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KIDS OF CHARACTER 7/20/2009
Planning For A Future Hour Victor Hugo once wrote, “Each man should frame life so that at some future hour fact and his dreamings meet.” Hugo was clarifying the two different realities for the one who plans and the one who doesn’t. Planning is the driver that always wins the desired goal. Not planning produces a wasteland of personal mediocrity. Working Your Plan is a theme that character educators need to teach budding kids of character in the classroom and on the athletic field. My fifth grade teacher, Mrs. Best, was a tremendous character educator. She taught me the power of planning. She did so as she presented her social studies curriculum. Throughout the year Mrs. Best gave her students several social studies projects. Each project had a number of elements that were necessary to complete each project. The project elements involved twelve-fifteen activities and assignments. To help each student accomplish a project, she created a Class T-Chart. Down the left side of the chart was every child’s name. Across the top were all of the elements of a project. Each element had a little box-square. When a student finished one element of their project, they could go to the chart and put an X in their box-square, marking their progress toward their goal. It was always a special moment for every kid when they came up to put their last X in their last box-square. Mrs. Best made sure that every student was acknowledged for working their plan toward success. Kids of character require learning the skill of planning. Children experience a valuable discovery when they learn they can take little steps toward big accomplishments. Kids build inner drive as they purposefully plod to produce a product, daily managing the maneuvers to make it to the mountaintop of big accomplishments. Additionally, planning teaches a kid of character about delayed gratification. Planning helps children and youth learn that the Big Wins require sustained effort involving putting together a collection of smaller efforts to secure the big win. Hugo’s words capture the thrill of a personal character victory when one’s dream converges on a path that sees the summit and then takes small steps toward it.
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