Character education in Redfield College
Parents as the first educators.
Parents are the primary educators and schools should seek to give parents every support. While schools provide a specialised service of academic tuition to students; their role in character education is secondary to parents. Schools have a duty to reinforcement of the work of parents in passing on values and building character. We hold it to be the right of parents, except in genuinely exceptional circumstances, to set the agenda in the moral development of their own children.
|
So, if we accept that parents have a role in education, and by education here we mean education beyond academic proficiency... education in values, education in our correct attitude to material goods, education in love and chastity, education in freedom and justice, education in the Faith, how important is this parental role? The Second Vatican Council in a famous phrase, describes the role as “so decisive that scarcely anything can compensate for their failure in it”.... It means that our success as parents is the fundamental yardstick of life; success, prestige, and material wealth cannot compensate for a failure in this task. |
|
Gary Doherty, Chairman of PARED Address at the Opening of the College February 1994 |
Parenting input
The College delivers parenting support through evenings each term for all parents in the school, through seminars such as the First Steps Course (a case study based parenting education program for parents of younger students) or with guest experts. In addition all parents have the advantage of individualised feedback and suggestions through the interview each term with the tutor of their son.
|
We in schools each have a line into hundreds of homes. In fact schools are ideally situated to access families. We need to become more adept at delivering support to parents, and creating support networks for parents. There is practically no parent that does not wish to be the best father or mother he or she can be, but many lack the experience, the know- how and the skills. |
| |
‘Schools need to involve parents more’ Values Education Column. Education Review May/June 1999 |
Consistency: school values in harmony with values at home.
Children need consistency between parents, and between home and school. Parents need to ensure that the other inputs in the lives of their children are consistent with their own messages. If they fail to do so, there is the danger, that no matter how dedicated they are, their own efforts will be undercut by the competition. Children imitate those who take an interest in them… for better or for worse. Children imitate whoever they spend time with, even in chatrooms, on videos and on MTV.
|
“We always like best whatever comes first… and therefore youth should be kept strangers to all that is bad, and especially to things which suggest vice or hate.” |
| |
Aristotle. |
Just as responsible parents try to give the best example they can at all times to their children, teachers also have a duty to do so. The staff at Redfield strive to give good example, in their own professionalism and also in their wider attitudes and behaviour. Staff are selected for their capacity to provide sound role models for the students. Staff receive regular professional development to help them foster effectively the character development of each one of their students. The staff know that their personal example is important because children copy people they admire.
The College also strives to foster for its students a positive peer group, knowing that often the peer group can be the decisive influence in the life of an adolescent. Parents are encouraged to get to know very well the parents of their own children’s friends.
A curriculum that fosters critical thought.
The curriculum at Redfield encourages students to think for themselves, and to think critically about what they see around them. All students study Philosophy (Year 11), Civilisation Studies (Years 8-10), Latin (Years 7-8), and a compulsory foreign language (Years 2-10). A substantial exchange program operates at Year 10 with a good proportion of students receiving the opportunity to attend school and live overseas for two month exchanges. Students in mid and upper secondary years benefit from an ongoing and wideranging program of visiting expert speakers, from James Mawdsley speaking on his protests for political freedom in Burma, to Tony Burke outlining the arguments against euthanasia that convinced the NSW parliament.
Regular one to one tutorials that foster responsibility and personal goal setting in all students
In the unique Personalised Tutorial System each boy receives a personal mentor, or tutor, selected from the teaching staff of the College. The tutor is a constant source of support for the student through his attention, friendship, example and advice. He meets regularly with the student during the term, and meets with his parents at least once each term, reviewing progress, and helping with goal setting. The tutor takes a personal interest in the progress of the boys whom he tutors, acting on the parents’ behalf, and coordinating the services of the College for the family.
|
(Redfield) tutors are teachers, who apart from their classroom teaching take on an additional professional task that requires specific study and expertise. They are selected to fulfill this task according to individual preference, professional commitments, and personal suitability for working with individual students and parents. But all members of staff, whether they are tutors or not, are involved in a team approach based on the common awareness that they are educators of the whole person, above all, by their personal example of their own virtues. |
| |
Extract from “Parents for Education” by Virginia Monagle in Kappa Delta Phi Record (Fall 1993) |
An emphasis on virtue education.
In Redfield, great stress is placed on developing human virtues, or good habits. These strengths of character enable a person to be self-directing in life - to be truly free. Freedom is not seen as mere freedom from constraints but as the well established capability of carrying convictions into action. Too often man finds himself limited and inhibited by his own failings on the one hand, and on the other, by conformity to peer group and media attitudes. Ultimately, the capacity to truly love others and to be happy is a consequence of character with a well rounded development of virtues.
|
Aristotle did not say, “Happiness is the reward of values”, but, “Happiness is the reward of virtue.” There is a big difference. Values education is not enough to lead a child to live a productive and happy life. Neither sentiment, ideals, nor even conviction in the deepest truths is sufficient. Values alone cannot bring happiness. Good intentions have never been enough. In addition, the systematic development of good habits is needed. Otherwise we are condemned to a life where we aspire to do good but are constantly frustrated. Values remain in the mind, no matter how sincere the conviction. But we are beings of body and soul, of matter and spirit, and therefore we need a psychology that recognises this. Virtues make us better people; in some way they change who we actually are. |
| |
Values Education Column. Education Review. April/May 2000. |
The Human Virtues Program
A particular human virtue is highlighted each week in each section of the College. Over time in each class, the class teachers review in a practical manner the full range of qualities that make up a mature personality. Parents too, are encouraged to give some focus to the virtue of the week around the dinner table at home. The emphasis in this program is to equip the students with a multiplicity of practical approaches, and to create common “vocabulary” of character.
|
Students are encouraged to grow in their character and values through the Human Virtues Programme, the integrated encouragement of virtues in all facets of school life, and through training and participation in sport where the emphasis is on teamwork and sportsmanship. |
| |
Excerpt from Redfield Staff Handbook |
A practical emphasis on community service.
Students from Years 2-12 are involved in a wide variety of community service experiences. Theory about serving others is insufficient; young people need to develop the wherewithal to be persons of action, not nice idealists.
|
The aim is to build not only nice attitudes, not only conscience, but to provide regular positive experiences of service, so that students learn the happiness of helping others and develop well-seated habits of compassion. Good intentions never put bread on a table. We are told in the Gospels, He went about doing good, and nor may it be coincidence that, even before the birth of Jesus Christ, Cicero observed, Men were brought into existence for the sake of others, that they might do one another good. The proof is always in the doing… whether you are Christian or pre Christian. |
| |
Values Education Column. Education Review November 2001 |
Academic expectations
Each student at Redfield is expected to work hard and achieve to his potential. The College has high academic expectations and an atmosphere of conscientious application is evident on walking through the school. Boys work hard in an orderly environment. Habits of self discipline, order, industriousness, and love for the truth are fundamental virtues fostered in such a scholastic environment. At Redfield, a student’s responsible approach to his studies is seen as a key to his character development.
A community of parents
|
All this support is precisely just this, support. Redfield is not designed to supplant parents, forming children apart from the efforts of the parents. Rather the approach is to create an environment, adult and peer influences and an educational curriculum which reinforce the work of the home. This presupposes that the College acts as a drawing point for parents who are dedicated and who want to do their best to pass on their own sound family values to their children. Ultimately the greatest support that Redfield can offer to its parents is the community of parents that make up the College. |
|
The Foundation Years 1986-1995. Redfield College |