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- Herausgeber: Independent Thinking Press
- Kategorie: Bildung
- Sprache: Englisch
Values Education is the philosophy and practice that inspires both children and adults to be the best that they can be. After all, we are all growing, and it is not only our children that can benefit from education and development, but adults too. In his constant bid for better education, author Dr. Neil Hawkes advocates a positive mental attitude which aims to empower young people with a sense of their own future and their potential to shape it according to their own purpose. Neil discusses the benefits of caring for yourself and others, as well as providing medical evidence to support these ideas. He contextualises his philosophy by demonstrating ways in which teachers, parents and pupils can use it to create a happier and more productive learning environment by raising their self-awareness and self-confidence.
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Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2013
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Praise for From My Heart
In choosing to title the book FromMy Heart, a reader might first think that this is a soppy attempt to do a ‘motherhood and apple pie’ job on education. However, by inviting us to embark on a virtual relationship with him, Neil takes the reader on an evidence-based journey getting to the heart of what education should be about – not grades and results, but what we as a society want a well-educated 18 or 19 year old to look like. Hawkes draws the reader into a journey, not in an airy-fairy way but gets to the nitty-gritty of how to model the values and behaviours we seek to develop in the next generation – a generation that is open and hasn’t, as yet, been tainted by experience because, as Neil reminds us, it’s never too late to have a happy childhood! I first heard Neil address the European School Heads Association Conference in Cyprus and was so impressed I invited him to Ireland. I was certain Irish school leaders were longing to hear someone who could articulate something that I know each individual felt in their own hearts about vision and values for society. I wasn’t wrong and the feel-good factor that permeated conference following Neil’s address to delegates lasted long after they returned to their schools. Neil’s invitations to pause, his use of reflection points at the end of each chapter, his use of a positive values vocabulary, his descriptions of the impact of the adopted approaches on students and practitioners, his hints and suggestions about how to embed a values-based culture make this book a must-read for all who reflect on education, especially school leaders, teachers and those involved in the educational enterprise. I wholeheartedly recommend it – especially to those suffering from TBD (Too Busy Disorder).
Clive Byrne, Director of the National Association of Principals and Deputy Principals and Executive Board Member of the European School Heads Association
This book provides a sensitive and subtle invitation for readers to engage and reflect on their work in the world of education within which they work and live. This is a book which cannot and should not be ignored. Through Neil’s detailed analysis, arising from extensive work in schools throughout the world, his message is clearly set out in a powerful vision that reminds us all of the human nature of the school experience and presents a call for how we can reignite and renew our sense of what schools can and should be – for all the children, the staff, the parents and the community served. The reader is gently reminded that in any institution, school or company, there should never be a hierarchy of relationships, only a hierarchy of roles.
Within such a powerful culture, and where it is clear that it is human relationships which matter most, then the real benefits arising from a ‘talk together, plan together, work together’ and a values-based philosophy and practice suddenly all becomes very clear…
Chris Harrison, Former President of the National Association of Head Teachers (2011–2012)
Neil Hawkes has been the fearless pioneer of values-based education – both as an outstanding head of school and then as a public educator. This book encapsulates the extraordinary power of his message.
Lord Richard Layard
Neil Hawkes has influenced not just the schools he has run, but countless others in using a values-based approach to change for the better the way children and their families lead their lives. Here he writes in a way that any school leader, in any country or setting, will find inspiring and practically useful in doing the same thing.
Professor Sir Tim Brighouse
At Wellington College, we believe that education is only of enduring meaning if it is underpinned by profound values, the five which our community itself has chosen being courage, integrity, respect, kindness and responsibility. I agree with Neil that values-based education should be the driving principle for all schools and colleges in the twenty-first century.
Dr Anthony Seldon, Master, Wellington College
Neil Hawkes manages to convey the vitality of values-based education, a set of principles that can guide the learning journeys for those who learn and those who teach. The best teachers recognise that they are learners too and this fundamental belief in individual growth shines through the book.
Mick Waters, Professor of Education, Wolverhampton University
This is an ideal teaching reference and guide for practical values-based education written by one of the world’s foremost and most reputable values-based educators. Few people anywhere have the theory and practice of values-based education as synchronised or its effects as proven as Dr Neil Hawkes.
Terence Lovat, Emeritus Professor, University of Newcastle, Australia and Senior Research Fellow, University of Oxford
Neil Hawkes’s vision is the change agent for values-based education we all need. This book provides the insight for us to move from ‘talking the talk’ to ‘walking the walk’ and is a must-read for parents and educators.
