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the center for spiritual

and ethical education

CSEE helps schools create ethical and spiritual

climates that match the rigor and effectiveness of
their academic climates

In This Issue
Ethical Education through Service Learning

Literature in Review

Educating for Character

Publication Spotlight

Spiritual Directions

Religious Holidays and Observances

Upcoming Events

10

From the Executive Director

11

Permission to reprint Connections material, with a credit line for the Center for Spiritual and Ethical Education, is granted

CSEE
PO Box 19807
Portland, OR

David Streight
Executive Director
ds@csee.org

Jennifer Aanderud
Associate Director
jenny@csee.org

Beth Sandlin
Business Manager
bethsandlin@csee.org

Phone: 800.298.4599
E-mail: info@csee.org
www.csee.org

Rei Peterson
Executive Assistant
rei@csee.org

John Roberts
Editor
johnr@csee.org

April 2012 vol. xxxi no. 7

CONNECTIONS
the center for spiritual and ethical education

Ethical Education through Service Learning

By David B. Wangaard, Ed.D.

variety of strategies can be called upon to foster ethical education in the classroom. Ethical dilemmas, Socratic
dialogues regarding current events, and reflective discussions
about literature all provide opportunities for students to
practice ethical reasoning. While these strategies support the
development of those cognitive skills involved in ethical
reasoning, service learning can engage two additional
domainsthe affective and the behavioraland thus offer
powerful opportunities for meaningful ethical education.

project. Similarly, a language arts objective for this project

could be stated as follows: Project participants will be able
to correctly demonstrate citation methods for written, electronic, and oral communication in a bibliography. Teachers
and students can work together to identify multiple ethical
and curricular objectives as they plan their project.

The National Service-Learning Clearinghouse (NSLC) cites

eight standards for effective service learning (see http://
www.servicelearning.org/instant_info/fact_sheets/k-12_
facts/standards). I would like to highlight three of those
standards here, as they specifically support ethical education.
These standards make a clear distinction of practice as compared with traditional adult-led community service.

A second standard for effective service learning requires the

engagement of students in project selection, planning, and
implementation. This standard would be embraced by all
those familiar with experiential learning. The value added
in service learning is that the project will include an act of
service to people, places, or the environment. Engaging students to identify the service need, the reasons the need exists,
and how to go about addressing the need, all provide rich
opportunities for students to experience a personal sense
of ownership for an issue, which can expand their view of
responsibility as citizens in community.

The project should be explicitly linked to the curriculum

One NSLC standard for effective service learning requires
the project to be explicitly linked to learning objectives
within the curriculum. It is the responsibility of the teacher
to maintain this linkage as the teacher and students engage
in project selection and planning. Ethical/character formation
should be included as an explicit learning objective for
every service-learning project. Objective statements can be
written with student input to document this goal.
For example, students in an advocacy project seeking
to promote academic integrity could write an objective
statement as follows: Project participants will recognize
the need and the ethical reasons that all school community members should demonstrate academic integrity.
Documenting this objective clarifies the ethical goal and
focuses participants on achieving the objective during the

Students should be engaged in selection, planning, and

implementation

Identifying a service need could be more efficiently accomplished by the teacher alone (sometimes necessary given
time demands), but when the teacher can give students
project selection options and maintain curricular linkage,
student engagement increases along with their willingness
to engage in the ethical issues associated with the project.
A service-learning project can be designed as a teacherstudent collaboration with the goal of increasing student
engagement. Collaboration is not the teacher telling the
students the project topic, or leaving the room to see what
the students determine as their project interest. A true collaboration of teacher and students includes the teacher

Continues on p. 2

Ethical Education through Service Learning

Continued from Page 1

helping to guide students to identify a service topic that

has a clear connection to existing curricular goals and is
practical given the time and resources available.

to http://www.ethicsed.org/programs/yes/index.htm for
descriptions of successful projects.)
Every project should include reflection

