Whether we are educators, parents, students or simply concerned
bystanders, contemporary American schools provoke difficult questions.
As media reports of school violence escalate, many of us are shocked
and disturbed. Some believe we are seeing the signs of unprecedented
moral decline. Others wonder whether we are just now glimpsing public
pictures of a long-standing underbelly of our educational system
- a system that teaches violence, fear and alienation just as it
purports to instruct children in algebra, social sciences and the
ethics of citizenship.
What are the ethics of citizenship, and how shall we teach them?
In social studies classrooms across the country, overworked teachers
drill bored young people in the structures of governance, the ways
a bill becomes a law, and other rote details of civic education,
yet few have the time, the tenacity or the social support it takes
to encourage deeper questions of civic life and engaged public participation.
The questions of moral education force us to examine the roots
and basic substance of our own ethics and beliefs. For some, the
idea of teaching values in schools seems the exclusive project of
religious conservatives, laced with the rhetoric of family values
which fail to value all families or all family ideals. Yet we teach
values every day in subtle and not-so-subtle lessons of formal schoolrooms
and the larger social classrooms of our homes, our televisions,
our churches, our shopping malls, our libraries and our everyday
actions.
In The Students areWatching: Schools and the Moral Contract,
Theodore and Nancy Sizer lead us through the lessons of the unspoken
curriculum, the lessons that institutions teach-not through their
professed ideals but through their actions. The Sizers write that,
if we care about our children's values-how
as a matter of habit they treat others and how aware they are
of why hey do what they do-we must look into a mirror….What
do our actions tell our students about our purposes? About our
principles? (p. 116)
In inviting us to consider the lessons and implications of our
own choices and lived values, the Sizers encourage us to grapple
with questions about how we might articulate and enact our principles-not
simply in our schools, but throughout the entire fabric of our social
lives.
This guide aims to create a framework for Unitarian Universalist
discussion groups to share ideas about:
the principles and lessons we believe are most important for
our life journey;
the character and politics of schooling, including the unspoken
lessons of institutions; and
how we might build more meaningful relationships between the
generations - relationships based on trust, understanding and
respect.
This program encourages the reflections and contributions of young
adults as well as parents, educators and other adults who finished
their years of formal schooling. We hope it will foster meaningful
conversation between people of all ages, recognizing that we are
all teachers and learners, acknowledging that we all have a stake
in the nature of moral education.
GETTING STARTED
Promote the Program
Many congregations have a number of resources for publicizing new
programs in the community. It is always a good idea to create flyers
and post notices on bulletin boards and in newsletters. Announcements
during meetings and services help spread the word. Some congregations
promote new programs by organizing "Kick-off Sundays," which include a sermon by a minister or lay leader about a related
topic.
You might consider targeting specific groups to embark on this
journey. For example, parents, religious education teachers and
volunteers might have particular interest in this program, as might
young adult groups. The series might be an opportunity to build
bridges beyond the congregation, expanding your relationships with
youth groups and parenting groups in your community, teachers, school
administrators and school board members, and parent-teacher association
members.
Adjust the Format as Needed
This program includes reading, reflection and participation in
three two-hour discussion sessions. We recommend a group size of
no more than ten people. While the discussion guide offers specific
questions, readings and activities, feel free to adapt the program
to your own needs. You can substitute your own questions, adapt
those that are provided here, and add thoughts of your own.
Provide a Comfortable Setting
Hold the session in a comfortable, well-lit setting, preferably
with cushioned chairs arranged in a circle. Some discussions will
be carried out in small groups of 2-4 people, so it is important
to find a space that will enable uninterrupted discussion for small
groups as well as for the larger group. Some discussion sessions
call for information to be recorded on newsprint, so you will need
adequate wall space or easels to display what has been written.
You might ask volunteers to provide refreshments and perhaps a light
snack.
