Choosing Civility and Student Safety
The primary purpose of any school is to educate students. But the first priority of a school is to ensure student safety. We use the book, “Choosing Civility, the 25 Rules of Considerate Conduct” as the cornerstone of our school safety, student discipline and character development programs. Using this program, we were able to eliminate fights, arguments, suspensions and expulsions. This program works for all age levels.
We recall being surprised by how quickly our school became popular. We asked families why they wanted to enroll in a school. They told us that they were first attracted to our school because of our excellent reputation for having firm yet fair discipline, our emphasis on civility, our nurturing staff and our devotion to preparing our students for post secondary work, training and education. They knew that our students did not argue or fight with each other.
We attribute excellent discipline to our character education program that is centered on the “Choosing Civility” book. A copy of the book’s cover and a list of the 25 rules are on the next page. We provided a copy of the book for each of our families. And when disciplining our students, our staff members refer to the rule that has been broken. Often the student would be required to write an essay about how obeying the rule will make him or her better person.
Additionally, our students were taught to keep eye contact with teachers and staff. We also taught our students to greet visitors with a firm hand shake and introduce themselves.
This book was the subject of a story in the Democrat Gazette on September 20, 2009, written by Greg Harton. Entitled, “Is there some way to reduce rudeness in the 21st century?”, Mr. Horton challenged school districts to use this book to tackle rudeness. We wrote to Mr. Horton and shared with him that our school had been doing as he suggested with great success.
Read the three of the rules that Dr. Fourni discussed with Oprah Winfrey on her show. Click on http://www.oprah.com/oprahshow/Choosing-Civility-by-Dr-PM-Forni/1
We recall being surprised by how quickly our school became popular. We asked families why they wanted to enroll in a school. They told us that they were first attracted to our school because of our excellent reputation for having firm yet fair discipline, our emphasis on civility, our nurturing staff and our devotion to preparing our students for post secondary work, training and education. They knew that our students did not argue or fight with each other.
We attribute excellent discipline to our character education program that is centered on the “Choosing Civility” book. A copy of the book’s cover and a list of the 25 rules are on the next page. We provided a copy of the book for each of our families. And when disciplining our students, our staff members refer to the rule that has been broken. Often the student would be required to write an essay about how obeying the rule will make him or her better person.
Additionally, our students were taught to keep eye contact with teachers and staff. We also taught our students to greet visitors with a firm hand shake and introduce themselves.
This book was the subject of a story in the Democrat Gazette on September 20, 2009, written by Greg Harton. Entitled, “Is there some way to reduce rudeness in the 21st century?”, Mr. Horton challenged school districts to use this book to tackle rudeness. We wrote to Mr. Horton and shared with him that our school had been doing as he suggested with great success.
Read the three of the rules that Dr. Fourni discussed with Oprah Winfrey on her show. Click on http://www.oprah.com/oprahshow/Choosing-Civility-by-Dr-PM-Forni/1