The teacher should also guide students to find research

defining the proposed project need and possible solutions.
The research step to identify dimensions of the need and
solutions can become
a project jigsaw, where
Well-designed service
the teacher helps the
learning engages students
students organize
themselves in small
heads, hearts, and hands in
research teams to find
a rich experience catalyzed
answers to project
by the recognition that
questions. For example,
they are serving something
in an academicbigger than themselves....
integrity advocacy
project, students may
The reflection opportunities
ask, What defines
make service learning an
academic integrity and
excellent ethical-education
cheating? What perstrategy.
cent of students cheat
and do we know why?
Are there practical
steps to promote academic integrity and resist cheating?
As answers to these research questions emerge, the teacher
can help students create a synthesis of the responses in
a format where the class can study the summary of their
work. The results of this research will then support steps
of project planning and implementation. On these steps,
too, teachers and students should collaborate. The website
for The School for Ethical Education (SEE) has an outline of
steps for successful service learning (http://www.ethicsed.
org/programs/yes/pdf/sl_footprints.pdf ).
I have focused on the topic of academic integrity, as SEE
has recently published a Toolkit that supports a servicelearning project as an adult/student collaboration to promote
academic integrity (see http://www.ethicsed.org/programs/
integrity-works). The Toolkit includes many ideas successfully implemented by high school service-learning teams
that sought to promote academic integrity. Other topics for
service-learning projects are only limited by the time and
imagination that teachers and students have to reflect on
their assets (resources, abilities, curricular interests) and how
they might support local or global needs. Service learning
can successfully address topics such as direct service to the
school or to charities, environmental projects, or advocacy
projects for causes that will be of interest to students. (Go

Page 2 April 2012

A third standard for effective service learning is most critical

to our goal of ethical/character formation: every servicelearning project should include participant reflection. For
our example advocacy project, the background research
may lead to a reflection question such as Why is cheating
so pervasive in high schools? This question opens up a
broad opportunity of ethical discussion and reflection. Do
students experience too much pressure to qualify for elite
colleges? Is cheating primarily an act of commission to get
an advantage over others, or is cheating an act of desperation
due to perceived time pressure?
Activities for ethical reflection can be divided into a variety
of sub-components, two of which include ethical sensitivity
and ethical judgment. Building on James Rests four-component model of moral functioning, Darcia Narvaez and
her colleagues recently published a series of four books
(see http://ace.nd.edu/press/nurturing-character-in-theclassroom-series-ethex-books-1-4). Two books of the Ethex
Series help teachers integrate activities to develop students
ethical sensitivity and ethical judgment within academic
curricula. Much of this work can be applied to service learning.
Ethical sensitivity is defined by students ability to recognize
when an ethical situation is described in a community need.
For example, is academic dishonesty really an ethical problem? Not everyone agrees that cheating in school defines a
student-focused ethical issue. One way to define an ethical
problem is to evaluate if the issue results in harm or injustice. Evaluating community needs to determine if harm or
injustice is evident can create an opportunity to develop
ethical sensitivity. For example, one could ask if bullying in
school, homelessness, or environmental challenges are ethical issues. Reflection on how any issue affects the welfare of
both the individual and society as a whole helps develop
ethical sensitivity; ultimately, such reflection supports the
individuals choice to demonstrate ethical behavior.
Ethical judgment is reflected in a separate cognitive function
defined by students ability to use the facts available (in an
ethical dilemma) and come to a reasonable conclusion that
is supported by sound ethical theory. While risking oversimplification here, a person practicing duty-based ethical
theory could reflect on the significance of cheating in light

Continues on p. 5

CSEE Connections

Literature in Review

By Richard Barbieri

A Convenient Hatred: The History of Antisemitism

Phyllis Goldstein
Facing History and Ourselves, 2011

while ago, as head of a small progressive elementary

school, I needed to address a playground situation in which
a fifth grader had said to a Jewish classmate, You people
killed Jesus. When I asked the childs parents in to discuss
the incident, I received this response: Our family couldnt
be antisemitic; we dont even know anything about Jews.
If I were still at that school, I would lend them my copy of
Phyllis Goldsteins new book, the first of its kind from Facing
History and Ourselves.
Facing History is a 35-year-old international educational and
professional development organization whose mission is to
engage students of diverse backgrounds in an examination
of racism, prejudice, and antisemitism in order to promote
the development of a more humane and informed citizenry.
Many independent schools use its curricula. You can find
more information at www.facing.org, and can order the
book there, online including Kindle, and at most bookstores.
Full disclosure: yours truly has been a board member of the
organization and is an active volunteer, but had no hand in
the book whatsoever.
A Convenient Hatred is a thorough and engagingI cant
say enjoyablechronicle of antisemitism, from possible
incidents in Egypt 500 years B.C.E. to third-party successes
among national fronts in Europe in this century. (Here, as in
the book itself, antisemitism is spelled without hyphenation
or post-hyphen capitalization. Since there is no semitic race,
and since the Semitic language groups include Arabic and
Amharic as well as Hebrew, many scholars believe the capitalized and hyphenated term is inaccurate and dangerous,
since it reifies Jewishness as if it were a biological category.)
Goldstein covers familiar groundthe Christ-killer accusation,
the blood libels of the Middle Ages and after, the Protocols
of the Elders of Zionbut also introduces incidents known
only to specialists, such as the disappearance and alleged
murder of the Franciscan friar Father Thomas in Damascus

