Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, January 29, 1995 TAG: 9501310122
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: D4 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: ASSOCIATED PRESS
DATELINE: NORFOLK LENGTH: Medium
But public school officials in Norfolk, where two high schools are using a national Community of Caring curriculum sponsored by the Joseph P. Kennedy Jr. Foundation, say they haven't heard any complaints.
``People forget we teach values on a daily basis - attendance, coming to school prepared, a work ethic,'' said Charlene Christopher, president of the Education Association of Norfolk.
``But the values that they're introducing ought to be safe enough. These are values that all humans should have for one another.''
The program uses daily schoolwork, teen forums and community service to stress caring, trust, respect, responsibility and family. The hope is that students will use what they learn and choose to avoid sexual activity and other behaviors that could adversely affect their lives.
More than 40 teachers from Northside and Granby high schools met Friday at Northside Middle School with Eunice Kennedy Shriver, the head of the Community in Caring program, to discuss ways to foster the program's tenets of respect and responsibility.
Shriver is the sister of the late President John F. Kennedy, the late Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy, and Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, D-Mass. Their brother, for whom the foundation was named, was killed in a World War II plane crash.
``My own experience came through watching my brothers in politics,'' Shriver said. ``Values were discussed all the time, civil rights, how they stressed the importance of education for all.
``I realized that some of our most value-conscious are our teachers who are teaching our children. It seemed reasonable to have values-based education in our schools.''
The Kennedy Foundation formed 12 years ago to focus on the prevention of mental retardation. One of Shriver's sisters, Rosemary Kennedy, is mentally retarded. As studies began showing that pregnant teen-agers are more likely than older women to give birth to mentally retarded children, the focus turned toward the schools.
Northside and other school systems already are seeing positive results of the program. Northside logged 61 fights between September and December of 1993, but the number fell to 33 in 1994. Armstrong High School in Richmond has been working with the program for more than four years and has shown a marked improvement in academic scores and attendance. Its pregnancy rate has been cut in half.
Northside and Granby last year became the first schools in the Tidewater area to implement the separate values program on top of the state-mandated Family Life classes. Family Life teaches human reproduction in a span of a few class periods. The Caring program is infused into year-round, daily school lessons.
``We might talk about Isabella and Ferdinand and the trust that must have existed between them and Columbus,'' said Berdell Wilson, head of the Granby social studies department at Granby. ``We talk about that trust and relate it to things that occur today so that they see that trust, respect goes across the line.''
by CNB