Our “Habits of the Heart” help develop students’ ethical and moral behavior from Early Childhood through High School
From Nursery through Grade 5, we strengthen the teaching of values through the curricular models “Habits of the Heart” and “Virtues for Life.” These models teach how to develop and apply values and virtues in one’s personal life and among friends and family. They help enable children to get involved in community service projects. The curricula are designed to help children embrace the role of being an active participant in the development of personal values, which are experienced in the practical exercise of virtue in action.
“Habits of the Heart,” or virtues, such as patience, kindness, humility, among others, help develop ethical and moral behavior in children and adolescents. Our Program immerses students in an academic environment that cultivates lifelong abilities of learning how to learn, learning how to do, learning how to be, and learning how to live in community.
These lifelong learnings help consolidate virtues in the hearts of our students, helping them learn how to apply moral principles at home, at school, in their community, and in their future careers.
Virtues Workshop
School of the Nations has begun to hold “Virtues Workshops,” an integrative program developed for parents and guardians whose children study in Early Childhood. “Virtues Workshops” aim to share concepts and thoughts related to the virtue that children will study that month.
In the workshops, our Moral Education and Global Citizenship Coordinator, Ms. Neryangela Samoori, explains how the concepts we teach are inspired by Bahá ́í principles and supported by science and social theories of human behavior. Parents also engage in activities they can use at home with their children to reinforce the “Habits of the Heart” they are studying.
More than two-hundred fifty children take part in the “Habits of the Heart” program in Early Childhood. Every month, teachers plan classroom activities that children will take part in to learn about the Habit of the Heart for that month. They bring in music, prayers, and stories that complement classroom activities. Early Childhood students have already worked with seven virtues since the beginning of the school year.
This year the number of parents interested in the Virtues Workshop has increased to an average of thirty parents each presentation. We send out invitations before each meeting and invite all parents and guardians to join us.