HaYidion: Cover of the Parents issue
I lead a program at the Hillel School of Tampa that is a blend of character education and self-development with a heavy mix of Jewish study. It’s been our recipe for a fascinating volunteer program for parents and faculty.
We are a group of about 20 parents and faculty members who call ourselves the Guiding Jewish Values (GJV) Task Force. We meet monthly to inspire our faculty to implement character education in their classrooms. We have evolved to understand that our own characters are strengthening too, with the result that our group has become a “think tank” of ideas for character building.
We began a decade ago with the goal to establish a Jewish values-oriented school culture. Once we realized that what we were doing was developing our own character education program, we have sought out and attended local and national character education conferences. Our character education program is driven by Jewish values and a language of Hebrew and Yiddish terms, including mitzvah, mensch, kavod and tikkun olam.
Our GJV meetings begin with a discussion of a Jewish text. From there we discuss and reflect on how that particular text morally affects what is currently happening in our classrooms or the wider world. Those of us who attend conferences bring in what is happening in the world of secular character education. Then I offer an exercise as another way to convey values, like a recent one where we used a drawing of a “my heart” with its many segments, to show what and how what is important to us guides our choices. We leave the meetings enlightened and eager to inspire children to grow their characters, sure ingredients for success. ♦
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