CSEE Connections

in 1840 C.E., which drew the great powers of the era into
what began as a local issue in a region disputed by Egypt
and the Ottoman Empire.
A Convenient Hatred is the organizations first work intended
for a non-school audience, and the book takes care to be
sure that all readersJewish and non-Jewish, religious
and secular, the historically knowledgeable and the uninformedcan follow the text. Occasionally this caution may
be intrusive: not many
likely readers will need
a five-sentence explaAntisemitism is one of the
nation of socialist,
longest and most shameful
capitalist, and mixed
chapters in human memory,
economies (although
and A Convenient Hatred
Goldstein uses the
helps ensure that its history,
moment to make the
important observation
and the determination to
that Jews have been
oppose it, will not be buried
irrationally accused by
under the ashes of forgetboth systems of subfulness.
verting their principles).
But for the most part,
the book strikes an
admirable balance: more sophisticated than a textbook, less
demanding than a work for historians, it is both highly readable and carefully researched.
A crucial merit of the book is its refusal to oversimplify. The
book asks Why? on about one page in four, probing the
varied reasons for individual acts or periods of antisemitism,
examining social, economic, nationalist, theological, and
other motives, without ever adopting a simplified, onesize-fits all approach. Mentioning those all-too-few who
opposed antisemitism in different eras, from emperors and
popes to ordinary citizens, Goldstein pays them their due,

Continues on p. 6

3
April 2012 Page

Educating for Character

By CSEE Staff

CSEE Recognition of Excellent Practice in Ethical Education

SEE invites schools to help mark where the 21st

century bar sits for character/ethical education. Join three
already-recognized institutionsThe Peck School (New
Jersey), Kent Denver School (Colorado), and The Walker
School (Georgia)along with a half dozen others now
going through the recognition process.
This recognition program attests to a schools ongoing
work to meet, at a high level, criteria widely recognized as
hallmarks of excellence in ethical education.An outline of
the criteria the schools
above are meeting is as
If you are not sure that
follows.

your program is ready for

recognition, CSEE also
helps schools address
challenges and make
progress towards topnotch programs.

1. Ethical growth, as well

as academic growth, is
explicit in the schools
mission statement (or
other key statements of
school values, philosophy, etc.)

2. The school has a planned, rather than haphazard,

approach to reach its goals of fostering ethical life.
3. The school has in place a plan to evaluate and fine-tune
levels of success.

4. School trustees show their support of the schools ethical

education initiatives. (There are several ways that trustees
can indicate their support, and the fact that ethical growth
is important to them has great influence on the culture at
most schools.)
5. An individual or group is clearly designated to oversee
the program.

6. The school is involved in ongoing work to train adults at

school to be more effective ethical educators.
7. The schools ethical/character goals are integrated into
the curriculum.

8. The school has numerous ways of empowering students

with meaningful roles in the life of the school. The litmus

Page 4 April 2012

test of this standard would generally be that students feel

as though their presence is valued, and that what they do at
school contributes to making them better people and the
school a better place. While contributions in lower grades
may be limited, such opportunities do exist. At all grades, all
students should be feel like they can contribute meaningfully to discussions and that they are shown respect when
doing so. At higher grades, playing meaningful roles may
include service learning, honor council participation, formal
peer support networks, student government, or other leadership or decision-making/influencing positions.

9. Students recognize that the school has goals for moral

and ethical development, and typically can articulate, even
if imperfectly, what the goals are.
10. Parents are included in the schools goals for the development of ethical life, at a minimum through regular information about the schools work to that effect, and about
how they can work in tandem with the school. Ideally, parents are actively engaged in promoting the schools goals.
(The extent to which parents can be involved depends in
part on the nature of the schoolboarding schools versus
day schools, for example. In the best scenarios, parents both
take an active role in helping the school attain its goals and
participate in the definition of those goals.)
Comprehensive programs for ethical/character education are
becoming standard practice in schools, and well-implemented character programs can improve academics.
If schools can achieve excellence in both academics and
ethics, they should! Independent schools can take leadership roles with their model programs, and CSEE can help
spread the word about successes.
If you are not sure that your program is ready for recognition,
CSEE also helps schools address challenges and make progress toward top-notch programs. Please let us know if you
would like CSEEs help in clarifying a path toward effective
practices.
See more about this program and documentation material
at http://www.csee.org/projects/ethicstandards.html. l

