I'm reminded of Willingham's statement that there's no one personality that all good teachers share, but all good teachers have a personality. I think the same could be said for values - there's no one set of values that makes the best school (though valuing learning usually helps).
The last generation leftists sure had values, even if they didn't call them that - for example, solidarity was pretty high up there. For the latest generation of leftists, any school that has a diversity and inclusion statement that they put into practice are living out their values. "Respect people's pronouns" is a value after all. Sadly there are lots of examples with a great diversity statement on their website and a very different reality in the corridors and locker rooms.
There's a long history in England of schools having named virtues and trying their best to "show, not tell" the virtues to their pupils. One the elite side, pretty much every famous school has a uniform and a motto (in Latin of course) and a list of virtues they live by. Harrow for example has Courage, Honour, Humility and Fellowship (https://www.harrowschool.org.uk/news-events/explore-harrow/our-values). "These values are nurtured in boys during their time at Harrow and form the basis of all that we do.", says their school policy. School uniforms as part of creating a school culture are quite normal in England. Meanwhile for children in London that are unlikely to go anywhere near an elite school, Michaela academy (called "Britain's strictest school" in the media and very proud of this) is all about its ethos and values.
I'm reading this from a UK perspective and going "Of course all our schools have named virtues!" though theory and practice are not always the same thing. At least in practice.
I'm suddenly blushing that most of what I know about British schooling comes from "The History Boys" and "Harry Potter". Although, come to think of it:
I half remember an interview with JK Rowling in the newspapers, where she talked about how many publishers had turned her work down and one of them clearly said there was no place in today's world for a children's book based in what was so obviously an old-fashioned British boarding school.
Yes, this is very rich. Virtue makes us come alive. How many young people would love to enter a true heroic training? To attend Hogwarts, and to truly feel that with great power comes great responsibility? Kids have incredible ability to learn on their own, but what adults can uniquely provide is an initiation into a community of value and mystery.
And I agree that choosing just a few virtues/values to start with is the way. We need to trust that living any specific virtue deeply (such as "justice") brings one into relationship with the field of other true virtues that exist in the "field of value".
I teach at an IB school and I am trying to lean into the heroic training aspect of virtue cultivation. As a whole, IB schools do a good job of stating their values, but rarely live them in valiant fashion. A common mistake is to espouse too many values and be unwilling to sacrifice any, which bottoms out in simple virtue signaling. Schools who live their values deeply as a community are a rare breed.
Great post! I agree with you that shared values are hugely important.
I am also reminded of Michael Pershan's 56 theses about education, particularly #19
"It is functionally impossible to create a large school that has (say) no grades or features (say) an intense focus on discipline, since these “innovations” would go against the will of many parents in the larger population. But in small schools, anything is possible."
The idea is that this kind of values alignment is very difficult in large, diverse, public-facing schools. It's a bit of a dilemma about how to provide specific common values without having an adverse selection (non-selection) problem for those who don't make a specific choice.
that's interesting. And makes me think: what value would be most appropriate for large public schools to really stand on? Diversity and kindness perhaps? Those seem to be better fits than excellence or courage, which seem to be harder to cultivate in a large public school environment.
I think community is highly underrated and would be a good fit for public schools. It might require a rethink about the kinds of services and community outreach that the school provides. Diversity and kindness work well. Tolerance would be a good one. Reading that Groshell article suggests that something like discipline or decorum or perhaps responsibility could be a good, too.
As an Indian-American, I am deeply aware of that paradox. The very things that make cultures so supportive and nurturing are the exact same that cause them to be ruthless in punishing violations (of both named and unnamed virtues).
For example: how should a school like you suggest stop someone who goes around shaming others? Especially if it is a reflex deeply ingrained by their home culture?
I’m sure there’s an answer somewhere (something grace something), but that’s a whole ‘nother can of worms…
The potential pitfall I see here is that shame and punishment cause serious harm, and I suspect there is a lot of hard work in implementing high standards for virtues in ways that avoid those harms given humanity's history and baggage surrounding virtues.
