School District Plans Lessons in Values : Behavior: The Ventura proposal is modeled on a character- development program for elementary students in Dayton, Ohio.

Hoping to “turn the district around” by building moral character in the classroom, the Ventura Unified School District is planning in the fall to launch a program teaching such values as honesty, tolerance and respect, Supt. Joseph Spirito said Wednesday.

The character-development program is not so much a response to gang violence, Spirito said, as to the general attitude of rowdiness and disrespect among Ventura students.

“We’re doing so well academically, so why are kids misbehaving so much?” Spirito said. “Kids are learning excellence but still don’t get along with each other and continue to disrupt the classroom.”

Presenting the plan at a school board meeting Tuesday night, Spirito talked about “the breakdown in the moral fiber of our society” and also quoted the Greek philosopher Aristotle, who “advised parents that the best way to teach morality is to make it a habit with children.”

Spirito proposed Ventura elementary schools model their effort after a character-development program that began three years ago teaching 36 values to students attending an inner-city elementary school in Dayton, Ohio.

During the year, the school day revolves around teaching the value represented in a “word of week.” The words, such as “tolerance” or “dependability,” are discussed for 10 minutes a day in classrooms and appear on school bulletin boards and even on cafeteria place mats. At an assembly each Friday, students act out the word in a skit or in a multimedia presentation.

Although the program may sound simplistic, Spirito said, it has produced startling results at Dayton’s Allen Classical/Traditional Academy, a magnet school. The year before the program began, 150 out of 500 Allen students were suspended, test scores were the lowest among 49 schools in the Dayton City School District and absenteeism was the highest.

This year, Allen was one of Dayton’s showcase schools, district officials said. Test scores were among the highest in the district and fewer than a dozen students were suspended. Because of Allen’s success, all schools in the district will start character development next fall.

“The concept is going great and we’re very excited about it,” said Jean Harper, executive assistant to the district superintendent in Dayton. “We see a difference in school, in test scores and suspension rates but also in our community.”

Spirito wants to implement the program for kindergarten through 12th-grade students in all of Ventura’s 23 schools. “There are kids who already have these traits,” he said. “They’re taught at home and at church. But a lot slip through the cracks. For those not getting it (elsewhere), we have to provide it ourselves.”

But first, Spirito has to sell the idea to teachers and to the community.

“If we can show teachers that the program will be easy for them, I think they’ll buy into it,” Spirito said.

John Gennaro of the Ventura teachers association thinks teachers will go along with the plan.

“There’s not a teacher I know who wouldn’t want the climate of the campus to be improved,” said Gennaro, president of the Ventura Unified Education Assn.

But Gennaro added a caveat: “Teachers get a bit wary because everything that comes down the pike, somebody wants to try,” he said. “Our teachers would want to be convinced that it’s appropriate and will do what it purports to do.”

The community may be harder to persuade. Spirito knows that some parents are sensitive about schools teaching values, so he’s pitching the idea as “character development,” he said.

School board member Diane Harriman likes the plan and isn’t worried about community backlash.

“We’re not teaching religion,” she said, adding that she can’t understand why a parent “wouldn’t want me to teach their child punctuality or consideration.”

Spirito is anxious to get the program off the ground.

“This is the answer to some of our problems,” he said. “It’s an important move.”

Teaching Values Ventura schools are considering adopting a character-development program used in an Ohio elementary school that emphasizes these traits.

1st Semester 2nd Semester Respect Consideration Responsibility Dependability Honesty Truthfulness Punctuality Promptness Self-control Self-discipline Kindness Generosity Courage Bravery Cleanliness Orderliness Courteousness Politeness Thrift Economy Self-reliance Initiative Patience Perseverance Sportsmanship Fairness Tolerance Goodwill Loyalty Patriotism Citizenship Law-abiding Cheerfulness Joyfulness

Source: Allen Traditional/Classical Academy, Dayton, Ohio