Willow Builds Character with $10K Grant

The Willow School in Gladstone is the honored recipient of a $10,000 character education grant. The grant was given to only three schools in the US by the Council on Spiritual and Ethical Education for fine-tuning existing character education programs. "This is a valued and well-deserved award for a school that is truly committed to enriching the lives of its students," explains Adele O'Brien, Willow's Service Learning Coordinator.

What exactly is character education? Over the last 10 years, it has become a national movement found in many public, charter and private schools that foster ethical, responsible, and caring young people.

The Willow School plans to use the grant to support and grow its existing character education programs, such as The Virtues Program, for students, faculty and parents. "This will allow us to build on our philosophy of a balanced approach to both academic and personal success," explains Willow's Head of School, Kate Burke Walsh. "We look at student success in terms of the character they display in everyday life along with academic achievement."

Willow's mission enables children to develop an ethical approach to all relationships, to realize their full potential, and to believe in their power to affect positive change. These ideals are exercised through Willow's Virtues Program, which highlights a virtue a month through literature, Morning Gatherings, projects and everyday interactions. Each day after arrival, children, faculty and parents come together at "Morning Gathering" to introduce and explore virtues such as responsibility, justice, compassion and diligence. Teachers then integrate the virtues into their curriculum. In the First grade, for example, the entire social studies curriculum focuses on community, both school and town, where they explore how virtuous behaviors allow individuals to thrive while functioning in and contributing to a group.

The grant will provide teachers and faculty additional professional development opportunities to find new, creative ways to integrate the virtues into the curriculum. Such integration is essential to build the interconnected relationships among The Virtues, the students and our world.

Students learn about nature's complex systems and interconnectedness in social, economic, and civic contexts. Through service learning projects, the students then learn how to reach out to the community, both in and outside of the school. Explains Adele O'Brien, "students apply their skills and knowledge of systems to pertinent and real needs or problems within the larger community. At the same time, they internalize moral behaviors through their efforts and actions and thus, civic responsibility is born."

For example, earlier this year, the third grade students visited the Red Mill Museum Village in Clinton as a part of their American History social studies curriculum. While visiting they discovered the waterwheel on the property had stopped working, because it was rusted and in disrepair. Inspired, the students became immersed in a service learning project and conceived a plan to raise money to fund the restoration of the waterwheel. The students collected and sold recycled children's items at The Willow Spring Fair to raise almost $950. "It feels really good to do things for our community and other people without expecting anything in return," explains third grader Megan Traudt.

The Red Mill Museum Village is primarily dependent upon volunteers to run and maintain the historic village which hosts over 100 children a day during the school year for tours and educational programs. The 3rd graders used a small portion of the money raised to restore and cultivate an unpreserved vegetable garden at The Museum Village, and the remaining monies will help fund a needed restoration project on the waterwheel this Fall. "The Willow School is the first school that has approached us to build a partnership to better The Village and the community," expressed Elizabeth Cole, Red Mill's Curator of Education. "We are enthusiastic that the students plan to plant native gardens that will require little maintenance and will also help reduce river erosion."

A hallmark of the Willow school is the creativity and collaboration that is truly inherent in the children and their environment. The students' experience at The Willow School is so authentic, that their actions and academic projects in and out of the classroom become one in the same. The integrated program is such a basic part of the student's experience that the children are simply living the virtues.

The Willow School was founded in 2002 for grades K through 8. A new preschool, Willow By the Brook in Pottersville, will open in the Fall of 2009 offering programs for children ages 3-5 years. To learn more about The Willow School, go to www.willowschool.org. The Willow School is located at 1150 Pottersville Road, Gladstone, New Jersey. 908-470-9500.