CSEE Connections

Ethical Education through Service Learning

Continued from Page 2

of recognized rules for academic integrity. A person practicing

utilitarian ethics might evaluate student cheating as to the
consequences cheating has on the student and school. A
third ethical theory, the virtue-based model, is practiced
when a person chooses to demonstrate positive character
as an outcome of any dilemma. All three perspectives can
be synthesized in student reflection regarding the ethical
impact of cheating in school. Students should be taught
how to use ethical reflection to evaluate a variety of issues
or potential project needs (The Golden Compass is a workbook to practice ethical decision making in grades 5-12:
http://www.ethicsed.org/consulting/golden-compass.htm).
Identified project needs provide useful issues for ethical
evaluation as they relate to the harm that might be caused
to individuals, the school, society or the environment. While
experts debate the power of ethical judgment as a factor
leading to ethical behavior, many studies note a positive
correlation. Our goal should be to recognize that ethical
judgment and ethical sensitivity can be practiced during
service learning as skills in support of ethical behavior.
Ethical reflection can also be catalyzed by using questions
that spring up from considering how the service-learning
participants interact with each other and those they may
be serving. How are we doing as a class? Are we respecting
the people we serve? These simple questions can lead to
a profound ethical analysis of how students are personally
and collectively treating one another and their community.
Formative reflection on project outcomes has great potential
to guide the project successfully in both ethical and performance goals.
Additional NSLC standards for effective service learning
include these five: (1) the project is meaningful, (2) the
project welcomes diversity of participation, (3) the project
seeks partnerships with others in the community, (4) the
project includes planned evaluation, and (5) the project has
sufficient time and duration. All eight NSLC standards are
important to effective implementation of service learning,
while the three standards addressed above are highlighted
as a means to focus teachers on the opportunities for ethical education.
Project connection to curricular objectives, student engagement in all aspects of the project, and ethical reflection all
support opportunities to educate three learning domains
recognized by character educators. These three domains
already mentioned include (1) the students cognitive pro-

CSEE Connections

cess (head) during project planning, implementation, and

ethical reflection, (2) the students affective domain (heart)
where student engagement is valued as they are given the
opportunity to have voice and choice regarding project
planning and implementation, and (3) the students behavioral domain (hand) where the project creates opportunity
for student action to demonstrate positive character to
peers and to recipients of project work.
Well-designed service learning engages students heads,
hearts, and hands in a rich experience catalyzed by the
recognition that they are serving something bigger than
themselves. We understand through student testimony that
service helps create a powerful affective link that encourages
students to participate in authentic ethical reflection during
project work. These reflection opportunities make service
learning an excellent ethical-education strategy.
Why is service learning not practiced more widely? It is clear
the standards to effectively implement service learning
demand more time and effort for thoughtful planning and
implementation than traditional classroom or communityservice activities. However, the evidence shows that the
extra work required is rewarded with many benefits, including
positive academic achievement, positive development of
character and social skills, and positive class climate (see
http://www.ethicsed.org/programs/yes/sl_research.htm). l

David B. Wangaard, Ed.D., has been the director since

1995 of The School for Ethical Education (SEE) in Milford,
Connecticut, and is a frequent presenter at regional, national,
and international conferences on character education. Prior
to earning his doctorate in educational leadership from
the University of Northern Colorado, David was a school
principal in Alaska. He has been applying his character
education strategies in schools since 1984 and has been
one of the Character Education Partnerships consultants
for the National Schools of Character Program since 1999;
he joined CEPs Educational Advisory Council in 2011. David
has authored a number of texts in support of character
development, the most recent of which is Integrity Works!, to
help secondary schools initiate academic integrity programs
as a service-learning strategy. He recently joined CSEEs
consultant staff to work with schools on the development
of top-quality character programs. He can be reached at
dwangaard@ethicsed.org or through CSEE.

5
April 2012 Page

Publication Spotlight
Creating a Culture of Academic Integrity:
A Toolkit for Secondary Schools

Literature in Review

by David B. Wangaard, Ed.D., and Jason M. Stephens, Ph.D.

