Smart & Good High Schools - The Flippen Group

CHAPTER 3: The Ethical Learning CommunityThe touchstone can also be used to develop students’ criticalthinking and ethical judgment. What does it mean, inany situation, to “give my best” or “to honor others”?The Roosevelt WayWe visited one large high school, with approximately3,000 students (56% African-American, 30% Caucasian,10% Asian, 4% Hispanic), which used a touchstone, the“Roosevelt Way,” in a very deliberate manner to foster aculture of excellence and ethics. (The touchstone waspart of a schoolwide character education effort that usedthe Community of Caring program, www.communityofcaring.org.) A character education page in the schoolyearbook states that the “Roosevelt Way” includes the corevalues of “respect, responsibility, integrity, honesty, andkindness,” but other than that, it is not written down. Astudent leader told us, “I think it would be less effective ifit were written down because I believe it is something personalto every student.”The Roosevelt Way: “Doing the rightthing because it’s the right thing to do.”A counselor at the school explained: “There is a way thatstudents here are expected to act, and a way that they areexpected not to act.” The vice-principal defined theRoosevelt Way as “doing the right thing because it’s theright thing to do.”Freshmen get a talk on the Roosevelt Way at their orientation.School administrators are often on the PA askingstudents to demonstrate the Roosevelt Way with respect toa particular area of school life. There are references to itin the student handbook, student newspaper, and communicationsto parents. Freshman English teachers havestudents write about what the Roosevelt Way means tothem. In all sports—the school excels in athletics as wellas academics—coaches expect their teams to adhere tothe Roosevelt Way. When we visited, the school had justlost the game for the state football championship to itsarchrival, and despite the victors’ trash-talk gloating,Roosevelt players and coaches wrote them a letter of congratulations.The athletic director told us, “We teach ourkids that it’s easy to win with class, harder to lose withclass. You have to learn to do both.”Seniors and juniors, especially student leaders, are askedto help the younger students in the school learn theRoosevelt Way. This helps to get it into the peer culture.When we spoke with a faculty focus group, one teachersaid, “In class, students will sometimes police each other. Ihad a boy this week who spoke disrespectfully to me.Before I had a chance to respond, another boy in thenext row leaned over and said quietly, ‘That’s not theRoosevelt Way.’ It immediately defused the situation.”THE POWER OF A TOUCHSTONETO BUILD THE PEER CULTUREWe look at the freshmen as the babies of theschool. It’s up to us to teach them how to actand keep them on the right track. If they’re doing somethingwrong—using bad language in the halls, for example—wejust tell them, ”That’s not the Roosevelt Way.” Ican remember when I was a freshman, I was going toskip class, and a senior took me aside and said, “That’snot the Roosevelt Way.”—A SENIOR GIRLOne student leader estimated that “only a minority of students,maybe 7-10%, have ever ‘called out’ another studentfor not following the Roosevelt Way. Fear of rejectionand image concerns would keep most students fromdoing that.” A veteran teacher commented, “Some studentsfollow it consciously, others unconsciously. Somefollow it unconsciously at first, then later, more consciously.But I believe the great majority are defined by it,whether they know it or not.”“Students are defined by the touchstone,whether they know it or not.”Each year there is a schoolwide essay contest on theRoosevelt Way. Students’ entries reflect the school’semphasis on both performance character and moral character.A boy wrote:To a lot of students, the Roosevelt Way may seem like just avague concept that the administrators use to keep us in line.But I think we all know the Roosevelt Way under differentnames. Those names are integrity and hard work. Our driveto succeed is what sets our school apart from others. Welearn habits of diligence and integrity that we will carry withus for the rest of our lives. That is the true Roosevelt Way.Faculty made it a point to tell us, “We’re not a perfectschool—we have our bad days.” The day we were there,two students got suspended for fighting. But through itsconsistent, daily use of a touchstone, this large, multiracialschool displays a high level of intentionality in its36Smart & Good High Schools