Smart & Good High Schools - The Flippen Group

person has gifts; and the conviction that developing ourgifts and using them to make a positive difference in theworld is the only way to be truly happy.◆ Communicate the school’s vision to incoming students.One school, in its “Statement to the Prospective Student,”makes it absolutely clear that to be a student there is tocommit wholeheartedly to the quest for excellence:“If you are content with yourself, thisschool may not be for you.”If you are happy and content with yourself, then this schoolmay not be for you. You must want to change and grow.As a student at this school, you shouldaccept the following premise as your basicresponsibility: that you make and keep atotal commitment to pursue excellence.◆ Invite graduates back to speak.Some schools invite graduates to comeback and speak to students about what isneeded to be successful, ethical, and happy in life—andhow the school’s emphasis on striving for excellence anddoing the right thing prepared them for that.ELC 4: Take personal responsibility forcontinuous self-development.4.2ELCPromising Practice 2:Promote ongoing self-reflection onthe quest for excellence and ethics.If the ELC wants to promote personal responsibilityfor pursuing excellence and ethics, it must fosterongoing personal reflection as essential for self-assessment,goal-setting, and continuing growth. Toward that end, someschools have students do journaling or write essays thatrequire regular self-examination (see box below).REFLECTING ON EXCELLENCE1. Review your academic subjects. What can you do toimprove in each? What keeps you from doing better?2. Evaluate your intellectual character. To what extent doyou possess curiosity, purposefulness, self-discovery,openness, thoroughness, and perseverance? How canyou develop each of these to a higher level? 36ELC 4: Take personal responsibility forcontinuous self-development.4.3ELCOur task in life is tobecome what wepotentially are.Promising Practice 3:Challenge students to move outsidetheir comfort zone.Striving for excellence means being willingto move outside our comfort zone, beyond the limits wemay initially set for ourselves. One mother said to us:In many areas of school life, this school pushes kids beyondtheir perceived limitations in ways that are important for theirgrowth. My son was a good basketball player, but his coachpushed him to be a leader on the court—to demand morefrom his teammates. He got benched whenhe didn’t do that. There were some 9-to-5erson the team—kids who were talented butdidn’t practice. Other kids got in a funkafter missing shots. He wasn’t comfortablesaying anything to them—it was a courageissue—he just wanted to lead by the exampleof his play. But the coach wanted him to gobeyond being the good kid and the goodplayer and add voice to that. When he finally did, it was like Ihad a different son. He started to confront me at home onsome things that needed to be confronted.—ERICH FROMMELC 4: Take personal responsibilityfor continuous self-development.4.4ELCCHAPTER 3: The Ethical Learning CommunityPromising Practice 4:Create a culture of excellence inclassrooms, and a schoolwidesystem that monitors and supportsachievement.The ideal of striving to be the best we can be comes tolife in school culture when it is translated into classroompractices used across the school. That starts with theteacher’s belief that every student is not only capable oflearning, but with enough time, effort, and support, capableof producing high-quality work. Many might considerthat unrealistic. But in his book, An Ethic of Excellence, masterteacher and master carpenter Ron Berger makes thecase that all students, whatever their abilities or backgrounds,have the potential to do excellent work:I want a classroom full of craftsmen. I want students whosework is strong and accurate and beautiful. In my classroomI have students who come from homes full of books, andstudents whose families own almost no books at all. I havestudents whose lives are generally easy, and students with49Smart & Good High Schools