Smart & Good High Schools - The Flippen Group

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CHAPTER 3: The Ethical Learning CommunityELC 6: Grapple with the elephants.6.2ELCPromising Practice 2:Create study groups to grapple withhigh-priority issues.A problem of major importance to the ethicallearning community will benefit from thoughtful discussionby all groups in the community. Study circles areone way to bring that about.We visited one high school in a communitythat was focusing on the persistingachievement gap between poor kids andbetter-off kids. The principal said, “Weserve six of the county’s 12 [low-income]projects, more than any other highschool.” Even before No Child LeftBehind applied federal pressure to closethe achievement gap, this community wasdetermined to be proactive. It decided the first step was toget people to understand the achievement gap—and oneway to do that was to have them read Ruby Payne’s book,Understanding the Framework of Poverty.“We’re making more of an effortto reach out to every student.”The city’s Human Resources Committee organized studycircles of 8-12 people to read and discuss Payne’s book.Two trained mentors, many of them teachers, led eachstudy circle. There was a special outreach to get minorityparents involved. One teacher-mentor told us:We’ve got these discussions going on all over the city—inchurches, the high school, community recreation centers, alllocations. Plus we’re providing food, childcare, and transportation.Our charge to all the study circles has been,“Develop ideas to close the achievement gap.” Our attitudeisn’t, “We hope to close it,” but “We will close it.”After the community-based study circles got underway,the schools set up their own study circles for all faculty.The principal commented:Sometimes wedon’t mind otherpeoples’ businessenough.It’s helped our staff understand the hidden effects of poverty.A lot of our kids are living with one parent or being raisedby a guardian or a grandparent. The adults in the homeoften do not expect that the child will learn and achieve.There may be family dynamics that affect the child—powerstruggles that spill over into the classroom as defiance ofauthority. Parents may not be teaching the child the behaviorand language we want in the school environment.—FLANNERY O’CONNORFor example, we’re asking our staff not to look at a student’sprofanity as a character flaw, not to take it personally,but to have the attitude, “I shouldn’t expect a child todo what I haven’t taught him.” Once you understand thesethings, there’s a different emotional response, and you canrespond in a diversity of ways.A high school teacher spoke of the change these discussionshad brought about in her. “We’re accountable forevery kid who walks through these doors.Before, I didn’t always make the effort toconnect with every student. Now I putmore energy into that.” A counselor said:We’re making more of an effort to reachout to every student. I’ll ask them: “Whatare your goals? What do you want toachieve in life? Well, then you’ve got to dothis and this and this . . .”For information on how to set up study circles, see theStudy Circles Resource Center, www.studycircles.org.ELC 6: Grapple with the elephants.Promising Practice 3:6.3 Help families confront their issues.ELCIn The Biggest Job We’ll Ever Have, Laura andMalcolm Gauld lay out 10 principles, basedon more than three decades of working with families, thatdefine the responsibilities of parents of adolescents. Thefirst and most important of these principles, in their judgment,is “truth over harmony.”The first principle in parenting teensis “truth over harmony.”Because the family’s first job is to prepare children forlife, a family must be willing to confront problems ratherthan avoiding conflict for the sake of harmony. “Puttingthe weight of our foot on the path of honesty is a lifelongchallenge and journey,” the authors write. “We learn greatlessons when we exercise the courage to trust the truth.”Dealing with the truth enables us to grow.A mother comments:Before we went to the family seminars my husband lost histemper a lot. And I used to do everything in my power tomake sure that he wouldn’t lose his temper, so I was alwaysbacking away. I can remember my son, really in anger, sayingto me, “Mom, you are so afraid of Dad! All you ever58Smart & Good High Schools
CHAPTER 3: The Ethical Learning Communitydo is support him instead of saying what is really happeningin our family.” 45Dealing with the truthenables us to grow.Laura Gauld, who has led many of the family seminarsbased on the “truth over harmony” principle, describedthe effects of these seminars on students:I’m impressed by the number of our students who say theywant to be a good father or a good mother, even morethan being successful at a career. It’s become a strong valuefor them. During their time here, they’ve seen their parentschange and how they have been the beneficiaries of that.These, then, are the six operating principles that guidethe development of an ethical learning community:develop shared purpose and identity; align practices withdesired outcomes and relevant research; have a voice andtake a stand; take personal responsibility for continuousself-development; practice collective responsibility; andconfront the elephants in your living room.We turn now to how these same principles apply to facultyand staff in the development of a professional ethicallearning community.59Smart & Good High Schools
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A Report to the NationSmart & GoodH
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A wonderful piece of work that addr
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Dedicated to the memory ofWinifred
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AcknowledgementsWe would like to ex
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Table of ContentsLetter to the Read
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ELC PRINCIPLE 4: TAKE PERSONAL RESP
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1. Develop Critical Friends Groups
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Letter to The Reader“Are you a he
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Letter to the ReaderBut we also do
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How to Read This Reporttices relate
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Patrick Bassett, president, Nationa
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Research Methodologyand Criteria fo
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Research Methodology and Criteria f
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Principles of a Smart & Good High S
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CHAPTER 1The Call to Character:Perf
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est work and be their best ethical
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CHAPTER 6Commonly Asked Questionsab
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CHAPTER 6: Commonly Asked Questions
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Comprehensive EndnotesLetter to the
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Comprehensive Endnotesside, 1990).3
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Smart & Good High Schools - The Flippen Group

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