Director's
Dialogue

by David B. Wangaard, Ed.D.

Educators across the country are recognizing the positive results from connecting students, schools and communities to their assets. What are assets? Is this just more education jargon? The use of the term assets is a reapplication of a well known word in finance. Social assets are widely recognized as those factors which support students in living successful and resilient lives. As reported by the Search Institute, 40 assets have been identified which include: positive adult relationships, caring school climate, school and home setting clear rules and consequences, positive values such as care, honesty, responsibility and the development of social competencies. Most of these assets look familiar to those of us working in the field of modern character education. The values identified by the Search Institute correspond to core values emphasized in character education (know the good). The social competencies are behavioral goals (do the good) of modern character education. And the creation of positive adult relationships in caring school climates is critical to building the affective community (love the good) which motivates good character. Stefanie Hall, the author of this issues' lead article, describes one excellent school-based strategy to connect students to assets with an explicit emphasis on positive character.

New England residents have two great opportunities to learn more about the connection between assets and character education in 1999. The Connecticut Assets Network is hosting a seminar series entitled C.A.R.E. for character, assets and resiliency education. Meetings will be held January 15, March 5 and May 5. The January and May meetings will be located on the campus of Southern Connecticut State University in New Haven. The March meeting will be a combined event with the Connecticut's Assets-Based Character Education Conference at the downtown conference facilities of Central Connecticut State University in New Britain. C.A.R.E. is designed to create a learning community with a focus on assets and character for resilient youth. Participants will be given the opportunity to discuss readings from leaders in each field and design C.A.R.E. strategies to be implemented in their settings. To obtain more information and enroll in the C.A.R.E. Learning Community contact Greg Ryan, Director of the Connecticut Assets Network at (800) 991-8463.

The Connecticut's Assets-Based Character Education Conference (March 5) is designed to present successful strategies to promote assets and character and create a professional network. Teachers and students will collaborate in breakout presentations and Dr. Thomas Lickona, author of Educating for Character will be the conference keynote speaker. For more information or registration paperwork for the conference you may contact Cathy Uzarski at (203) 330-5340. This is a great semester for us to put "ethics in action". I look forward to meeting some of you at these upcoming events.