Sue Cahill, Student Well-Being Leader, St Charles Borromeo Primary School, Melbourne, Australia
Rooted in his own experiences as a successful teacher and head teacher, the author has a deep commitment to core human values being placed at the heart of good and great schools. In this book, he draws upon his extensive international work to offer a carefully argued and convincing rationale as to why school leaders – and indeed business and wider society – might embrace the practical ideas he puts forward.
Roy Blatchford, Director, National Education Trust
I have always looked at the art of leadership as being one of self-awareness and an awareness of others. As Sun Tsu fabulously puts it, ‘Leadership is a matter of intelligence, trustworthiness, humaneness, courage, and discipline. Reliance on intelligence alone results in rebelliousness. Exercise of humaneness alone results in weakness. Fixation on trust results in folly. Dependence on the strength of courage results in violence. Excessive discipline and sternness in command result in cruelty. When one has all five virtues together, each appropriate to its function, then one can be a leader.’ Neil has been able to bring the skill of understanding all components to children, educators and parents, and without doubt has made a difference to our world through his delivery of values-based education, and I thank him for that.
Floyd Woodrow MBE DCM
Neil Hawkes writes lucidly, and with an infectious encouragement, about what he has been doing as a teacher, leader and advocate for at least the last twenty years. The quality of education provided for children, students and their families has been the cornerstone of his work, based as it has always been on their growing commitment to the values his schools have selected and celebrated. To hear and read, as I have often done, about what the children are learning and discussing about a whole range of values, and how this has helped their development and, importantly, how often this has changed their lives, is all in this book. It is a ‘life enhancer’.
Richard Howard, Chair, National Education Trust
Guided and inspired by Neil, values-based education now pervades Ratton School. Exploring the meaning of our values and judging ourselves against them has brought clarity of purpose and a common understanding to our work. As a result, staff motivation and student behaviour have improved. Our values-based education has also proved popular with parents, who cite our strong values as a reason why they want their children to be a part of our school.
David Linsell, Head Teacher, Ratton School, Eastbourne
Being successful in school requires good teachers, but mostly you need a humane approach among adults and students. Each student must feel that they can succeed. To create this, you need a values-based curriculum that involves all aspects of work, which is the essence of Dr Hawkes’s philosophy and practice. His approach does not require expensive materials or long education. However, it is an easy way to work with the positive values with which we want to permeate learning. Values-based education is an ideal approach that fits well in schools in Sweden.
Anna Sundström, Head of Education, Skövde, Sweden
I have had the pleasure of working with Dr Neil Hawkes in New Zealand, where he has addressed numerous principals’ organisations, and in the UK where I visited schools that have embedded his values-based philosophy. With the emphasis on values in the New Zealand curriculum, this book provides teachers and others involved in the education of our young people with an insight into both the philosophy behind values-based education and the key steps to take to enable it within their educational environment. Neil’s approach is warm, enlightening and encouraging.
Paul Daley, Principal, Sancta Maria College, Auckland, New Zealand
Values-based education is at the heart of everything we do here at Chantry Primary Academy. Guided by Neil’s inspirational work, our staff team are driven by our values in the way they teach, and how they support our children and their families, resulting in comments like this from one of our pupils: ‘Values have helped me with schoolwork and friendship. The values link and help Chantry to never let me down, they always believe in you.’ Our strong values have enhanced our school’s excellent reputation in the community, helped us to become an even better school and are a core element of our school’s ‘personality’. We will continue to learn and to grow in our values journey with Neil’s work to support us.
Corisande Bateman, Head Teacher, Chantry Primary Academy, Luton
As an ex-head teacher of a values-based school and now the values education coordinator for Bedfordshire, I have twelve years first-hand experience of the positive and inspirational impact of Neil’s work in all phases of education. This book will support and re-energise those schools already involved in values education, whilst inspiring and encouraging those setting out on their values journeys.
Diana Thomas, Values Education Coordinator, Bedfordshire
Great schools are hatcheries for good souls. To do this, the centre point of schools needs to be value-based education. Neil’s book will not only help you live these values, it will help you to weave and embed them into the tapestry of the culture of your school.
Andrew Fuller, Clinical Psychologist and Family Therapist, Melbourne, Australia
Values-based education has enriched my personal life and the lives of my students, as well as my professional life as a teacher. It influences the way an individual tackles life’s experiences and how they deal with the various obstacles of life. It offers a new perspective, and requires the teacher to have integrity and to be true to his values. This teaching method makes the individual more aware of his own feelings and those of others. Values-based education awakens us to the inner values of life. By working with these values, teachers become better at their profession and the students blossom in a new and wondrous way. Mutual respect, cooperation and unity are qualities that represent those who sincerely apply values-based education in their personal and professional life. Applying values-based education, as a teacher and as a human being, is character building and constructive for society.
