Friday, February 19, 2010

Teaching Values to Students at Maharishi School

This week I lost a ten dollar bill.

I didn't even know I'd lost it until one of my seventh grade students came up to me and said, "I found this on the floor," holding up the folded ten spot.

At Maharishi School of the Age of Enlightenment, we teach the four Core Values:
  • Respect
  • Responsibility
  • Solutions
  • Service
I won't mention this young man's name, but I would like to praise him for his citizenship and sense of responsibility. Such an act is not uncommon but should still receive praise, for such a giving spirit is not always found.

I would like to say that being able to give is a reflection of the fullness of the individual inside. In order to give, one must have something to give. "My cup runneth over," I'm sure we've all heard.

I am glad that we explicitly teach the Core Values at our school. Although right action initiates from within, besides practicing Transcendental Meditation at our school to decrease stress and increase self-referential behavior, explicitly discussing modes of behavior that are evolutionary provide students with concepts and models to use when the need arises.

Sometimes when a decision needs to be made quickly and under pressure, a rehearsed correct response is a valuable aid to successful, positive action. That's why sports teams have practice: when it comes to crunch time, the neurophysiology has a programmed course of action so that consciousness flows the desired route more easily. If we do this for physical games, then why not for more abstract aspects of life like morality and civic virtue?

Thank you, young gentleman. And I don't use the word "gentleman" lightly.

If you leave a note of praise below for this blog post, I will be sure to show the comments to my student.

Copyright 2010 by Thomas L. Kepler, all rights reserved

1 comment:

  1. Such values are worth far more than ten dollars. Many schools attempt to teach such values to their students but few succeed. The student's deserve a lot of credit in their ability to see the true worth of respect, responsibility, solutions, and service.

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