New virtues are being “planted” at Lower School every quarter. The virtue of RESPONSIBILITY is our focus for the third quarter. Responsibility was explained to the children as the virtue that is all about making good choices and not blaming anyone for our mistakes. We presently have a wide range of activities that the Lower School students have been participating in – all intended to help them apply and practice the virtue.
The campaign was launched last January 13th with visits from wonderful role models of the virtue. We did not need to look far, since some of our very own Middle School students were up for the task. Representatives from 6th, 7th and 8th grade visited the different levels in Lower School to share their personal experiences and tips on how to be more responsible. They were encouraged by our Middle School students to write some of their responsibilities on a “leaf” and stick it up on our “Responsibili-Tree”, so that they could remember to “stick to it”!
We also have the “100% Responsible” bottle class campaign. This is one way that each class can work together to track and remind each other of their basic responsibilities in school. Some of these responsibilities include bringing complete material, doing homework, and attendance. In line with this, “School Day Checklists” and “Nighttime Checklists” were also distributed to help the students work on their individual responsibilities. We came up with something that we thought might motivate the kids to continue working on the virtue - -something we like to call “Responsi-bills” (paper bill incentives with corresponding points). The students receive “Responsi-bills” for consistently completing tasks on their checklists as well as for other responsible acts. Almost everyone at school is on the look out for deserving students. Even our dear parents can help hand out “Responsi-bills” to their responsible kids. Exciting redeemable prizes await those who accumulate enough “Responsi-bills” by the end of the quarter!
I invite everyone in the Everest community to continue planting seeds of love and virtue onto our children. It has been amazing to see our “Responsibili-Tree” grow over the past month. What has been even more remarkable is watching our students grow in virtue!
Pinky Garrovillo
Lower School Dean of Students
Download the MS DOC File of this article via the link below