Valgerður Knútsdóttir, Head Teacher, Leikskolinn Alfaheidi, Iceland
No matter what stage of the life-long journey of exploring or implementing values-based learning you are on, and irrespective of how much personal and professional experience you, your school or organisation has in this field, you need to touch base with Neil’s expertise. In Brunei, we have benefitted from working within a unique combination of cultures and environments. Our success over the years is built on our ability to transform lives through values in action. This approach powerfully reaches out to people of all cultures and faiths. It moves the spirit, touches the soul and is a guiding light for all who want to make a difference to their own and other’s lives. From Brunei, ‘The Abode of Peace’, our message is a simple one – get inspired through taking the time to read and take action!
Kathy Wood MBE MEd, Head Teacher, Hornbill School, Brunei
Dr Neil Hawkes demonstrates again and again that he has important insights into character education. I highly recommend this book.
Professor William Jeynes, Senior Fellow, Witherspoon Institute, Princeton and
Professor, Department of Education, California State University
As a head teacher who has led two values-based schools, I am totally indebted to the work of Dr Neil Hawkes in the development of values-based education as it has had such a profound effect on me both professionally and personally. Values-based education has provided me with a strong fundamental base from where I have been able to build my leadership skills, especially with regard to developing people and forging positive relationships. The shared common language of values-based education gives everyone in a values-based community a clear understanding of expectations and the opportunity to explore the evolving nature of our individual moral compasses based on our experiences.
Dr Hawkes has been pivotal in this journey as his philosophy is to gently challenge our thoughts, words and actions. As our school embeds a values-based education approach to living and learning together, Dr Hawkes has had a presence, probing deeply into our thought patterns so that we reflect, analyse and take responsibility in making positive changes to ourselves.
I am truly delighted that Dr Hawkes is now sharing this journey through this wonderful book, From My Heart, transforming lives through values. As Megan, one of my former pupils once said to me, ‘If anyone wants to have a happy life they should simply use values-based education. It will help them to live a long and happy life.’ I can’t think of a better way to endorse this book.
Julie Rees, Head Teacher, Ledbury Primary School, Herefordshire
I have been a head teacher for eleven years and led two schools using values-based education. This ‘way of being’ in school permeates every aspect of school life and thus school improvement. I could not imagine, especially in the current educational climate, leading a school without a rigorous bedrock of values-led relationships leading to values-led learning. As a consequence of this, there is a depth of metacognitive learning, learning of real beauty and worth, woven into the fabric of places called schools, giving a strong moral direction ensuring the flourishing of all.
Julie Carr, Head Teacher, Lyneham Primary School, Wiltshire
Neil’s experience as a leading educator shines through this book which is both intensely practical and profound. Leaders of schools, corporate organisations and communities will gain insight into how to be truly self-managing by identifying shared values, and then using these to evaluate success. What Neil demonstrates in this book is how to go about creating and inhabiting a shared language for values education which is local, accessible and powerful.
Dr Ruth Deakin Crick, Reader in Systems Learning and Leadership, University of Bristol
Neil Hawkes is an inspirational colleague. As soon as I met Neil, I realised that he had a special message, and indeed a special gift, to share with anyone who passionately cares about the education of children. His message and mantra advocating a values-based educational approach, is both timely and powerful. Anyone who has used values-based education within their school will tell you that mutual respect and trust is built through paying attention to the way people discuss, define and model their shared values. These explicit debates and agreements lead, if successfully and determinedly adhered to and modelled, a school community that is built on trust and interdependency. This is the strong ‘glue’ that makes schools successful. However, make no mistake, Neil does not advocate a ‘fluffy’, poorly defined culture where relationships take centre stage for their own sake. This is the building block whereby top quality educational experiences for children are focused upon and ensured, and, most importantly, raising achievement and life chances for children is at the top of the agenda. I unreservedly recommend that all school leaders, from primary and secondary schools, read this book and act on its wisdom. Also, invite Neil, who is an inspirational speaker, to visit your setting for a thought provoking and practice changing event!’
Sue Woodrow, Head Teacher, Aylestone Secondary School, Hereford
In 2010 I had the privilege to hear Neil speak about the purpose of values-based education at an international convention for European school principals in Cyprus.
I was deeply touched by Neil’s inspiring lecture. He provided the answer and the confirmation that we should not focus on learning and cognitive results alone, at a time when the tendency in the Netherlands was to overemphasise cognitive achievements only.
