A decade old, this one...
I hardly think, with "Brother's Keeper" thriving and well, that the "honor code" was "ditched" in the 70s. But... what do
I know?!
:roll:
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http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m ... i_19007880At Hyde school, students earn - rather than learn - characterInsight on the News, Jan 6, 1997 by Evan Gahr
Character education has become fashionable in schools across the country. But one program has been preaching personal responsibility and virtuous behavior for three decades.
Whether it's the wave of the future or another education fad remains to be seen, but at least one institution isn't likely to ditch the effort anytime soon. Indeed, the Hyde School in Bath, Maine, has made character education its central mission for 30 years.
With rigorous principles emphasized at weekly meetings - where students have been known to confess to misdeeds - the private boarding school claims tremendous success with troubled youngsters. But the Hyde approach, contends school founder Joseph Gauld, contrasts markedly with what currently passes for character education.
"What they call character we don't call character," Gauld tells Insight. "You teach it fundamentally by example. Otherwise, you're [just] indoctrinating kids." Or as scion and current Hyde headmaster Malcolm Gauld declares, "Character is not imparted; it's inspired. You give [kids] values-forming experiences."
That tack wins high marks from former Hyde parents, students and outside observers. "They are considered one of the best," says Amitai Etzioni, author of
The Spirit of Community and a leading character-education proponent. "They pay attention to the total environment."
Hyde students aren't force-fed or "taught" during a particular class period. Instead, the school's philosophy informs their days, from sporting events to school assemblies. In the Hyde lexicon, each student possesses "unique potential" and is pushed to achieve it (slackers are known as "smiling zeros").
Students find their potential by developing five key traits - courage, integrity, concern, curiosity and leadership - which are honed within a system of rewards and punishments. When students fall from honesty, for example, their punishment is early-morning exercise.
The school relies heavily on peer pressure to enforce norms of behavior. If one person in the class failed to complete a homework assignment, everyone did additional study hall, recalls Mike Moskowitz, a 1996 Hyde graduate. Nor does Hyde put an "I'm okay, you're okay" gloss on bad behavior. Don MacMillan, a math teacher, describes a recent school meeting during which a student confessed to stealing. "There wasn't a lot of response to him," he says. "You don't get pats on the back for stealing. We put so much emphasis on truth that the kids understand and let the chips fall where they may."
That message virtually is inscribed in stone. "Truth shall set you free but first it will make you miserable" reads the sign outside the Hyde School's main building, and graduates and parents alike describe Hyde's program as emotionally demanding - ironic, since many students have a history of drug problems or low academic achievement. "One of the things you find out quickly is that others are struggling," says Jean Humphrey, who has sent her three kids to Hyde.
True to the "brother's keeper" ethos, students report on classmates using drugs. Moskowitz caught on fast to the fact that Hyde seniors double as disciplinarians. "I quickly learned that they were not going to accept any of my mischievousness and I couldn't pull the wool over their eyes"' he tells
Insight. Yet at the same time they were "cool" - athletic and smart - and served as role models. Today, Moskowitz is a student at Sarah Lawrence College, a prestigious liberal-arts school in New York, and plans on a career in international law or fashion merchandising.
Because the school believes character is taught by example, parents as well as students are required to set goals for themselves. The Moskowitzes for example, attended mandatory regional parents' meetings as well as sessions at the school. With encouragement and prodding from other members of her regional group, Susan Moskowitz, Mike's mother, set forth to package her own kosher food snack. "Mrs. Moskowitz' Munchies," a combination of nuts, raisins and matzo, now is available through department stores such as Bloomingdales.
Kosher munchies may seem an unusual by-product of a school devoted to character education, but Hyde has seen many similar stories since it opened its doors in 1966. At the time, Gauld was working as an admission officer - and an increasingly alienated assistant headmaster - at the New Hampton School in New Hampshire. "I had a crisis of conscience when I realized kids were getting screwed everywhere,"he recalls.
In Gauld's view, character was subsumed to academic achievement. Students went through the motions - good grades mean good colleges - but few lived up to their potential. His epiphany came during an admission interview with a student he calls "Marty." The youngster had an average IQ but was failing all his courses. Bucking traditional standards, Gauld accepted Marty, who proved a rambunctious but formidable presence and later went on to a successful career as a psychologist.
Although Gauld stayed within the traditional system for a few more years - accepting the headmastership of the Berwick Academy in Maine - he eventually borrowed money from family and friends toward purchase of the 145-acre Hyde Estate. The school opened the following year. There were some kinks. In the early seventies, the school's honor code was abused and subsequently ditched. But the school regained focus and today boasts a huge waiting list and sees its approach imitated everywhere.
The Halifax Middle School just outside Harrisburg, Pa., for example, began operating last September under Hyde principles. "We need to reach kids at a deeper level and work against youth culture that says do whatever you feel like doing," explains principal Bob Hassinger. "It's more important to be part of culture than to do what is right."
Gauld hopes more schools will follow suit. "We spent the first 30 years developing a concept," he says. "Now we are ready to export it."
COPYRIGHT 1997 News World Communications, Inc.
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