By Jack Zaccara
One of the highlights of this past October was the Character.org annual conference that members of One World’s leadership attended. As always, there were great ideas and takeaways shared with the educational community. We heard from Promising Practice Teachers (an award given by Character.org), administrators, and some of the legends of character education.
As much as there was to learn by attending, there were numerous confirmations that the work we do at One World is at the forefront of building a global community of educators dedicated to empowering students to be positive change agents in their school, their community, and their world. A few examples include:
- Integrating Character Ed. and S.E.L. helps to build authentic relationships.
- People entering the school should see and feel the emphasis on values and principles, using a shared language.
- Teachers need to talk about what they are modeling in the classroom.
- Skills — Climate —Virtues — Positive Purpose
One sticking point was having a positive purpose. Noble Purpose is accomplishing something that is meaningful to self AND a positive consequence to the world. Where are we navigating to? Every child has a positive noble purpose. It is our job as educators to help them find it, help them reach it.
Embedded in our missions “to create a 21st-century global learning community of future-ready, lifelong learners”, we see ourselves as igniters of purpose and we look to graduate thinking and thriving citizens with a moral compass. We are excited to continue to support teachers in their mission to bring a noble purpose to children around the globe.