When people register, it's a good idea to ask them if they have
particular accessibility needs. When you promote the workshop, tell
people that you will do your best to accommodate their accessibility
needs (such as large print materials) if they provide advance notice.
Do your best to hold the sessions in a room that iswheelchair accessible.
However, if your space is not wheelchair accessible, let people
know. Offer to strategize solutions with them.
Involve the Group in Setting the Tone
The group should take responsibility for creating an environment
that is welcoming and conducive to open dialogue. Bring to the group's
attention the importance of active listening, thoughtful responses
and mutual respect. Also, note that occasional silences are acceptable.
Use people's own experiences as a way to ground the discussion when
it threatens to become too abstract.
Some people have a tendency to be more vocal than others. If a
few people clearly dominate the conversation, you might need to
open a space for those who have not had a chance to speak to do
so if they wish.
As a discussion leader, it is important to establish a balance
between too much control and too little direction. It will be important
to be responsive in your leadership and draw people out, yet keep
the discussion on track.
We suggest that the group draft a set of ground rules at the beginning
of the first session, post them on newsprint, and review them at
the beginning of the second session. If all participants give input,
everyone will be accountable to the group's needs. Common ground
rules include:
maintain confidentiality - don't repeat personal stories outside
of the group;
make personal ("I") statements - don't speak for others;
give full attention to the person who is speaking; and
turn off pagers and cell phones during the program.
Prepare for the First Session
Ask participants to read Theodore and Nancy Sizer's The Students
are Watching: Schools and the Moral Contract in its entirety
before the first session. Encourage them to keep a journal of their
thoughts and reactions while reading the book, or to spend some
time in reflection based on passages they found memorable. Invite
participants to learn more about the school experiences of family
members and friends. Let them know that throughout the program,
they will be encouraged to bring in their own life stories.
Evaluate the Program
Two evaluation forms are provided in the last pages of this guide.
Participant Evaluation Forms should be distributed at the end of
the final session so participants can give feedback to group leaders.
(Note that questions 7 and 8 on the form give leaders a chance to
pose their own questions to participants.) Also, be sure to send
Beacon Press your completed Leader Evaluation Form. We are striving
to meet the program needs of UU congregations, and your continued
feedback and suggestions will bring us a long way toward reaching
our goal. We really want to hear from you!
SESSION ONE
Materials: Newsprint, markers, masking tape, chalice, candle,
matches, UUA Hymnal (Singing the Living Tradition. Boston: UUA,
1993), paper, pens
Welcome and Opening Check-In (15 min.)
Welcome participants, light the chalice, and thank them for coming.
Make sure that everyone knows where to find restrooms, water fountains,
and other necessities. Encourage people to share their accessibility
needs now or throughout the program. Introduce the program, and
offer time for questions. Circulate a sheet of paper so that people
can write down contact information for your records.
Explain to participants that before you begin, you would like
the group to establish ground rules.
Ask a volunteer to record the group's suggested guidelines on
newsprint. If certain rules you find important are not mentioned,
suggest them yourself. (See "Getting Started" for common
ground rules.) Once the suggestions are finished, check with the
group to make sure that everyone is comfortable with the ground
rules.
Tell participants that every session will begin with a reflection
and a check-in. Open with reading #458 from the UUA Hymnal (Singing
the Living Tradition) or another reading of your choosing.
After the reading, ask people to go around the circle and share
briefly. Ask participants to introduce themselves and state their
hopes and expectations for the program. If they like, invite them
to share one reason that they came.
Small Group Discussion: Experiences with
Education (15 min.)
Separate into groups of 2 or 3. Allow each person about 5 minutes
to share.
What was your experience like in high school? If you have been
out of high school for several years, what are your impressions
of high school now? Do you have children in school? Have you taught
school? What are your sources of knowledge? How does your conception
of contemporary formal education compare with what you experienced?
What are your experiences with education outside of formal schools?
In what ways are you involved in education, either as a learner
or a teacher?
