M o r a l   E d u c a t i o n

  I n t r o d u c t i o n :

This proposal describes our Strategic Recommendations for the New Era Children’s Fund Project and the services we will provide to facilitate the success of the project. A budget based upon the Strategic Recommendations is also included with this proposal. This proposal reflects the quality of consulting, program development, and training services NECF will provide to the School (the Client) in meeting its goals and objectives.

 J u s t i f i c a t i o n

America has a crisis in the welfare and well being of its children. And Arizona’s children are suffering more than most. According to the 77th Arizona town hall on “Values, Ethics and Personal Responsibility”

“Character, ethics and moral education should be integrated into existing core academic class study and not as separate formal courses.  Emphasis should be given to six core tenets of ethical conduct: trustworthiness, respect, responsibility, fairness, caring, and citizenship.”

If the recommendation of the 77th Arizona Town Hall is to be accepted and accomplished, it will involve a process of raising the consciousness of parents, teachers, and students.  It will mean raising questions of character, ethics, and morals in connection with the social dysfunction that is confronting our children; namely drugs, teenage pregnancy, violence, and suicide.  It will mean parents, teachers, communities, businesses, religious institutions, and government working together for the common good of our children and our children’s children.  In cooperation with your esteemed institution, it is the goal of New Era  Children’s Fund to help facilitate this process of integrating character, ethics and moral education into core academic class study.

NECF has developed a five-year Plan to achieve the recommendation of the 77th Arizona Town Hall and its own goal of helping our children to reach their full potential and lead healthy and productive lives.  This proposal reflects New Era Children’s Fund resolve in accomplishing this goal and improving the welfare and well being of our children.

 General Statement of New Era Children’s Fund Services ;

The Mission of NEW ERA CHILDREN’S FUND is “To assist and guide our children in recognizing their innate potential as the very foundation to achieve excellence in all things.”

New Era is a Arizona based Corporation established to address some of the most important social issues of our time. Our primary concern is nurturing and facilitating the healthy development of youth and to assist those who seek to guide them.

Applied Social & Behavioral Sciences Model :
The Operating Model developed by New Era Children’s fund is based on three important sociological concepts : Context, Emergence, and Process.  These concepts find universal application in New Era Children’s program development models and strategic approaches to social organization and social problems.

  • Context refers to physical, cultural, and social environments and their influence upon human development and behavior.
  • Emergence refers to the probability that certain events or experiences will occur in a given Context.
  • Process refers to the means by which Context can be managed and manipulated in order to influence and predict Emergence.  We call this Process Contextual Management.

NECF assists its clients in developing strategies, programs, and solutions that are suited to their particular context, the problems that have emerged or that they wish to prevent, and the human and material resources they have available to devote to an ongoing process of social change and contextual management.

It is the view of New Era Children’s Fund that our current social problems and diseases emerge in the context of Anomie (social, ethical and moral decay), unprecedented social change, and spiritual disconnection.

 ”New Era Children’s Project for Moral Development Project Specific Strategic Recommendations”

These specific recommendations are designed to effectively target three (3) significant populations: students, parents, and teachers.  The student population will be targeted through direct instructional services and through the development of a strong Peer Influence component.

 Target Population - Peer Support Group

An intensive program should be offered on a semester long basis as a non-credit course into which parents can register their children. The focus of this class will be to develop a group of students in each school who have internalized the curriculum of the Project and have expressed a desire to model good Character and high Ethical and Moral behavior.  These students will form the core of the Project’s Peer Support Group.  The Peer Support Group will be trained to assist and encourage other students who are trying to make positive lifestyle choices.

  1. A Parents Orientation Meeting for the parents of the enrolled students should beheld at the beginning of each enrollment period.  [This will enable the Area Coordinators and Classroom Facilitators to solicit, encourage, and insure parent participation in their children’s process and progress.]
  2. The course should be offered during two or three different periods in each on-site program.  The classes should be offered during both regular and non-regular classroom periods. [This provides access to interested parents and students where academic scheduling conflicts may occur. This also offers the flexibility  that administrators look for and need when making program choices.]
  3. The group size should not exceed 25-30 participants per class.  [This allows for manageable environments and small group exercises in 5 groups of 5-6 students each. This format is best suited to the presentation model and types of activities that are included in the New Era Program.  This approach also allows the school greater range in identifying available meeting space for the program.]
  4. There should be two (2) Facilitators in each classroom.  The Facilitator team should include a male and a female. [This allows both groups of students to feel comfortable and that their views will be represented and acknowledged in discussing the materials of the program.]
  5. The semester curriculum should begin with a few introductory classes by the Classroom Facilitators.  [This allows them to set the tone and atmosphere for the overall program.]  This ‘'orientation period’ should be followed by the Know Drugs America component.  After Know Drugs America, Inc., the Facilitators will begin working with the youth utilizing the New Era materials.  [This model allows for the ‘theme’ or focus of the program to change (drugs, teenage pregnancy, suicide, violence) without changing the foundational elements of NECF along range program.]
  6. Each Facilitator team should handle no more than four classroom sessions per day based upon a standard classroom period (approximately 50-60 minutes). [The New Era Program materials are intense, interactive, and emotionally provocative programs. The Facilitators should not be scheduled beyond their productivity threshold.  This scheduling protocol also allows Facilitators to perform their Support Functions of meeting with the parents and teachers of their students, as well as with the individual students regarding program goals and activities.]
  7. The Area Coordinators and Facilitators will receive an ‘Orientation to Drug Prevention Curriculum from KNOW DRUGS AMERICA, Inc. [This ‘orientation to the theme or focus topic materials’ will apply whenever a new vendor is substituted for a new project. This allows the Area Coordinators and Facilitators to manage questions that emerge later in the semester and to make appropriate relational observations when discussing the New Era Program, or other foundational materials of the long term program.]
  8. The focus of the foundational curriculum of the Peer Support Group class should be to enable students who complete the course to demonstrate their understanding of the six core tenets of ethical conduct as adopted by respected citizens of the State of Arizona at the 77th Arizona Town Hall.
  • Trustworthiness
  • Responsibility
  • Caring
  • Respect
  • Fairness
  • Citizenship

