KIPP’s longstanding motto — “Work hard. Be nice.” — isn’t just a tagline. Since our beginning in 1994, the development of character has been as important to us as the teaching of academic skills.
Together, they are the yin-yang that make our schools come alive; both are critical to the success of our students in college and life.
Character Education at KIPP NYC
KIPP NYC offers teachers, kids, and parents a structured, meaningful way to talk about and develop character. Our approach is rooted in the research of Dr. Martin Seligman (University of Pennsylvania) and Dr. Chris Peterson (University of Michigan) which has identified twenty-four character strengths that contribute to the development of engaged, meaningful, and purposeful lives. We’ve focused our character-building efforts in particular on a subset of seven highly predictive strengths: zest, grit, self-control, optimism, gratitude, social intelligence, and curiosity.
Our goal is to infuse the development of these seven highly predictive character strengths into every aspect of what we do. We started by integrating our own experiences as teachers with the research of Seligman, Peterson, and Dr. Angela Duckworth to create indicators that allow us to identify and focus very practically on building each strength. For example, to help teachers, kids, and parents develop grit we ask them to reflect on whether they try hard even after experiencing failure. For the complete list of character indicators, please click here.
Six Keys to Developing Character
- Believe It and Model It: We strive to remember, and behave consistently with James Baldwin’s observation: “Children have never been very good at listening to their elders but have never failed to imitate them.”
- Name It: Give the intangible and often-unnamed a name. Only by labeling and talking about the character strengths that Martin Seligman and Chris Peterson identified can we embark on the journey to develop them.
- Find It: Introduce kids to real-world and fictional examples that display key character strengths.
- Feel It: Offer kids and adults the opportunity to feel the positive effects of focusing on, and developing, their own characters.
- Integrate It: Create "dual-purpose experiences" that explicitly and implicitly incorporate and develop character strengths while trying to achieve another academic objective.
- Praise It: Provide people with “growth mindset” praise – that is, precise, descriptive effort-based praise -- around character.
EXAMPLES OF HOW KIPP TEACHERS INFUSE THEIR LESSONS WITH a character focus:
- In class, a teacher observes: “We’ve recently been building our stamina during independent reading. Good stamina requires lots of self-control, because you have to ignore distractions, and lots of grit, because it isn’t easy reading without stopping for 20 minutes. So today, we’re actually going to be practicing both grit and self-control as we develop our reading skills.”
- A teacher asks her students to reflect: “We’ve been discussing some of the attitudes and choices made by leaders during the Vietnam War. Why would hope and optimism be important qualities for the winning side? What would the risks of too much optimism be for these leaders?”
- A science experiment is framed with character in mind: “Today we’re going to learn about the scientific method. Scientists are fueled by curiosity. They design experiments in order to explore new things and investigate questions about the way the world works. Today, your curiosity will be key to designing a successful experiment.”
- In kindergarten, we explicitly remind our students that hula-hooping – and the development of countless other skills – takes lots of grit. A similar focus on grit and self-control runs through most classes K-12, and particularly in our co-curricular activities.
Resources
- Download a Q & A on KIPP NYC's approach to character >
- Read the New York Times article about KIPP Character education >
- View supporting materials for the KIPP NYC character growth card >
- View a presentation on integrating character into your lesson plans by Michael Witter, a teacher at KIPP Infinity.
