This past Tuesday, December 8, I had the opportunity to be one of the
speakers at the National Liberty Museum’s launch of its Heroes of
Character project in Philadelphia. The project includes four interactive,
character-centered exhibits at the Museum and a website
(http://www.heroesofcharacter.org) featuring character education activities and
resources for teachers, families, and communities-all designed to
challenge kids to become a “hero of character” by making good choices,
developing their talents, using their gifts to serve others, and the like.
Tuesday’s launch event included a splendid speech on liberty and character
exemplars by Dr. Jack Templeton, president of the John Templeton
Foundation, which funded the Heroes of Character project. (Jack said he’d
send me a copy of his talk.)
In my 15-minute talk at the luncheon, I was able to include a brief
account of our current field-testing of Power2Learn in four states, with
an example of a lesson we had just observed at Junction City High School,
a large, multicultural school (about 50% African-American) and one of our
leader schools in Kansas. Junction City is implementing Power2Learn with
freshmen, having faculty teams (who teach Communications, Math, Science,
and English) take turns teaching the lessons of a given unit.
The day Sue Kidd (coordinator of the Kansas federal character ed grant)and
I visited, we were able to observe Communications teacher Kate Erickson
(also her school’s Internal Power2 Coach) do a wonderful job of teaching
the lesson from Unit 2 (on stress management) that includes the inspiring
You-Tube clip, “Homeless to Harvard.”
If you haven’t seen that You-Tube, it tells the story of a young woman
named Liz Murray. She recounts how she grew up in a dysfunctional family
with parents whose idea of life was having a good time dancing and doing
drugs. When Liz was 15, her mother contracted AIDs, and died within a
year. Liz found herself on the street and wondering, “Am I going to end up
like my mother, or am I going to do something different with my life?”
She decides to work hard in school, believe in herself, and persevere no
matter what-and gets accepted into Harvard.
Before teacher Erickson showed the video and had the students discuss the
suggested questions (“What do you admire about Liz Murray?” “What
questions would you like to ask her?”), she explained that the clip was an
illustration of how we can turn our lives around if we want to. The most
moving moment of the lesson came next when she asked **Jason, a tall
African-American boy (about 6′ 4″, 240 lbs.)in the back of the room, if he
would be willing to share his story. (Later she told us she knew he
wouldn’t be embarrassed to do so because he had done so in another class.)
She added, addressing the class: “Jason is one of the gentlest, most
mild-mannered, and polite people I know.”
Speaking softly, with all eyes on him, Jason then told his story:
“When I was younger, I was part of a gang. We beat up some boys pretty bad
and put them in the hospital. I went to jail, a juvenile detention center,
for 13 months.”
“What did that teach you?” Mrs. Erickson asked.
“To control my anger.”
“Jason is an example of what?” Mrs. Erickson asked the class.
“A turnaround story,” a boy said.
It was a powerful moment. Many teachers have brought a Power2Learn lesson
to life by sharing a story from their own lives. Kate Erickson
demonstrated the power of eliciting a pertinent story from a student’s
life. This was one of many things she did to make this lesson a memorable
one for her kids. It was a pleasure for Sue and me to see the potential of
a Power2Learn lesson in the hands of a passionate and talented teacher.
And I was grateful to be able to share this story with the folks at
National Liberty Museum’s Heroes of Character event.
***Note: name changed
