Scottsdale's ISA teaches character building to students

Article featured in The Daily Independant

A class of kindergartners have gotten all their wiggles out and are participating in Kevin Wilkinson’s Character Strong class Aug. 29.

Connor is going to do his best at least once this week.

Harper is going to help someone in need, and Axel is going to share with someone.

These kindergartners have chosen these assignments as part of International School of Arizona’s character development class.

Now in its third year at the school, the class teaches students in pre-kindergarten (4 years old) up through middle school the essentials of being a good person.

“At ISA, we believe that strong character is a foundation of life-long success,” Francis Hewitt, the school’s director of admissions and marketing, said in an email to the Daily Independent. “The Character Strong program helps our students grow not only as learners, but as compassionate leaders who live out our values of respect, integrity and community every day.”

Being the beginning of the school year, teacher Kevin Wilkinson is currently focusing on how to be kind. Soon he will move on to what to do someone is unkind to you.

Other lessons are on topics like respect and responsibility.

Of course they are all modified to be age appropriate.

Wilkinson, who is also the school’s director of student support and wellbeing, loves teaching the younger kids because they really buy into the curriculum while getting middle school students to join in is a little tougher because the kids that age don’t want to be seen as not cool in front of their peers.

“Their curriculum is a little different, too, (for middle schoolers),” Wilkinson said. “I throw in some leadership styles. I go through each one of the leadership styles and which one are they?”

Though teaching the younger classes has it difficulties, too, such as a keeping the kids focused.

For instance, one kindergartner decided to randomly blurt out in the middle of a recent class, “My mom is going to pick me up today!”

It was good information but not pertinent to the topic at hand.

But there’s one thing students in all grades like about the class.

“They appreciate the fact they don’t have to study,” Wilkinson said. “There’s not tests, there are not quizzes really, other than I try to watch them at recess and lunch.”

But Wilkinson gets glimpses that the messages are getting through to the kids and being applied at home.

“I do a lesson on ‘Is it mean, is it rude or is it bullying’ because I think today, bullying is a problem, but there are differences between bullying and being mean,” he said.

“I had a parent come up to me and said, ‘Mr. Kevin ... I told my (second grade) son to stop bullying his little sister,’ and he goes, ‘Mom, it’s not bullying, I’m being mean!’”