND MATT DAVIDSONCORTLAND, NEW YORKxviSmart & Good High Schools