Parents and Leaders Implore FCL to Expand Access to Preschool
The Peacemakers serve as the youngest students in the farmworker community at Rancho Sespe Summer School. Each year, they engage with older classes to learn how their habits-of-heart relate to academic learning and result in related acts of service in their region.
When their local Head Start program vacated, the Rancho Sespe managers pleaded with Full-Circle Learning to fill the void and provide a year-round early childhood education preschool for the deserving children in this community, modeled on nearby Piru Full-Circle Learning Preschool. The Rancho Sespe managers claimed that only the Full-Circle Learning model could ensure the bright, peaceful, caring youth and future citizens they see emerging from the summer school program. They turned away private programs that could pay high rent and asked FCL to apply for the licensing and funding for a year-round preschool to serve Rancho Sespe families.
Your donation will help these lovely children enjoy the benefits of Full-Circle Learning all year long. It will help replicate the successes of nearby Piru, where still, the waiting list is as large as the number of children served. While parents help as much as they can, more support will help make purposeful early childhood education accessible to all.
This project needs your urgent support!
Girls Engage in the Arts for the Wellbeing of Women
Girls United projects at Full-Circle Learning schools inspire students to use their speaking and writing skills to advocate for gender equity. At Liberia’s Web International, the students depicted dramatic scenes from history to illustrate issues surrounding women and girls (see photo below). Community Garden School students in Zambia, pictured below, discuss poetry from other countries. In the photo below, students at Liberia’s Web International School develop their own arts project.Projects related to girls’ education, peer counseling for the traumatized, prevention of childhood marriage and other topics have taken on real world applications in Liberia, Haiti, Zambia and the US. Girl poets are especially making their voices heard on important topics.
This project needs your urgent support!
Teachers Around the Globe Seek Meaning
Teaching, as the highest calling in society, relies on both inspiration and preparation for its success. Those teachers who most ardently seek to bring greater meaning to students’ lives tend to learn from one another and also to ask for mentorship in effective teaching strategies. Full-Circle Learning responds to their call for professional development training that infuses greater purpose and altruism into learning. Teachers then strive to customize their curriculum as they research educational theory, integrated design and assessment and support strategies. They discover how their role can help them channel the natural gifts and altruistic intentions of their students into the habit of service. They appreciate the extent to which this work depends on the vision, skills and planning they bring to the classroom. Positive results, in the form of student and community transformation, drive the new requests for more workshops and wisdom exchanges.
Hundreds of Full-Circle Learning educators developed new skills in 2012 - 2013, bringing the total number of teachers and students served, over time, to more than 44,220. The teachers polled claimed a more inspired vision of education and new tools for transformation.
These photos feature collaborating teachers in Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea (above) and Jacksonville, Florida-USA (below). The stories that follow tell of teachers and students busily changing lives and communities.
Zambian Schools Influence the Infrastructure of Communities
Schools in Zambia reported exciting stories of growth workshops and gatherings in 2013. At Blessed Hope School, the 4th grade Humanitarians studying the nature of electricity and the habits of Far-sightedness and Seeking, convinced their new mayor to bring electricity to their community. Other classes practicing Love improved the level of cleanliness, comfort and care at the local hospital. Some schools had emphasized visual arts in their projects. Economics teachers were eager to implement the Junior Entrepreneur Scheme into their planning.
The photo below shows how Blessed Vale students learned interview skills while helping their Chibolya neighbors value and care for a cleaner community. Above, students at a school in Mapepe gathered with their teacher, Madam Kaumi, to study the academic tools needed for service.
Davidson Efetobore, the African Program Director, was “overwhelmed by the wonderful work of the teachers.” 8600 students benefited from their efforts in this grant cycle. The EHG Fund helps support the programs in Africa, but the need to bring equity, character and purpose to education also relies on individual donations. (Above photo by Davidson Efetobore, photo below by Antoinette Wright ).
Full-Circle Learning at Rancho Sespe: A Patchwork of Projects
The Full-Circle Learning staff at Rancho Sespe teaches students to apply their habits-of-heart and new skills to improving life for global brothers and sisters—in this case, to girls with a right to education. The Pillow Project challenged the students to create artistic designs representing their learning, with the help of artist Arlo Gordon. The patches will become designer pillows in the hands of Margaret Barnet and Kim Joselove, from the What a Life Foundation, in Decatur, Georgia. Proceeds will benefit Full-Circle Learning’s global partner schools conducting girls’ education projects in Africa.