CSEE members: $35 Others: $45

Continued from Page 3

but doesnt allow the good-news stories to shine disproportionately against the dark background of two millennia.

reating a Culture of Academic Integrity is a combination how-to, activities, and resource book to help schools
move through the process of creating a school culture
that fosters integrity. It was written by a former high school
principal (see this issues lead article) who has spent the last
decade as a leader in the field of ethical education, in collaboration with a professor in the Department of Educational
Psychology at the University of Connecticut. (The February
issue of Connections included an article by Wangaard and
Stephens.)
The first several pages of Creating a Culture of Academic
Integrity offer suggestions for establishing an Academic
Integrity Committee in a school, and for composing an
honor code. The remainder of the bookin two separate
sectionstakes square aim at what the title of the book
suggests: that academic integrity does not come from
either the code or the council, but rather from the work
done to create a culture where academic integrity is both
the expectation and the norm (section 3) and that part of
creating a culture entails integrating concepts of integrity
into the curricular and extracurricular life of the school.
Creating a Culture of Academic Integrity includes a compact
disk, for easier access to copies of the books handouts. l

Page 6 April 2012

Continued Article

A Convenient Hatred depends heavily on primary-source testimony from victims, witnesses, persecutors, and upstanders
in every era, including the prescient testimony of President
(then General) Eisenhower upon visiting one of the death
camps: I visited every nook and cranny of the camp
because I felt it my duty to be in a position from then on
to testify at first hand about these things in case there ever
grew up at home the belief or the assumption that the stories of Nazi brutality were just propaganda.
In George Bernard Shaws Caesar and Cleopatra, the tutor
Theodotus begs Caesar to save the burning Library of
Alexandria: What is burning there is the memory of mankind. Caesar replies, A shameful memory. Let it burn. Caesar
is wrong, of course: the shameful, along with the laudable,
memories should be illuminated, not burned. Antisemitism
is one of the longest and most shameful chapters in human
memory; A Convenient Hatred helps ensure that its history,
and the determination to oppose it, will not be buried
under the ashes of forgetfulness. l

After 40 years in independent education, Richard Barbieri

is currently devoting his energies to a variety of writing and
editing projects, including blogging on books and society at
readerweeper.blogspot.com. He can be reached at richarde.
barbieri@gmail.com.

CSEE Connections

Spiritual Directions

By David Streight

Surveying Spiritual Climates: What Are Students Telling Us?

n the three years since CSEEs Spiritual Climate Survey

(SCS) was developed, well over a thousand students from
schools across the United States have responded to the
instruments 28 items, and with interestingand in most
cases gratifyingresults.

religious, or having a spiritual life beyond religion (3.7 and

3.6, respectively), is important. In CSEEs data there is a slight
drop in being religious between middle school and high
school, but there is no significant difference between the
two division levels on the issue regarding the importance of
a spiritual life.

On the whole, the students in these schools are very positive

about their schools, both as social institutions and as places
that foster growth of the spirit. Not surprisingly, both middle
and upper school students feel it is more acceptable if religion or spirituality comes up during classroom discussion
(where the average score was 4.2) than if religion or spiritual
issues come up at the lunch table or in other informal settings
(where the score was 3.8). The surveys items are offered
as statements that students are asked to agree or disagree
with; a score of 1 indicates strong disagreement, while a 5
indicates strong agreement. The middle score, 3, indicates
an ambivalent neither agree nor disagree.

Most students in these early years of surveys feel that their

school is appropriately measured in its spiritual offerings.
That is, when reacting to the statement my school has a
right balance (amount) of spiritual and/or religious influence
the average is 3.8. In line with this statement, when students
react to the statement I would like to have more opportunities for spiritual growth at my school, the average is also
3.8. When asked if they were in favor of more opportunities
for spiritual growth at school, students have responded
with a right-in-the-middle 3.0.

The most compelling data entail students reporting much

satisfaction with the spiritual development resources available to them, and with the people around them. Students
generally feel as though their peers at school are respectful
of other religions (4.1), that their schools are interested
in their becoming more mature in their spirituality/faith
(4.1), and that there are adults at school that they can talk
to about spiritual issues (3.9). Similarly, they seem to feel
that their school cares about religion and spirituality (4.0).
Students in most schools (though not all) disagree that the
school pressures them to accept a certain kind of religion (2.1).
Where are students most ambivalent? One survey statement
comes closest to the mark: I have grown spiritually because
of my school. The median score for this item is 3 and the
average is 3.3, thus suggesting that students as a whole
are not sensing significant religious or spiritual growth.
The actual data offer a very different picture, however, as
scores range from a large number of 1s to a large number
of 5s. In both middle school and upper school, a quarter of
the students disagree that their schools have helped them
grow, while 40 to 50 percent indicate the opposite. The vast
majority of these students, however, indicate that being

