The students at Ronald Harvey Elementary School are starting to use words like ‘synergize’ and ‘proactive,’ thanks to a new school-wide program based on a popular self-help book.
This is the first year that the Lacombe Park school has instituted the Leader in Me program, started by Stephen Covey, author of the book of the same name plus the very popular The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People.
While Harvey, like most other schools, already had its own way of instilling and reinforcing positive behaviours in its students, principal Janet Tripp says that she and her staff overwhelmingly decided to go in this new direction. It all started simply enough with her and assistant principal Barb Scott looking for ways to spark discussion with the teachers.
“[We] had read it the previous year. We thought this would be a really good read as a staff book study to get some ideas of where we could go. It really came from the staff, ‘Wow! Is this ever powerful! What can we do to really bring this into our school?’ That was the springboard.”
The wheels were put in motion almost immediately last fall with all teachers participating in further examination and discussion. Everyone was so enthusiastic that they started testing the students’ reactions to it almost immediately.
“The staff went crazy, saying, ‘Yes! Let’s do it!’”
She said that it all boiled down to the fact that it emphasizes the whole child in a way that nothing else before has. Plus, it has its own vocabulary of success.
“If this is really so awesome,” she said, recalling her first thoughts, “let’s start showing our kids this and start bringing in the language.”
The program also comes with attention-grabbing visuals that are pervasive throughout the school’s new Leader in Me student agenda books. A pyramid demonstrates how students should start with themselves by being proactive, beginning with the end in mind, and putting first things first. Then they are taught to play well with others by thinking win-win, seeking first to understand and then to be understood, and synergizing. Finally, at the top of the pyramid, they are reminded to take care of themselves with the phrase ‘sharpen the saw.’
Magdalena Barry teaches Grade 3 at the school of approximately 280 students. She said that, while the new program is only a few months into its implementation, there have already been noticeable changes.
“There’s more unity amongst the staff and the kids are starting to actually use the language of the Seven Habits,” she began, adding that she believes in it so strongly that she even uses the program’s philosophy at home.
Seun Lagoke is one of her students. He sees the potential benefits from the new culture at the school.
“It’s encouraging!” he stated enthusiastically as he recited the different levels of the pyramid. “They represent good choices and bad choices.”
Tripp added that the program is being watched by officials with the school district and with principals at other schools to see if it is something that can or should be implemented elsewhere.
