The Center for Respectful Schools guides
participants to learn a new language of peace and respect.
Once children and adults define what respect, trust, empathy,
support, etc. mean to themselves, their peers and other school
members, then each individual and the community begin to
identify with and integrate these meanings into their thoughts
and behaviors. With this result as our foundation, we then
teach participants how to build relationships and community
rooted in these meanings.
We teach "Facilitative Leadership: Self
Management and Skill Development". Following are excerpts for
Dr.
Ken Hoods draft revision of the primary curriculum
used by the Center for Respectful Schools. This is from the
teacher's introduction to Module
Two.
"A vision of peace without self
understanding, skills and knowledge is only a dream. 'Let
Peace Prevail' needs thoughtful and reflective practice by us
individually and collectively. Our words, thoughts and actions
matter. They convey a message to others."
"We believe conflicting views are a natural
course of events. We further believe our individual life
experiences and our cultural context both help us understand
our world, and, at the same time, our experiences often
prevent us from working with others who understand the world
differently. Diverse views, values, attitudes and wants are in
need of understanding, managing and utilized in new and
creative ways, rather than, the divisive ways where name
calling, and racial slurs lead to irrational hatred and
violence."
" The seeds of peace are ever present in our
lives as are the seeds of conflict. The type of pathway each
of us will follow depends on the type of nourishment peace or
conflict is given or not given in each of us. We have the
capacity to respect each other or hate each other; the
capacity to trust each other or mistrust each other; the
capacity to risk building a positive relationship with each
other or not risk forming a relationship with each other; the
capacity to be a caring community or the capacity to destroy
our communities. The choice is ours."
" Our Credo is, "You cannot change others
you can only change yourself; when you change yourself you
change how others will act toward you." ( Pablo Cassell) This
separates facilitative leadership from other more traditional
forms of leadership"
The traditional classroom creates a controlled
context for learning, subjects are parsed and many things
learned are not understood to be relevant outside the
classroom or academic setting. We offer the school community a
new way of working together, to correct problems like
bullying, harassment and subtle intolerance, to create
resolution through positive action, throughout the school
environment and into the local community. We stimulate a
paradigm shift which instills respect as the norm in schools
and communities.
Dr. Ken Hood, VPA's Academic Advisor, is the visionary
of our school programs. As the former Associate Dean for
External Affairs at the University of Vermont , his field work
concentrated on school development. He is currently working
locally, nationally and internationally to develop schools and
communities. He was formerly a Vermont Principal and
Superintendant of schools and retains an active network of
contacts. Dr. Hood has long been a champion of student voice
and the prerequisite training that enable students to have
voice. His collaborative leadership philosophy is a
cornerstone of his work. Dr. Hood is intimately involved in
the planning and execution of every school program. Dr. Hood
leads our teacher training programs for school teachers and
VPA's contract educators.
Curriculum - This
material should not be reproduced or used without the written
permission of the authors.
Module Two teaches how
to understand their own and read others' Opinion, Emotions,
Body Awareness (cultural formulas of body language and facial
expression), Developing Calm, Engaging Uncertainty, Vision and
Action.