CSEE Connections

CSEEs Spiritual Climate Survey was devised and refined over

a period of two years, with four different versions of the
question set that were reviewed by chaplains and spiritual
directors from over two dozen schools of three different
religious traditions and a variety of Christian denominations.
The purpose in creating the survey was to help schools get
a view, through students eyes, of the climate for spiritual
growth. The data are thus useful as a one-time snapshot, or
for schools wishing to assess progress between successive
administrations, if they choose to work on aspects of their
climate between administrations.
There are caveats in looking at the numbers gathered so
far. We should note that the schools that have engaged in
the process thus far are not necessarily representative, first
because they are all religiously affiliated, and second,
perhaps more significantly, because they requested to
participate, and may have done so because they were
optimistic about what their results would be. l

7
April 2012 Page

Religious Holidays & Observances

May 2012

April 28
Buddha Day/Visakha Puja
Buddhism
Visakha Puja celebrates the day the Buddha was born, and
the day he reached his enlightenment some 35 years later,
and the day of his death about 45 years after that. Buddhists
believe that all three of these events took place on the day
in May when the moon is full. It is an extremely important
day in the Buddhist tradition, and Buddhists observe the
day by being generous, because of their gratitude for what
the Buddha did, and by listening to speeches about the
Buddha. They also dress more simply and cut down on the
food they eat.

S M T W Th F Sa

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19

20

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23

24

25

26

27

28 29

30

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April 30
St. James the Great Day
Orthodox Christianity
This day celebrates St. James, one of the Twelve Apostles
and the patron saint of Spain. St. James was one of the first
men to follow Jesus, and one of the three disciples who
witnessed his Transfiguration. James was said to have a fiery
temper, and it is speculated that this is what brought him to
execution by sword under Agrippa I in 44 C.E.

Entries below resume where the

March issue left off.
See additional details, including
all holidays for the month of April, at
www.csee.org
April 23
Saint Georges Day
Christianity
This day commemorates Saint George, one of the most
prominent military saints. As patron saint of England,
Greece, Russia, Ethiopia, Palestine, and Portugal (among
others), Saint Georges Day is observed throughout the
world and in different fashions, including flying Saint
Georges Cross Flag and participating in parades.
April 24
Akshaya-Tritiya
Jainism
This day celebrates the breaking of the year-long fast by the
first Jain teacher, Tirthankara Rshabhdeva. It is believed that
any meaningful activity started on this day will succeed.
April 27
Yom HaAtzmaut
Judaism
Yom HaAtzmaut is the national independence day of Israel,
commencing in 1948 C.E. Many celebrate the holiday with
picnics, singing, and dancing; Hallel, a Jewish prayer, is often
recited.

Page 8 April 2012

April 30
Ghambar Maidyozarem
Zoroastrianism
This is the first of six annual Ghambar festivals. The word
Ghambar is derived from gahanbar, meaning timestorage in
Persianand alludes to the division and storage of food. As
the name indicates, these five-day festivals are observations
of the different seasons and harvests. They are celebrated
through joyous feasts and the recognition of the seven acts
of goodness: generosity of the spirit, sharing, selfless help
toward those in need, community participation and inclusion,
honesty, pity, and remembrance of ones ancestors. Todays
GhambarGhambar Maidyozaremcelebrates the sky and
the winter crop harvest.
May 2
12th Day of Ridvan
Bahai
Beginning on April 21 and concluding on May 2, Bahais
celebrate the period when the religions founder, Bahaullah,
resided in a garden in Baghdad. Bahaullah called it the
Garden of Ridvan, because Ridvan means paradise. During
his time in the garden, Bahaullah proclaimed that he was
the messenger of God for the age. The twelfth, and last, day
of Ridvan marks Bahaullahs exit from the garden.

Continues on p. 9

CSEE Connections

Holidays

Continued from Page 8

May 3
National Day of Prayer (U.S.A.)
Interfaith
On this day, citizens are asked to come together to pray,
especially for their country. The National Day of Prayer was
designated by the United States Congress in 1952, but was
a floating holiday until Ronald Reagan fixed it on the first
Thursday in May.

human race, the unity of religions, equality of the sexes, and

universal peace. Bahais are followers of Bahaullah, who was
born in Persia in 1817. Bahaullahs coming was preceded
and announced by Siyyid Ali Muhammad, who referred
to himself as the Bab (meaning the Gate). The Bab told
people that another messenger would be coming after him,
and that the power of the revelation of the coming one
would far exceed any message previously sent down.

