Project Wisdom: Cultivating Character at Baldwin High School

Though Vice Principal Jonathan Peebles said that he finds his job very rewarding, he was a little tired of focusing his administrative efforts on the 10 percent of kids who fall out of line. As an educator, he wanted to do more than perform the remedial and punitive measures most commonly associated with his professional post. He wanted to tap into what he calls “the psychology of catching kids doing the right things.”

That’s why Peebles brought Project Wisdom to Baldwin High School.

What is Project Wisdom? Peebles described it as a school-wide character education initiative designed to empower both faculty and students and to acknowledge positive strides.

Teachers across all subject areas have access to an online subscription-based resource from which they can obtain lesson plans, readings and assignments that focus on building character traits such as work ethic, discipline, integrity and honor.

Peebles explained that the project is currently being spearheaded at Baldwin High by the social studies department. Since students are required to take a social studies class each year, Peebles said that this department has the furthest reach to affect the greatest number of students.

The way that the social studies department implements Project Wisdom is by assigning weekly reflection essays, wherein students write on a certain theme that their teacher obtained from the online resource.

December’s theme was “the gift of friendship,” and January’s will be “stumbling blocks and stepping stones.”

Peebles noted that the online resource is merely a launch pad for Project Wisdom. He and other involved educators use it for ideas and guidelines, and tailor it specifically to their own needs.

With Project Wisdom in mind, Peebles was inspired to create a Professional Learning Community (PLC), which is comprised of 22 volunteer teachers across all subject departments. The PLC meets twice per month to brainstorm about goals and tools. Members focus on particular character traits and determine ways to promote those traits in the classroom.

Peebles gave us a prime example of the outcome of the PLC’s efforts even though the example didn’t take place in the classroom but rather in Baldwin’s hallways and in the girls bathrooms.

Operation Beautiful came about as a way of promoting self-confidence and building self-esteem. Covert female teachers hit the bathrooms and spackled mirrors and stalls with Post-it notes containing phrases like “You’re beautiful” and “You’re special.” They also put messages on lockers and in other places that the school’s young women were likely to see them.

According to Peebles, because the halls were filled with a positive buzz on the day that Operation Beautiful went down, he and the PLC have decided to make it a recurrent campaign.

Weekly reflection essays and Post-it notes may be great ways of fostering certain character traits, but it’s crucial that students see and hear character in the teachers who encourage their growth, Peebles said.

For this reason, another of Project Wisdom’s objectives is to promote professional wellness amongst faculty members. To this end, Peebles sends out regular emails to teachers, asks for their feedback and does numerous other things to boost morale.

It was faculty feedback that helped spur Project Wisdom in the first place.

This year is Peebles’ second as an assistant principal in the . He taught at Baldwin High for seven years before leaving in 2007 to become an administrator in the , where he worked for two years before coming back to Baldwin.

Upon his return to Baldwin High, Peebles started reading inspirational quotes over the public address system every morning to make himself and those around him feel good. He got great feedback from teachers, many of whom wanted more.

And more came to them in the form of Project Wisdom, which was implemented as a school-wide initiative at the start of the 2011-12 school year.

While Project Wisdom is a unique endeavor, it dovetails with other positive things going on at the school.

For about five years, Baldwin’s Vice Principal Janeen Peretin has been in charge of the Highlander Pride program, which recognizes and rewards outstanding students on a monthly basis. Like Highlander Pride, Project Wisdom is designed to focus on—and build—positive qualities.

Another program complimented by Project Wisdom is a new mentoring program that started this year under Peretin’s direction. The program takes 100 at-risk students and pairs them with a teacher to build a supportive, nurturing relationship aimed at promoting school attendance and one-on-one interaction.

Have these programs made a difference at Baldwin? Peebles would like to think so. He said that discipline referrals are down in 2011 across the board. The total number of discipline referrals so far this year is 226. Around this same time in 2010, that number was 464.

Peebles acknowledges that the decrease is probably not due exclusively to Project Wisdom, but he believes that the program has definitely helped and will continue to bring more change for the better.

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