The school I attended from ages 5-13 routinely assigned workbook pages as homework, which were not turned in. Sometimes we had time to go over them in class, sometimes the teacher would get up and walk around while we did so, sometimes they would stay at their desk. Part of their commitment to students being honest was that we were required to disclose if we had not completed the homework before the class period began. There was scolding and shaming if you did so, but there was scolding, shaming, and the whole, not only did you mess up, but you lied about it lecture if you were discovered to have not disclosed. And of course, none of this happened if you didn't tell and the teacher didn't notice. This is, of course, setting humans up for failure but it's also labeling the ADHDers who had completely forgotten the workbook page existed and anxious kids who physically couldn't make themselves speak up in that situation as liars. The relief I felt when I got to high school and learned the consequences of forgetting to do homework were either a small grade penalty or possibly feeling a bit behind if you missed out on practice you needed is a core memory.
Of course a big part of the problem was that virtues were a thing for children to do (and I see that you mention the importance of staff living the virtues as well), but beyond that I suspect that taking a more systemic approach to why humans lie and how we can create an environment that sets people up for success at being truthful might go much farther than simply having high standards for individual behavior.
I'm completely with you on the shaming part. Shaming kids whether or not they speak up when they haven't done (or managed to do) some homework sounds like someone didn't quite think this through, to put it mildly. So perhaps we can put "we don't shame people" on the list of virtues.
On cheating and lying in general, I have a great respect for this quote from Freddie DeBoer, who was not so much talking about students in school but schools cheating on their metrics and evaluations:
"[Hayes argues] that cheating generally flourishes under two conditions: when people lack the ethical foundations and socialization that would preclude them from cheating, and when there are no systems in place to discourage cheating and encourage honesty. [the rest from here on is emphasised in italics] But it seems to me that there’s a third condition: when the goals people are expected to meet can be accomplished in no other way."
If someone CAN'T do their homework - whether they don't understand it, or whether something like dyslexia or ADHD or their parents screaming at each other gets in the way - then neither a statement of values nor punishments and shaming will help. If you give them no other option, they might try and cheat their way out without being bad people.
I personally think running a school based on virtues is the best way to run a school, but you do have to think about scenarios like this one when you write your list.
I'm reminded of Willingham's statement that there's no one personality that all good teachers share, but all good teachers have a personality. I think the same could be said for values - there's no one set of values that makes the best school (though valuing learning usually helps).
The last generation leftists sure had values, even if they didn't call them that - for example, solidarity was pretty high up there. For the latest generation of leftists, any school that has a diversity and inclusion statement that they put into practice are living out their values. "Respect people's pronouns" is a value after all. Sadly there are lots of examples with a great diversity statement on their website and a very different reality in the corridors and locker rooms.
There's a long history in England of schools having named virtues and trying their best to "show, not tell" the virtues to their pupils. One the elite side, pretty much every famous school has a uniform and a motto (in Latin of course) and a list of virtues they live by. Harrow for example has Courage, Honour, Humility and Fellowship (https://www.harrowschool.org.uk/news-events/explore-harrow/our-values). "These values are nurtured in boys during their time at Harrow and form the basis of all that we do.", says their school policy. School uniforms as part of creating a school culture are quite normal in England. Meanwhile for children in London that are unlikely to go anywhere near an elite school, Michaela academy (called "Britain's strictest school" in the media and very proud of this) is all about its ethos and values.
I'm reading this from a UK perspective and going "Of course all our schools have named virtues!" though theory and practice are not always the same thing. At least in practice.
I'm suddenly blushing that most of what I know about British schooling comes from "The History Boys" and "Harry Potter". Although, come to think of it:
"You might belong in Gryffindor,
Where dwell the brave at heart,
Their daring, nerve and chivalry
Set Gryffindors apart;
You might belong in Hufflepuff,
Where they are just and loyal,
Those patient Hufflepuffs are true
And unafraid of toil;
Or yet in wise old Ravenclaw,
If you've a ready mind,
Where those of wit and learning,
Will always find their kind;
Or perhaps in Slytherin
You'll make your real friends,
Those cunning folk use any means
To achieve their ends."
I half remember an interview with JK Rowling in the newspapers, where she talked about how many publishers had turned her work down and one of them clearly said there was no place in today's world for a children's book based in what was so obviously an old-fashioned British boarding school.
Yes, this is very rich. Virtue makes us come alive. How many young people would love to enter a true heroic training? To attend Hogwarts, and to truly feel that with great power comes great responsibility? Kids have incredible ability to learn on their own, but what adults can uniquely provide is an initiation into a community of value and mystery.
And I agree that choosing just a few virtues/values to start with is the way. We need to trust that living any specific virtue deeply (such as "justice") brings one into relationship with the field of other true virtues that exist in the "field of value".