May 5
Visakha Puja (Buddha Day)
Buddhism
This date marks the birth, day of enlightenment, and death
of Gautama Buddha, all of which are said to have occurred
during the full moon of this month. Buddhists celebrate the
day in different ways throughout the world. Many practice
generosity, bring simple offerings to shrines, and abstain
from eating meat. Some traditions of Buddhism celebrate
Visakha on a later date, using an alternate lunar calendar.

May 27
Pentecost
Christianity
On Pentecost, Christians celebrate the day the Holy Spirit
descended upon the followers of Jesus. Pentecost comes
from the Greek word for fiftieth, since the feast day takes
place on the 50th day after Easter (not counting Sundays).
In the early days of the Christian church, no courts of law
were held during the week of Pentecost, and manual labor
was forbidden; those practices gradually diminished. In
Italy, it was customary to drop rose leaves from the ceilings
of churches, to signify the descent of the Spirit. The French
tended to sound trumpets, signifying the sound of the
mighty wind that is said to have accompanied the Holy
Spirits descent. Pentecost is usually celebrated with special
church services and special prayers.

May 10-sundown
Lag BOmer
Judaism
There is a span of 49 days between Passover and Shavuot,
traditionally a period of mourning for the death of Rabbi
Akibas 24,000 students over 2,000 years ago. Lag BOmer
falls on the 33rd day, and is considered to be a break in the
mourning period. It is the occasion of the end of the plague
that killed Rabbi Akibas students, as well as the day of passing for Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai, who made it clear that he
wanted his death to be celebrated rather than mourned.
May 17
Ascension of Christ
Christianity
Falling forty days after Easter, this date marks the conclusion
of Jesus time on earth. Acts 1:9-11 states that the disciples
witnessed Jesus ascension into heaven from the Mount of
Olives. The day is celebrated with prayer and special church
services, and is often marked with music. It is one of the
oldest celebrations of the tradition.
May 23-Sundown
Declaration of the Bab
Bahai
The Bahai faith is considered to have begun on May 23,
1844, the day on which the individual known as the Bab
declared his mission. The worlds five million Bahais have
basic principles that include belief in the oneness of the

CSEE Connections

May 27-28
Shavuot
Judaism
Also known as the Feast of Weeks, Shavuot falls seven
weeks after Pesach (Passover). The holiday commemorates
both the early summer grain harvest (associated with
ancient pilgrimage to Jerusalem) and the giving of the
Torah on Mount Sinai. Readings from the Hebrew Bible
include the Book of Ruth and the Psalms of Praise. It is customary to eat dairy foods during Shavuot.
May 29-Sundown
Ascension of Bahaullah
Bahai
This day, which commemorates Bahaullahs death and
ascension to heaven, is one of nine holy days in the year.
Bahais do not work on their holy days, and celebrations are
generally quiet observances. Bahaullahs ascension may be
celebrated by a picnic or a gathering, at which prayers are
said or songs are sung from his writings. l

9
April 2012 Page

Upcoming Events
Community Service and 21st Century Learning
April 13-14, 2012
St. Johns School
Houston, Texas
Join service consultant Mary Pashley and other service
directors from independent schools across North America
to explore best practices, project ideas, and resources for
directing a top-notch service program.
Spiritual Development
April 20-21, 2012
Marymount School
Los Angeles, California
Creative teachers Bill Ghord and Matthew Geiger will discuss
and offer activities for spiritual development in schools.
Fifth Annual Symposium on Developing Student
Leadership
April 27-28, 2012
The Westminster Schools
Atlanta, Georgia
Four schools present their student leadership programs, and
participants explore the key ingredients for success.
Summer Institute on Teaching the Worlds Religions
June 20-25, 2012
Pace University
New York, New York
Advanced learning and great resource sharing for the
world religion classroom. This years main focus will be on
Hinduism, with Arti Dhand, Ph.D., and Islam (Sufism and the
poetry of Rumi), with Amer Latif, Ph. D., plus much more.
2012 Institute for Ethical Education Leaders
June 22-27, 2012
Pace University
New York, New York
In this workshop, Tom Lickona, Ph.D., and Nel Noddings,
Ph.D., will offer participants a wealth of resources and best
practices for leaders of ethical/character education initiatives in their schools.
Advisory Systems
Atlanta, Georgia
November 2012

Page 10 April 2012

Secondary School Religion Teachers at AAR

Chicago, Illinois
November 16, 2012
Chaplains and Teachers of Religion
Berkeley Preparatory School
Tampa, Florida
February 7-9, 2013
Honor Systems: Codes & Councils for Integrity
Hockaday School
Dallas, Texas
February 8-10, 2013 l

