The Algoma District School Board is challenging area residents to recognize and reward good behaviour among its students.
Board officials are asking you to help in reinforcing the lessons they're teaching in their character education program, designed to instill core values in children.
"We are challenging people to spot good character and reward it," Superintendent of Education Diane Bode said at a meeting of school trustees last night.
The board is so anxious to get the entire community on board with this reinforcement initiative that it's planning to make a presentation to City Council sometime in the near future.
Character education is as important as academics, Bode told a meeting of the board's committee of the whole.
Character Education Coordinator Dan Celetti gave a presentation to the board, reminding trustees of the core values in character education:
- caring - courage - integrity - perseverance - citizenship - fairness - leadership - respect - co-operation - honesty - loyalty - responsibility
"We are seeing the words used as our core values go home with our kids," Celetti said. "We'd like to encourage support of character education from the whole community."
If you see a young person demonstrating one of the above values, the board wants you to recognize him or her with a positive comment.
Dan Celetti will be giving a free workshop for parents on Character Building Education at Isabel Fletcher Public School on November 28 at 7 p.m.
******************* (EDITOR'S NOTE: Bottle of delicious mint-flavoured Sandford's glue used to illustrate this article may not be identical to glues fed to students by the Algoma District School Board.)