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Nurturing civility in daily life
Elementary school students claim their 'core values' by painting them

by Chris Kenrick

Protected by a plastic trash-bag smock and a painter's hat, fifth-grader Phoebe James confidently wielded her paintbrush this week to outline a flower on a wall at her school.

"Integrity means if someone's being bullied, you should stick up for them and not just watch it happen," she said.

Phoebe — with all 541 of her classmates at Palo Alto's Walter Hays School — is in the midst of creating the third of nine murals in the campus' Core Values Mural Project, an exercise in nurturing civility in the daily lives of children and adults at the school.

In a series of class conversations and assemblies, students reached consensus on what they consider the school's nine "core values." Now, with guidance from Principal Mary Bussmann and parent volunteer and professional artist Florence de Bretagne, they're illustrating those principles of behavior in colorful panoramas across the campus.

When the ninth mural is finished, each child, literally, will have left his or her mark on the school, de Bretagne said.

As fifth-graders worked to paint "integrity" in rotating small groups this week, de Bretagne asked them to define it.

"It means telling the truth and doing the right thing," Sophie Frick said.

Added Nathan Chun: "If you see someone getting bullied, you don't just stand there — you get help."

"Being true to yourself," said another.

The resulting "integrity" art — a sturdy brown tree trunk bursting with colorful flowers — represents the blooming of a child who is true to him or herself, de Bretagne told the students.

"If you're true to yourself, you will be strong and really blossom and get beautiful," she said.

An already completed "Initiative" mural near the school office depicts a bold field of trees — with one in particular standing out.

While painting it, fourth-graders noticed how one of the trees was "really strong and dared to be different, to initiate something new and positive," de Bretagne recalled.

"I asked them to think of a time they had started something new and positive in their lives, and they had trouble with that.

"Then we said, 'If you have a new student in your class and nobody talks to her, somebody can be the one to initiate a conversation.'"

The other core values chosen by the students are respect, resilience, cooperation, inclusion, responsibility, perseverance and empathy.

Principal Bussmann said children need ways to grasp the relevance of lofty values statements to their everyday lives.

"Social-emotional learning isn't a program. It's not something you order from a company and pull out of a box and give a lesson.

"It has to be at the core of what you do every day, every minute of the day, with every child."

The home-grown values project grew out of Bussmann's conversations with parents, as well as a series of school-based parent discussions of P.M. Forni's book, "Choosing Civility," over the course of last year.

"We read the book and talked about what was on our minds, what we were seeing with children, what we saw at school, what we saw at home, what we cared about and what we wanted for our kids," Bussmann said.

The book group led to formation of a school Core Values Committee and assemblies in which kids were asked, "What do you need to learn and grow at Walter Hays?"

Sometimes the kids would come up with stories, and adults would help them find words.

"They'd say, 'We want other people to understand us when we have hurt feelings' — empathy comes to mind," Bussmann said.

"It's so important for them to learn how to treat each other but also important for the principal, teachers and parents to live these codes of conduct, these core values, to the best of our ability every single day.

"And it's really hard. We're not perfect, but we can learn from our mistakes.

"If a child's feelings are hurt, they can learn to say, 'Can you please stop that? My feelings are hurt.'

"It takes a lot of courage for children and adults to do that."

Bussman sees long-term payoff in the school-wide Core Values Project.

"I think the reward will be children that have a great sense of themselves, who are able to speak up for what they need when their feelings are hurt, know how to solve a conflict, be confident and know how to navigate the world maintaining their respect and honor," she said.

Staff Writer Chris Kenrick can be e-mailed at ckenrick@paweekly.com.

Posted by Ray Bacchetti, a resident of the University South neighborhood, on Nov 15, 2010 at 10:39 am

What a great project--exemplary of a school system willing to acknowledge the significance of core values and of social and emotional learning as vital complements to academic achievement. Indeed, without them, academic learning can be rudderless.A2

Posted by Former WH parent, a resident of the Leland Manor/Garland Drive neighborhood, on Nov 15, 2010 at 10:42 am

Great job, Mary and WH parents and staff! This sort of thing needs to be carried into the middle schools where bullying intensifies.

Posted by Jane, a resident of the University South neighborhood, on Nov 15, 2010 at 11:10 am

Wonderful story; wonderful project

Posted by Ohlone Alumni Parents, a resident of the Leland Manor/Garland Drive neighborhood, on Nov 15, 2010 at 11:20 am

Great job WH parents and kids! Now, the trick is that you must be willing to adhere to these core values. That is the hard part and particularly in a town like Palo Alto where many of these core values have not been addressed much. Ohlone School has always payed attention to such values and that is why I opted out of WH and Duveneck (my children's neighborhood school). That was the best decision we ever made for our children.

Posted by Garden Gnome, a resident of the Crescent Park neighborhood, on Nov 15, 2010 at 11:26 am

Isn't there anything productive these children can learn during their limited hours at school (examples: reading, writing, artithmetic, science art), and shouldn't it be the parents' responsibility to teach them their "core" values?

Sad that we have to start indoctrinating these youngsters so early. I was hoping middle school was sufficiently early.

Posted by Dee, a resident of the Crescent Park neighborhood, on Nov 15, 2010 at 12:10 pm

So.... Really wonderful "civics" project, not so unlike the topics we studied in school back in the day ALONG WITH the reading, writing, arithmatic, science, remember!

But, back to the article... 9 core values - menitoned a couple of times - and these would be...? (Could somebody please list what the children chose as their core values.)

Posted by Chris Kenrick, Palo Alto Weekly staff writer, a resident of the Old Palo Alto neighborhood, on Nov 15, 2010 at 1:52 pm

Dee,

They are integrity, initiative, empathy, respect, resilience, cooperation, inclusion, responsibility and perseverance (listed in the story, though they don't necessarily pop out!)

Posted by anonymous, a resident of the Duveneck/St. Francis neighborhood, on Nov 16, 2010 at 3:11 pm

Compliments to Walter Hays administration for this project. Entirely appropriate and showing initiative to help youth and community. I am not familiar with the school, though it is clear this sets a positive, community-minded tone at this school. That makes for a safer school community.

Reminds me that there was a teacher at Nixon Elementary several yrs ago who got her students involved in a worthwhile charitable project featuring genuine student contributions, empathy, action (as opposed to select highhanded mommies managing/doing such a project as is often the case around here)