32 | Summer 2017 Our approach to teaching character and ethics is comprehensive and continual. It is woven into the day’s academics, classroom meetings, social scenarios, guidance lessons, mindfulness practices and our school culture. We teach children the value of being a good person and how we are all interconnected. Character is developed through modeling, literature, role playing, building empathy and perspective taking skills and active listening. To support our character and ethics teaching, we incorporate a selection of programs. One such program is the Second Step Guidance Curriculum created by the Committee for Children which helps students to develop the social-emotional skills necessary for positive social interactions and academic success. The Lower School teachers also use a Responsive Creating Smart and Good Kids: Character and Ethics in the Lower School By: Kelly Sipe, Kindergarten Teacher and Melissa Lehman, Junior Kindergarten Teacher GREENSBORO DAY SCHOOL is known for nurturing children in ways that support both intellectual growth and integrity. In the Lower School, we strive to cultivate compassion in students so they enter the world and create a life of significance that contributes to the greater good. Craig McIntosh ’98, parent of Adelaide ’26, Fletcher ’28, Finn ’30 recently stated, “When I drop my children off at school, I know they are going to learn to be better people, with teachers who are not only intellectually influential, but the life-changing type.” Research has shown “schools that teach character education report higher academic performance, improved attendance, reduced violence, fewer disciplinary issues, reduction in substance abuse, and less vandalism.” (Jessica Lahey, The Atlantic Daily, May 2013) Greensboro Day School was the first school in the country to be recognized as a School of Ethical Excellence by the Center for Spiritual and Ethical Education. Ethics education begins by developing self-awareness, perspective, empathy and identifying shared values. These skills allow for students to recognize when an ethical dilemma (a situation when two values are in conflict with one another) presents itself. Children and adolescents can better articulate and navigate social situations when they have identified their core values and the values of others, and have learned a framework that helps them to respectfully discourse with others. Once they recognize which values are in conflict, they can better field their way through the gray areas. Ethical literacy education also strengthens and helps to define a student’s moral compass, which is his/her guiding force. It gives them the courage to be willing to engage in tough situations that require integrity, wisdom and perseverance with empathy, respect and confidence.