How do your educational background and your experiences with
education affect how you read the Sizers' book? When you think
about education today, what is at stake for you?
Large Group Conversation: What Makes a Good
Education Possible? (20 min.)
Throughout their book, the Sizers emphasize the kind of lessons
institutions teach by their actions. They write,
Institutions can bear witness, in good and
bad times. That is, they can model certain kinds of behavior.
The persistent question is, of course, which behaviors, which
values, which qualities are to be modeled. (p. 13)
Invite the group to reflect upon the ideals they hold for good
education.
What are the signs and signals of a "good" school? How
would we know if schools were doing their job? Where have you experienced
or bserved good education? What were its characteristics? What social
supports made it possible? What personal qualities were required
among teachers and learners?
Separate into small groups of 3 or 4 to discuss how the schools
you know measure up to your ideals. You may want to reflect on the
schools you attended or schools you know through a family member
or friend.
The Sizers emphasize the importance of grappling with meaningful
issues through a curriculum rich in complex content. (pp. 22-24).
In what ways were you or others encouraged to grapple with complicated
questions? What questions were out-of-bounds?
The Sizers believe that grappling "presumes that the student
has something to add to the story." (p. 25) To what extend
did these schools act as though students had knowledge and passions
of their own? In what ways were students
treated as empty vessels to be filled?
Group Discussion: Teaching for the Journey
(30 min.)
If we believe that education is not merely the acquisition of
facts, but also the development
of wisdom and personal character, we must grapple ourselves with
the content of the lessons we wish to teach. The Sizers write that, "As Zen Buddhists say, it is the quality of the journey more
than its destination which is to be celebrated." (p. xvi) They
liken the difference between the journey and the destination as
one between nouns and verbs.
Nouns are treated as completed statues lined up on the top shelves
of a person's character. Verbs are active-no less demanding, but
requiring constant engagement. They are not structures, but rather,
engines. (p. xvi)
Ask each person to tell one lesson they feel is important for
the life journey, inviting them to share a short example of grappling
with this lesson in their own life, if they choose. Encourage the
group to use verbs, not nouns. Remind them that they need not all
agree with the lessons that others would like to teach.
Let participants know that the next session will include more
time to think about the congregation as a place for education. Encourage
them to reflect on the lessons that the congregation models, and
invite them to keep a journal on their thoughts if they wish.
Closing Reading
Thank the participants for their presence and participation.
Close with reading #687 from the UUA Hymnal (Singing the Living
Tradition) or with another reading of your choosing. Extinguish
the chalice. Ask for volunteers to help restore the room to its
original state.
Materials: Chalice, candle, matches, UUA Hymnal (Singing
the Living Tradition. Boston: UUA, 1993), paper, pens
Opening Reading and Check-In (10 min.)
To open this session, light the chalice and share reading #652
("The Great End in Religious Instruction," byWilliam
Ellery Channing). After the reading, ask people to go around the
circle and check-in briefly.
Small Groups: The Aim of Religious Education
(15 min.)
In small groups, invite participants to share their thoughts on
religious education.
Share your reactions to and reflections on Channing's words
regarding the aim of religious education. What do you believe
religious education should strive to accomplish?
What lessons does your congregation foster, either in its formal
programs or its larger life? What are its greatest education strengths?
Where might it invest more energy?
The vision that congregations hold for education often differs
from that of schools. Congregations generally let their principles
guide them toward a more wholesome life of shared learning. Yet
congregations are not separate from the larger community. In The
Students AreWatching, the Sizers address the issue of choice-who
gets to what kinds of educational options; the pressures of sorting;
the way schools select their winners and their losers; the challenges
of difference and the troubling comforts of an ordered, homogeneous
set of students.
The Sizers write "when the time comes to choose one's high
school, each student has more or fewer options depending on his
record, his wealth, the part of the country he lives in." (p.