From the Executive Director

Continued from Page 11
aware that their teachers referred to it that often. What
the school discovered was far from ideal, but the survey
administrators were happy to see the disparity, because this
assessment was formative, rather than summative; teachers
were able to move forward with a new focus that would
have been unavailable to them without the results.
Fenn School, in Massachusetts, has been doing responsible
assessment regarding its core values for years. St. Stephens
Episcopal Day School, in Florida, began simple surveys of
even young students regarding spiritual development in
2011. Both these schools, and others, have been delighted
with, and helped by, the data they have gathered.
CSEE prescribes appropriate assessment of ethical education programs in our Standards for Recognition. The same
is true for the Character Education Partnerships Eleven
Principles for schools of character (The school regularly
assesses its culture and its climate...). And in the area of
assessment, also, the most recent recommendations by
the NAIS committee on accreditation have leaned toward
better collection of data in schools. Measurement is the
trend precisely because data we collect allow us to make
improvements in our schools that we could not make without them. l

CSEE Connections

From the Executive Director

By David Streight

New Trends in Character/Ethical Education: What Can We Expect?

hat can independent schools expect in the field

of ethical education in this second decade of the 21st century? Three trends are increasingly clear. And the news is
all good. If we can step up appropriately, our students will
benefit, our schools will benefit, and our world will benefit.
The three trends I refer to are these: our efforts will be targeted, they will be specific, and they will be measured. Lets
look at each, along with the reasoning.
21st century programs will have a target
That target of the future is the mission statement. In some
schools the mission statement already is the target, but not
in all. Forty years ago, mission statements in schools were
sometimes non-existent and often barely noted. Today,
statements are carefully, sometimes even painstakingly,
crafted. A word, a phrase, is selected over others because it
fits a schools history, the convictions of its constituents, or
a perceived need. In the coming years character initiatives
will increasingly be tied to the character goals in a schools
mission statement.
Why? If schools are serious about their mission statements,
then it is to their benefit to engage in this kind of tight
couplingto borrow a term from character educators
(and CSEE advisors) Tom Lickona and Matt Davidson in their
national report on Smart and Good High Schools. A mission,
a touchstone, a school compactregardless of the term
usedgives focus; and focus maximizes results.
Accreditation standards recommended by the NAIS committee on accreditation already reflect the importance of
the mission statement, and the most recent amendments
to the standards (2009 and 2011) make specific mention of
the mission statements centrality. The tight-coupling trend
will continue.
21st century programs will be specific
Character programs in the coming years will be following
a medical paradigm that makes compelling sense. It has
been traditional practice in cancer treatment, for example,
to address a patients disease with somewhat of a one size
fits all regimen. The chemotherapy battery was selected
depending on the part of the body afflicted: stomach, lung,

CSEE Connections

or uterus. Advances in genetic sequencing and other procedures are now helping scientists target tumors much more
specifically, and with significant success in many cases. Lung
cancer in person A might not be exactly like that in person
B, and even if the cancer is similar, the genetic makeup or
other characteristics of person A may suggest a different
treatment than for person B.
Rather than general programs to work on general issues
of charactersometimes called off the shelf programs
schools will realize that who they are and what their mission
specific goals are should shape their character development
initiatives. It is a case of aligning practices with desired
outcomes. Iolani School, in Hawaii, with its mission statement to prepare students for responsible, moral citizenship
should have an approach that differs, even if not in a major
way, from a school like Bolles, in Florida, whose mission
speaks to integrity and compassion, or Shattuck-St. Marys,
in Minnesota, with its goal to prepare students strong in
character [for] a life of service. The off-the-shelf program
that might be perfect for one may miss the mark in another.
There are components of service learning programs that are
shown to increase civic engagement in students. Bolles or
Shattuck-St. Marys may or may not incorporate these components; Iolaniwith its mission for responsible citizenship
should consider them carefully. Similarly, although an
honor council or academic integrity committee might be
advisable in all three of these schools, Bolles should consider
such a body carefully, given the schools mission focus on
integrity. A study of college campuses in the 1990s showed
that the presence of an honor code reduced serious cheating
by about 20 percent.
Programs will be assessed
The third of these trends is now ubiquitous in other areas
of education. As many complaints as there are about high
stakes testing, assessment of our work to build young
people of character is both doable and the morally responsible thing to do. One of my favorite schools for assessment
recently discovered that, while teachers were 91% in agreement that they mentioned the schools character code in
class on a daily basis, only 26 percent of the students were

Continues on p. 10

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April 2012 Page