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Story on Joe's character education assemblies for schools
The elephant shot water out of his snout, the dragon sprayed smoke in the air and wooden puppet Johnny winked at his "girlfriends" in the crowd. The motley crew was controlled on Tuesday by ventriloquist Joe Gandelman, who was there to encourage students to uphold the pillars of Character Counts, a national student development program employed by the Merced City School District. "It was good. There was a lot of funny stuff," third-grader Ariana said. What did she learn? "To show fairness and caring," Ariana said. "And to be respectful and trustworthy," her classmate, Rylie, chipped in. Fairness, caring, respect and trustworthiness are four of the six pillars of good character defined by the program. The other two are citizenship and responsibility. The assembly was held as part of National Character Counts week. Mayor Ellie Wooten officially declared special recognition for the holiday in Merced at Monday night's board meeting by offering a proclamation. "Concerns about the character training of children have taken on a new sense of urgency as violence by and against youth threatens the physical and psychological well-being of the nation," the proclamation stated. "More than ever, children need strong and constructive guidance from their families and their communities." The Character Counts program was approved and backed by the Merced City School District in April 2007 as a way to improve academic performance and enrich the lives of students. "This program instills the values that we want in our children," Peterson Principal Nolan Harris said. "They are the values I was raised on when I was in school, and I am glad to see them back in the classroom." The program extends far beyond the city's K-8 classrooms. Local businesses display Character Counts posters on their walls, Parks and Recreation Department employees have been trained in the program and police officers carry wallet-sized brochures to hand out and brandish stickers in their squad cars. "We are trying to get everyone around the community talking about this," Superintendent Scott Scambray said. To that aim, Peterson's learning director, Susie Fagundes, and others are trying to send the message home with students. Fagundas presented the program at a Parent Teacher Council meeting and gives each student a small Character Counts trinket, such as a sticker or bookmark, at report card time. "Each of the pillars represents the positive character traits we want our students to display at school, at home and in the community," Fagundes said. City police hope that teaching these ideals at a young age will help curb crime in Merced. "A long time ago at the police department, we realized that unless we reached the young people, we were never going to be able to stop the gangs," Merced Police Chief Russ Thomas said at Monday's council meeting. "Without changing the attitudes of these kids, we are never going to grow better." The program may just be working. Before leaving the assembly at Peterson, ventriloquist Gandelman commended the young students. "I have never seen kids who know the character pillars as well as the students in this district," he said. And he wasn't talking out of both sides of his mouth. |
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