What is FCL?: Testimonials

Testimonials – Fall 2009

Student Testimonials
Teacher Testimonials
Special Resources Specialist Testimonials
Articles and Reviews


Student Testimonials

Anonymous First Graders, on their Fulfilled Personal Goals

“I made [student’s name] my friend all year. No one liked him because he always cried and couldn’t listen. I taught him to read and to listen. I showed him how to help people like him. I kept this promise to myself.”
 - A seven year-old

“I taught [student’s name] how to forgive. She always used to fight with everyone, but I helped her use the conflict bridge and made sure we always hug after every fight. Now she knows how to love. It makes me cry to think about it.”
 - A six year-old

Intermediate Students in Brazil

“We help others because we are all part of the same world and we must care about everybody.”
 - Tomas Bath

Community service is helping people without wanting anything in return…We do it in order to help young children and understand the Habit-of the Heart!”
 - Nathalia Medeiros

High School Students in the US

…As a Full-Circle Learning Alumni, my youth has been rooted in serving others and making the world an environment for everyone to enjoy…I feel inspired to become a pharmaceutical chemist and create cures that are affordable for everyone for big diseases like cancer... This is a goal of mine because I feel we are all one family, the family of the human race.
 - Young Douglas

…The extent of my desire to serve is unimaginable, because I want to make a change in the world for the days that I am still here. There are other children that are unable to partake in the leisure activities that are available to me. By giving back, I will feel better about myself and about what I have done for the world.
 - Kathy Rosales

Being a part of the Full Circle Learning alumni group has taught me to be aware of what’s going on around me and to appreciate and reach out a helping hand to everyone…Through Full-Circle Learning I have become aware of what’s going around the world and ways that I can help less fortunate people.
 - Enya Edwards

… Humility and integrity have been my two favorite habits-of-heart since I was seven years old…I strongly believe doing every bit of good I can to make a change that will benefit our world. I have a remarkable desire to serve our world. In my future I will become an anesthesiologist.
 - Jade Romain


Teacher Testimonials

From a Zambian Teacher:

“We wish our students to acquire knowledge of Full-Circle Learning because they will be future leaders to others in the community as well as [serve on] international committees.”

From a Zambian Trainer:

“I never thought one day I could stand and share what I have learnt to my fellow teachers and friends. What I have found in Full-Circle Learning is something that will keep ringing in my heart and make me stand in my challenges which come my way.”

From a Lesotho Teacher:

Full-Circle Learning helps students to improve their English and their determination to be the best they can be in the community.

From Teacher in the Western US:

“I feel I'm only on the beginning of an enriching journey. Thank you…for sharing with the world this evolutionary, inspired curriculum so that we may empower our children and even ourselves!

From a Teacher in the Eastern US:

The work you do helping to create the 'play' for each session is invaluable. None of us have your gift for writing or integrating the themes with the music that you do. So, that is truly the support that we need at this time to sustain ourselves.

From a Cambodian Teacher going to China:

I was at first a bit apprehensive about my new job in another country. Having learned this new approach to education, I now feel exhilarated and eager to go.”


Special Resources Specialist Testimonials

“…To see such significant growth in many areas is quite remarkable. I believe you are well on your way to becoming a model school, which could serve as a fine example for other charter schools to follow.”
 - Mark Christenson, Total Education Services

Articles and Reviews

"We deeply appreciate the foundations the program "Full Circle Learning" has given to our school-wide ethics and moral education program...your excellent [secondary school] course books are beautifully presented, and focus on extremely motivating and relevant themes. FCL is going stronger than ever in Nursery -5th Grade."
 - Lisa Perskie, Director, School of the Nations, Brazil

"The content and spirit of the curriculum is really quite extraordinary and was exactly what we were looking for."
 - Donna Sillan, Founder of international nonprofit, Common River, 2008

"The beauty of this curriculum is that because character education is woven into teaching math, reading, science, art, music, community service, it becomes the product and process of education as it is delivered to the children."
 - Margie Maher, Master Teacher, Site Facilitator, 2008

In 2003, the Academy for Educational Development (A.E.D.) recommended the full-circle learning model as a promising practice for its capacity to nurture altruistic identities among youth in their formative years, and to help students develop the lifelong habit of service to humanity. For details, visit the Promising Practices in Afterschool site. "Full-Circle Learning...A fine course of education, developing strong, caring instincts through educational models that pique children's interests. Extends normal education into the realm of the socially concerned."  - The Book Reader (1)

"In a skit designed to teach cultural sensitivity, Kahlil, 10 will play the head of a janitorial company that is not paying immigrants the same as their native-born counterparts. Melissa Douglas, 10, will play an immigrant demanding equal pay for equal work. The issue might seem a bit intense for fifth-graders, but at the Children's Enrichment Program, a non-profit after-school and summer [school] program in Baldwin Hills, today's lesson is as rudimentary as reading and writing."
 - Los Angeles Times (2)

1. J. Bail, The Book Reader, Summer / Fall 2002

2. S. Murrillo, LA Times, Sect. B; "Pupils Develop Habits of Heart During Skits", 6/9/2001