personal development
Personal development is integrated throughout the curriculum and everyday life of the school. The content and tone of the school culture, manifested in both the communal life of the school and in the life of each classroom, is the primary means of promoting personal development.
.
Personal development is an integral part of the instruction in all classrooms. Before instruction can be effective, students must be ready to engage in the learning process. Readiness requires specific personal qualities and traits. The essential qualities and traits for North Side are as follows:
- Attentive/engaged
- Orderly/organized
- Self-disciplined/controlled
- Positive/optimistic
- Respectful/responsible
- Courteous/cooperative
- Hard working/achievement oriented
These are the habits, dispositions, and attitudes that correlate with school success. The list could be extended or changed in some ways, but the core would remain. That core represents the set of student behaviors and attitudes most often defined as qualities found in successful students.
It is important to understand the limits of our aims. Much of the current interest in education is on character education, a much broader and more ambitious program. It aims, in its grandest form, to create good adults and citizens who possess and exhibit courage, fortitude, fidelity, self-sacrifice, nobility, and wisdom. It is the big picture in comparison to our little picture. We aim more generally to produce successful students.
The qualities are taught in three ways:
- Regular, systematic inculcation in all grades throughout the year
- The use of readings, stories, myths, legends, and history that exemplify the qualities. This is direct and deliberate. The materials are chosen for this content and used as an instrument for teaching the qualities
- The regular use of activities, both academic and non-academic, which require the use of the qualities and traits in order to be successful. Again, this is in the context of the inculcation and exemplification of the qualities. For example, all group work will make the qualities central, especially those dealing with social behavior (respect/responsibility, courteous/cooperative).