61) Within schools themselves, students and teachers choose who
they spend time with, who they praise, how much they mingle and
who they punish.
Ask participants to separate into small groups of 3 or 4, reflecting
on people they know who are presently in school or on their own
memories of a school choice.
What options (or lack of options) were presented in the process
of choosing a school? What are your hopes and concerns about the
educational opportunities in this setting?
In what ways have you or your loved ones experienced the privileges
of choice? What are the challenges you face in trying to secure
a good education?
What values and principles have you or others you know used
to make choices about schools and communities in which to live?
Ask participants to reflect on their own situation, writing
journal entries about these questions or other questions that encourage
their thinking. Before they begin, tell them they will not be expected
to share their writing.
Consider your own background and circumstances-what privileges
did you experience? What were the barriers?
How do you think your background affected your choices and available
options?
The Sizers write that we must "insist on clear and principled
thinking about the effect of
social class on the education we are offering to American's children." (p. 120) They contrast this country's democratic ideals with the
realities that many students experience.
Invite participants to share their thoughts in small groups.
They may wish to discuss some of what they wrote, or to talk about
the following:
To what extent did your school encourage relationships with
people of other class backgrounds? Did you experience those relationships
in truth?
How do you feel class background has affected the education
of the people you know closely? What about the education of people
in schools that you or your loved ones have chosen not to attend?
Large Group Discussion: The Politics of
Education (20 min.)
Throughout their book, the Sizers reflect on the importance of
restructuring institutions to better reflect the values we wish
to instill in students. Most teachers and many institutions are
pressed for time and pummeled with competing demands. They write,
The problem is that we have not been willing
to arrange things so that Dick could do his work in a fuller
and more time-consuming and effective way. And the fact of the
matter is, we could. The students see that, and more than anything
else, it brings fear into their hearts, and dispirits them.
(p. 115)
What public values need to change before we can reshape schools
into places that you feel would be more fruitful for learning?
What principles and spiritual values motivate you to reflection
and to action?
What opportunities do you see for becoming involved in the process
of reshaping education-in your own home, your congregation, your
community or beyond?
Invite groups to separate into small groups of 3 or 4 to reflect
once more on education in the congregation.
In what ways might you-individually or as a group - share your
thoughts
on education with the rest of the congregation?
How might you contribute to your congregation's program for
religious education-either its formal program or its informal
lessons-in order to model spiritual values and encourage meaningful
grappling?
Thank the participants for their presence and participation.
Close with reading #701 from the UUA Hymnal (Singing the Living
Tradition) or with another reading of your choosing. Extinguish
the chalice. Ask for volunteers to help restore the room to its
original state.
Materials: Newsprint, markers, masking tape, chalice, candle,
matches, UUA Hymnal(Singing the Living Tradition. Boston:
UUA, 1993), paper, pens, photocopies of the Participant Evaluation
Form
Opening Reading and Check-In (10 min.)
To open this session, light the chalice and share reading #649
(" From Generation to Generation ," by Antoine de St.-Exupéry
from the UUA Hymnal (Singing the Living Tradition) or another
selection of your choosing.
After the reading, ask people to go around the circle and check-in
briefly.
Large Group: Hopes for Education and Relationships
across Generations (30 min.)
Share a time from your own life when education worked, when
the passwords
Antoine de St.-Exupéry describes were handed down from
one generation to another.
Large Group Brainstorm: Requirements for
Meaningful Education (15 min.)
After hearing stories of intergenerational education, invite the
group to brainstorm ideas about personal qualities, values and social
supports that make this kind of sharing possible. You might ask
a volunteer to record ideas on newsprint.
Small Groups: Encouraging Honesty and Clear
Communication (15 min.)
The Sizers critique the hypocrisy and bluffing that underlie much
of our intergenerational relationships. They believe that "trust
comes from the understanding that emerges from dialogue (p. 17)," yet honest dialogue can be difficult to undertake.