During summer 2013, Rancho Sespe students also honored blood bank donors for their sacrifices, wrote tributes to local heroes and visionaries, set lifelong service goals, made a book case for a preschool, to honor belated FCL traveling teacher, Nikki Taylor, and more. Their every writing academic, arts or habit-of-heart assignment finds its expression in service to others. In the photo below, students report classmates’ acts of service. In the above photo, former student Gorgonio Tobias has now joined the staff, headed by devoted site leader Sugey Lopez since 2000. The Mona Foundation primarily funded the summer session, with assistance from Meridian Health Foundation.
Educators Learn from One Another
Schools in Liberia organized a joint training quickly when the faculty of 18 newly requesting schools suddenly wanted training before the start of the 2013 school year. They had heard reports of the successes of the local schools whose teachers had already mastered Full-Circle Learning strategies. These teachers came together with veteran Full-Circle Learning educators to share stories, projects and demonstrations. Soon the new schools had planned economic development projects to fund their service projects. Early activities at schools included marching to City Hall to advocate for better access to education and conducting radio interviews.
Pictured here, Ms. Enders, director of Kingdom Foundation Institute, builds academic concepts into a habit-of-heart project, in the form of a local river clean-up. Above, students in a Humanitarians class practice economic skills in a cooking project. The EHG Fund has helped expand training programs in Liberia.
Tarzana Full-Circle Learning Students See the Good in Others
Students in the Full-Circle Learning program at Tarzana Elementary School recognized heroism in parents and community members serving in various capacities. The Malibu Times reported as they presented songs, a mural, and habit-of-heart awards for Farsightedness to Mayor Skylar Peak and to City Manager Jim Thorsen (pictured below), to recognize their founding of Legacy Park, an environmentally protected parkland/wetland. During their study of the habit of Advocacy, the children similarly honored the caregivers of premature newborns at a Tarzana hospital. Culminating their Dedication unit, they celebrated the lives of service rendered to family and community by their adopted grandparents.After their field trip to honor doctors, nurses and parents of preemies, a hospital representative wrote back: “...I feel great joy and much hope having experienced first-hand the character, compassion, courage and leadership that the children shared with all of us…”
FCL sustains this program through individual donations and fundraising efforts, along with a Mona Foundation grant.
Higher Education Seeks a Higher Purpose
Full-Circle Learning lends deeper meaning to the educational experience for high school and university students in both formal and non-formal education programs. Zhejiang University, in Hangzhou, China, was the first to create an ongoing training program for teachers of children throughout the province.
Chapman University’s education majors learn the Full-Circle Learning model and apply it in their practicum at King Elementary, in Santa Ana, California. Their elementary grade science students, like those holding the picture above, discover new purpose in their projects.
High schools in some areas also incorporate Full-Circle Learning into Humanities and Economics courses. Still other schools offer voluntary service opportunities. The Full-Circle Learning Club at Oak Park High tutors elementary school students to apply creative or academic skills and habits-of-heart through service projects. It also raises funds for the elementary school service projects—recently by participating in a local triathlon. HOBY award winning student Ben Wincks founded the club. Pictured above, he helps students plan a drama for adopted grandparents.
Meanwhile, an independent high school leader from Winward High, Arlo Gordon, facilitated the Pillow Project. She not only volunteers onsite at two FCL locations, but also extends her creativity to others as she blogs about infusing purpose into art projects.
Village Cultural School takes Root in Urban Area
It takes a village to raise a child, especially in the heart of a city. After its teachers experienced several Full-Circle Learning workshops, Community Engagement Initiatives (CEI) partnered with St. Peter CME Church to create a village that would help children learn to discover those solutions in the Richmond/El Cerrito area of Northern California.In August 2013, the community celebrated the success of the first session of the Village Cultural School Academy. Addressing the parents, CEI Founder Mina Wilson-Rutter shared the vision of the organization in creating the program: “to help children embrace a vision of their role in an interdependent human family, in addressing the challenges of climate, food stability, poverty, obesity, and health.” Because of these well-aligned goals and the belief in the power of education threading character, academics, and service to prepare students for this role, Full-Circle Learning encouraged CEI to turn this pilot project into a community tradition.
The program integrated the habits-of-heart with concepts in science, art and leadership. The summer school focused on Respect, Cooperation, Kindness, Patience, Teamwork, Integrity and Reliability. The children then shared their projects at the first annual Cross-Over Celebration, where the students each received a mastery award for the habit-of-heart they had most practiced.