I teach at an IB school and I am trying to lean into the heroic training aspect of virtue cultivation. As a whole, IB schools do a good job of stating their values, but rarely live them in valiant fashion. A common mistake is to espouse too many values and be unwilling to sacrifice any, which bottoms out in simple virtue signaling. Schools who live their values deeply as a community are a rare breed.
Great post! I agree with you that shared values are hugely important.
I am also reminded of Michael Pershan's 56 theses about education, particularly #19
"It is functionally impossible to create a large school that has (say) no grades or features (say) an intense focus on discipline, since these “innovations” would go against the will of many parents in the larger population. But in small schools, anything is possible."
The idea is that this kind of values alignment is very difficult in large, diverse, public-facing schools. It's a bit of a dilemma about how to provide specific common values without having an adverse selection (non-selection) problem for those who don't make a specific choice.
https://pershmail.substack.com/p/56-theses-about-education-for-fun
that's interesting. And makes me think: what value would be most appropriate for large public schools to really stand on? Diversity and kindness perhaps? Those seem to be better fits than excellence or courage, which seem to be harder to cultivate in a large public school environment.
I think community is highly underrated and would be a good fit for public schools. It might require a rethink about the kinds of services and community outreach that the school provides. Diversity and kindness work well. Tolerance would be a good one. Reading that Groshell article suggests that something like discipline or decorum or perhaps responsibility could be a good, too.
Thanks for having the courage to take this on!
I’ll limit myself to one question:
Are you (we) a startup?
As an Indian-American, I am deeply aware of that paradox. The very things that make cultures so supportive and nurturing are the exact same that cause them to be ruthless in punishing violations (of both named and unnamed virtues).
For example: how should a school like you suggest stop someone who goes around shaming others? Especially if it is a reflex deeply ingrained by their home culture?
I’m sure there’s an answer somewhere (something grace something), but that’s a whole ‘nother can of worms…
The potential pitfall I see here is that shame and punishment cause serious harm, and I suspect there is a lot of hard work in implementing high standards for virtues in ways that avoid those harms given humanity's history and baggage surrounding virtues.
The school I attended from ages 5-13 routinely assigned workbook pages as homework, which were not turned in. Sometimes we had time to go over them in class, sometimes the teacher would get up and walk around while we did so, sometimes they would stay at their desk. Part of their commitment to students being honest was that we were required to disclose if we had not completed the homework before the class period began. There was scolding and shaming if you did so, but there was scolding, shaming, and the whole, not only did you mess up, but you lied about it lecture if you were discovered to have not disclosed. And of course, none of this happened if you didn't tell and the teacher didn't notice. This is, of course, setting humans up for failure but it's also labeling the ADHDers who had completely forgotten the workbook page existed and anxious kids who physically couldn't make themselves speak up in that situation as liars. The relief I felt when I got to high school and learned the consequences of forgetting to do homework were either a small grade penalty or possibly feeling a bit behind if you missed out on practice you needed is a core memory.
Of course a big part of the problem was that virtues were a thing for children to do (and I see that you mention the importance of staff living the virtues as well), but beyond that I suspect that taking a more systemic approach to why humans lie and how we can create an environment that sets people up for success at being truthful might go much farther than simply having high standards for individual behavior.
I'm completely with you on the shaming part. Shaming kids whether or not they speak up when they haven't done (or managed to do) some homework sounds like someone didn't quite think this through, to put it mildly. So perhaps we can put "we don't shame people" on the list of virtues.
On cheating and lying in general, I have a great respect for this quote from Freddie DeBoer, who was not so much talking about students in school but schools cheating on their metrics and evaluations:
"[Hayes argues] that cheating generally flourishes under two conditions: when people lack the ethical foundations and socialization that would preclude them from cheating, and when there are no systems in place to discourage cheating and encourage honesty. [the rest from here on is emphasised in italics] But it seems to me that there’s a third condition: when the goals people are expected to meet can be accomplished in no other way."
If someone CAN'T do their homework - whether they don't understand it, or whether something like dyslexia or ADHD or their parents screaming at each other gets in the way - then neither a statement of values nor punishments and shaming will help. If you give them no other option, they might try and cheat their way out without being bad people.
I personally think running a school based on virtues is the best way to run a school, but you do have to think about scenarios like this one when you write your list.