Separate into groups of 3 or 4, encouraging variation in age.
Reflect on the power of nostalgia, the tendency to create a
rosy, simplified image based on an idealized past and project
these notions of education and youth onto the present circumstances.
Reflect on the belief that youth, adults or elders don't and
won't understand, that honest communication is neither possible
nor necessary.
When young people share their passions and ideals, adults sometimes
treat these forays into open communication as childish or naïve.
Yet scorn or laughter from elders is not without serious consequences.
The Sizers describe how a young person's "hope and sense of
agency is often dependent on her sense that there is something she
can do which is valued by others."
Ask participants to reflect their own past experiences, journaling
on these questions or other questions that encourage their thinking.
Before they begin, tell them they will not be expected to share
their writing.
You might wish to write about a time when your ideals or dreams
were not supported, as well as a time when they were. How were
you affected?
Consider a time when you failed to support another person's
earnest ideals. Why did you do so?
Small Groups: Encouraging Grappling, Challenging
Hypocrisy (15 min.)
After individual journaling, separate into small groups of 3
or 4 people. Invite the groups to share their reflections. People
may wish to share from their writing, or to discuss ways we limit
meaningful communication across generations, including:
the extent to which we believe young people can't handle truth
or complexity and consequently don't leave room for moral ambiguity;
and
how we limit relationships by shrinking from acknowledging our
own imperfectnesss, and our own failure to live up to ideals.
Large Group Discussion: Intergenerational
Friendship (20 min.)
The Sizers emphasize the importance of relationships between students
and adults, whether as advisors in schools or as mentors beyond
school. They speak of adults "as friends - rather than only
as dispensers of information." (p. 7) These meaningful connections
between youth and elders offer a chance for a deeper process of
education, a learning that travels in both directions.
Begin a discussion about ways to better support young people, as
well as their thoughts and ideals. You may also wish to read the
text from reading #715 in the UUA Hymnal (Singing the Living Tradition)
and invite responses.
How might adults serve as mentors to young people? What challenges
present
themselves? What success stories do you know?
How might your congregation foster additional opportunities
for relationship between youth and adults?
In what ways might we as individuals and as a society more fully
come to believe that "youth are a resource to be developed,
not a problem to be solved"? (p. 7)
Closing Circle and Closing Reading
Invite participants to spend a moment in silence, reflecting
upon the lessons learned and the education you have engaged in together.
If you wish, you may want to have each person offer a word or phrase
that testifies to one of their lessons. You might close with reading
#580 from the UUA Hymnal (Singing the Living Tradition) or
with another reading of your choosing.
Extinguish the chalice. Thank participants for their sharing,
enthusiasm and participation. Ask for volunteers to help restore
the room to its original state.
We would like to thank the following people for their support on
this project:
Devorah Greenstein, Julia Watts and Sofía Betancourt of
Starr King School for the Ministry. Advisory Committee: Donna Bivens,
Co-Director, Women's Theological Center; Rev. Nancy Bowen, Clara
Barton District Consultant; Rev. Marjorie Bowens-Wheatley,
Adult Programs Director, UUA Dept. of Religious Education; Jacqui
James, Anti-Oppression Programs and Resources Director, UUA Dept.
of Religious Education; Rev. Meg Riley, Director of UUA Washington
Office, Dept. for Faith in Action
We are grateful for assistance from the New Hampshire Vermont,
Pacific Northwest, Thomas Jefferson, Joseph Priestley, Pacific Central,
and Northeast Districts and for support from the Unitarian Universalist
Veatch Program at Shelter Rock.
For further reading we recommend the following Beacon books:
The End of Homework, by Etta Kralovec and John Buell Schools with Spirit: Nurturing the Inner Lives of Children and
Teachers, by Linda Lantieri Tales Out of School: ContemporaryWriters on Their Student Years,
by Susan Richards Shreve and Porter Shreve
Beacon Press is a department of the