The school participated in various activities to learn the Six Pillars of Character: Trustworthiness, Respect, Responsibility, Fairness, Caring and Citizenship. The week included school-wide participation in creating a Character Counts! chain, where each grade was assigned a pillar and students wrote what that pillar means to them on their own link of the chain.
The student council brought the links together, symbolically connecting the entire school. In addition, students had the opportunity to add a colored handprint to a poster, corresponding to their assigned pillar. The week concluded with a special delivery of incentives such as stickers, pencils, bookmarks and certificates by United Way of Santa Barbara County. These “spot awards” will help teachers recognize kids who best exemplify the six pillars throughout the year.
Character Counts! is a program of the nationally active Southern California-based Josephson Institute. It uses presentations, consultations, trainings, workshops and publications to help focus the energy of people who want to do something to make our society more honest, fair, caring and accountable.