The students knowledge and skills development should also demonstrate their  understanding of the NECF national program.  Students efforts to integrate these tenets and concepts into their everyday lives should be recognized, reinforced, and celebrated.

Students in the Peer Support Group classes should be taught the art of storytelling as method for engaging their peers in discussions about the New Era Program, and other foundational materials of the long term program.

 Target Poplulation - General Student Body
  1. The Classroom Facilitators should give at least two (2) one period presentations in each core academic class per semester. The regular instructor should remain in the classroom during the presentations. These lectures should be focused on relating the foundation content of the program to the specific academic subject or area. [This will allow the instructor to learn, utilize and reinforce the information shared in the presentations within the context of his or her regular academic classes. This also allows the Facilitators to expose the entire student body to the program materials during the regular school semester and without being restricted to doing so only in a general assembly. This core academic class lecture approach also increases the probability that some students will receive multiple exposures, beyond the designated two (2) per class.  Further, that students from the general student body will develop an interest in joining the Peer Support Group.]
  2. Teachers in the core academic areas should be encouraged to offer extra credit opportunities to students who will turn in projects that ‘integrate’ the program content with the materials of the specific academic course.
  3. Area Coordinators and Classroom Facilitators should review the ‘content integration’ projects of the students and facilitate school recognition of such projects. Recognition Awards should be given to both students and their parents for highly acknowledged and noteworthy projects.

 Target Poplulation - Parents

In addition to the Parents Orientation Meeting recommended for the Peer Support Group participants, NECF also recommends:

  1. The school should schedule a general Parent Orientation Meeting to introduce the program to the entire school community. [This allows NECF to receive input from the parents, hear their expressed concerned about their children or about the program, and then to tailor the program/process to meet the particular ‘context’ of that specific community.]
  2. A Post-Semester meeting should also be held to discuss the accomplishments of the students, parents, and teachers. [This allows NECF to reinforce confidence in the program and to refine the program based upon concrete examples of what works and what does not work in a particular context.]
  3. Parents should be informed about the project on an ongoing basis. [The time the Classroom Facilitators will spend with the children will be minimal in comparison to the amount of time they will spend at home, in their communities, and with their peers.  Parent awareness, education, and participation should be considered crucial elements of the long term program.]
  4. NECF will prepare monthly flyers or newsletters to parents. The content of the newsletters will include special acknowledgments and awards, calendar of events, and ‘hints to parents’ on raising socially and morally conscious children. [This later section will be based upon questions asked by parents.  This allows parents to feel involved in developing the agenda of the program rather than feeling that it is being imposed upon them.]
  5. NECF will also provide information and links to additional information on its web site. [This allows parents to access a broad resource based in their efforts to support their children and the goals of the NECF.]
  6. The NECF Area Coordinators will facilitate the formation of a Parent Support Group. The Group should be encouraged to initiate programs and activities to add a community dimension to the school based program.  [This community dimension might include participation in community based fairs, projects, and activities, as well as field trips and outings.]

 Target Poplulation - Teachers

A primary concern of NECF is that teachers may be highly qualified in their particular academic subject areas. But very few of them have been adequately prepared and trained to cope with and address the disruptive and provocative social issues that our children bring into their classrooms on a daily basis. It is in this context that the levels of failure in American education emerge. There is a gap between teacher preparedness and student readiness for the teaching and learning process.

Some recommendations in this section have application to teachers, school counselors, and parents.  In addition to the exposure teachers will receive to the program materials as a result of recommendations made in the General Student Body section of this proposal, NECF recommends:

  1. Area Coordinators and Classroom Facilitators will be trained and available to meet with teachers, school counselors, and parents to inform, educate, and answer questions regarding the NECF Program and Curriculum.
  2. In-service training for teachers and workshops for teachers, school counselors, and parents should be held several times per academic year.
  3. Teachers in core academic subjects should be able to request Classroom Facilitators  to make return visits to their classrooms as interest, scheduling, and course content would allow.

[The above recommendations are necessary to enhance teachers’ knowledge and skills related to the NECF Program and curriculum. These items are essential to meeting the goal of having ‘character, ethics, and moral education … integrated into existing core academic class study …’]

It should be noted that the effective targeting of these populations will also require the support and cooperation of school and district administrators.

 Conclusion

The framework is also one that can be easily adapted to other ‘focus projects’, such as Teenage Pregnancy, Violence, Gangs, Cultural Awareness, or World Peace. The Facilitators would set the tone of the program, the vendor providing the ‘focus topic’ would make their presentations over several classes or weeks, and then the Facilitators would present the New Era Program, and other foundational program curricula reinforcing the project theme.  With the collaboration of the School Districts’ Administration, NECF can simply multiply the model into all its schools as project growth demands.

 

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