Highlights of the 5-week summer school included a visit to the farm of agriculturalist Mr. Cleveland, who recalled his own childhood growing up with nine sisters and wanting to give back to his community. Sandra Rush O’Neil, the granddaughter of Booker T. Washington, helped the students apply leadership skills as part of their curriculum. Art teacher Lat Sene Diakhate, from Senegal, spent his childhood as the youngest of ten children, helping his mother raise the money to feed the family when his father’s business failed. The sand painting art he learned as a survival skill now became a tool in the hands of the children, who also visited a factory and documented their service-learning experiences in journals.
Agriculturalist Mr. Cleveland received recognition from Mina Rutter-Wilson.
Character Formation Invites Community Transformation in Chad
Teacher education pays off in the stories of student change agents. In the past year, 64 teachers from six schools gathered in Chad for refresher courses on Full-Circle Learning. They shared success stories of their work incorporating new strategies and principles into the school day. One teacher told of a boy who helped his father, a local official, to realize the role of the children as change agents in undoing corruption in government. Another teacher told how her school had earned a reputation as the School of the Friendly, as students now befriend all who cross their paths. A teacher from yet another primary school told how the curriculum gave a boy the tools to help his family resolve a land dispute and forgive family grievances. Yet another school had a kindergartener whose acts of kindness inspired the resolution of a neighborhood feud. Teachers inspired one another with the impact of their work as role models.
Papua New Guinea embraces Full-Circle Learning
Schools and NGOs gathered in Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea to practice the Full-Circle Learning approach to education in September, 2013. Children from the Virtues Day Care School represented diverse tribes as they performed Independence Day dances to initiate the training for 43 leaders and teachers. The participants sacrificed holiday weekend festivities to voluntarily attend.
Local educational leader Theresa Boli (front left in the photo below) addressed the challenges of strengthening early childhood education, general curriculum, literacy and teaching skills in their nation. Presentations, demonstrations and planning sessions ensued, where teachers developed integrated education projects around community cleanliness, literacy and law and order. The lead school soon enacted a compassionate service project at a home for the disabled. Participants professed new awareness, practical strategies and collective campaigns to engage students in meaningful and relevant education.
Parents in Australia Find “The Missing Piece” in Education
Chelsea Smith (pictured on right), author of the parenting website Moments a Day, at www.momentsaday.com, extended her efforts to bring greater resources to home schoolers, public kindergartens and to parents of young children. She extended an invitation for Full-Circle Learning training in her area--Brisbane, Australia. She also helped facilitate training in Port Moresby and potential online access to Full-Circle Learning resources in the future. After the Australian workshop, an enthusiastic homeschool parent, Joanna Holmes, took the practices to heart and shared the educational model with her network. Joanna soon wrote: My life and the lives of…five children have been changed forever…I am excited to start our journey and know that I have found the ‘missing piece’ to my children’s education. [Two weeks later] I have found that we are now viewing the world from a different lens and already it has positively impacted our lives, and soon others’ lives as well.Joanna Holmes, left, with Australian Full-Circle Learning Liaison Chelsea Smith.
New Teachers Bring New Growth
Teachers trained in Africa are finding their own growth exciting and challenging. Pictured above, new teacher Bridgett brings a wisdom exchange from Zambia to Liberia while teaching Universal Connectedness at the Deborah K. Moore School, where the Helpers class was to participate in their first radio program, at Liberian radio station Truth FM. Simultaneously, students of newly trained teachers at the Effort Baptist School, in Paynesville, practiced Advocacy by helping other children more easily access education.
A coalition of Liberian teachers has developed a plan for funding their service projects and continuing their teacher development efforts, starting with a piggery and vegetable garden, where teachers and students will work. Meanwhile, American volunteer teachers like Jade Roman (pictured below) returned from service in Africa in awe of the contentment of the people regardless of circumstance. She served at the Blessed Vale school in Zambia.
Jade, who grew up in a Full-Circle Learning classroom herself, wrote:
Aristotle once said, “What is the essence of life? To serve others and to do good,” which is exactly what Full Circle Learning aims to do. As a product of FCL, I have learned to have an altruistic mindset and try my hardest to serve others and do good… I would be selfish to keep this altruistic mindset to myself... traveling to Zambia to teach character development and service to the babies… was invaluable because the seed of humanitarianism was already planted in the babies’ heads before we arrived; we were just there to water the seed and help it grow by teaching FCL. By the end of our summer we saw plants sprouting, and hopefully, when we return, we will see full grown trees.
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