As a result of this conference we decided to organise an Inspiration Day in October 2012 for more than 1,000 teachers in Helmond, for which we invited Neil and his wife Jane to speak about values-based education. This Inspiration Day marked the start of ‘a quiet revolution’ within the Helmond educational community. Individual teachers started thinking about ways to pay more attention in their classrooms to values-based education and the holitisic development of children. Also, at a city level, we launched a task group to offer a more structural approach towards values-based education for the Helmond school community.
I therefore wholeheartedly recommend this inspirational book to anyone who, like us in the Netherlands, believe that education should be more than just about learning outcomes. For each and every child, a well-balanced education that includes the development of values will contribute to better learning achievements, which will ultimately result in a more peaceful and values conscious society.
Dr Erik Wissink, Psychologist/Manager, OCGH Advies (Education Consultancy), Helmond
Values-based education, as described in Neil’s inspirational and practical book, has had a huge impact on the children at Tower Hill Primary School. Initially the reasons for its implementation were to address the children’s social and emotional needs through an approach that we felt would have a greater impact than SEAL or PHSCE. As soon as the new values became embedded, we began to notice rapid changes in the behaviour of the children and their relationships towards each other. This in turn, has had a phenomenal impact upon attainment and progress. An open and supportive culture now pervades all aspects of learning, where real and appropriate self-assessment, peer and teacher assessment are used to further enhance the learning. Suggestions for the improvement of work and behaviour are no longer seen as criticism, but are welcomed by each child and acted upon accordingly. The direct result of implementing values-based education is a happy school, where learners thrive on a mutually supportive atmosphere and learning has been rapidly accelerated as a result.
Tracey Smith, Head Teacher, Tower Hill Community Primary School, Witney, Oxfordshire
This book, like all of Neil’s work, comes from the heart, and what he advocates is also supported by powerful evidence and a strong understanding of practice in schools. This unique combination enables practitioners to be confident that it will help them to improve their practice and the lives of the children they work with, and their own lives as well. Neil’s generosity of spirit shines through all his work and this is no exception. It has the potential to radically change how and what we do in our schools.
Dr Hilary Emery, Chief Executive, National Children’s Bureau
Dr Neil Hawkes’s book comes at an opportune moment in history. It is a wake-up call to live our lives more meaningfully and, in doing so, to inspire others. Neil writes with depth, compassion and wisdom drawn from his many years of experience and experiential knowledge of values education. It is a must read for all educators who believe in taking their students to greater heights. Research has conclusively proven that a values-based school brings out the best in students and teachers; implementing Neil’s valuable, tested strategies will lead to excellence in all spheres.
Ruby Pardiwaller, Director, National Children’s Council, The Seychelles
Acknowledgements
Writing this book has been sheer joy, because it has seemed to write itself, with me watching with delight as each chapter unfolded. I think this apparent magic is mainly because the book brings to life the personal and working experiences I have enjoyed in the company of so many wonderful people in many countries. They have willingly and generously shared their insights and the good practices that they are developing as values-based people and educators. My role, in crafting this book, has been to capture this brilliance so that you and others can see the tremendously powerful effect that values-based education has on people, families, communities and nations.
I would like to acknowledge my debt of gratitude to the countless number of academics, head teachers, principals, teachers and support staff with whom I have worked in my various roles in education over the last forty years. These extraordinary people have shaped my philosophy and have made it possible for me to write this book. They include academic giants in moral education, such as Professors Richard Pring (Oxford), Bart McGettrick (Hope), Terry Lovat (Newcastle Australia), and Mark Halstead (Huddersfield), who have had a profound influence on my thinking about values education.
It would be inappropriate to single out any one teacher to mention because, in so doing, I would omit the thousands who have all played their part in influencing my thinking and practice. However, to all educators, my heartfelt thanks for your inspiration and encouragement which has allowed me to assume a role as the advocate for values-based education. Nevertheless, I would like to thank those individuals who have provided quotes for this book: Richard Barrett, Jeff Conquest, Simon Cowley, Cyril Dalais, Tracey Dennis, Michael Downey, Pete Dunmall, Sam Gardner, Katie Greenwood, Linda Heppenstall, Allison Hickson, David Jones, Sue Jones, Bridget Knight, David Linsell, Bart McGettrick, Sandra Mitchell, Cath Woodall, Simon Poote, Julie Rees, Rebecca Rees, Anthony Seldon, Eugene Symonds, Kathy Wood, Floyd Woodrow and Sue Woodrow.
At a personal level, I want to thank my wonderful family for their love, particularly my wife, Jane, who is a constant source of enthusiasm and loving support for my life’s work.
Author’s letter
Dear Reader,
I have just finished writing the final chapter of this book and I am sitting in the lounge at our home overlooking Rutland Water. The ospreys have recently returned from overwintering in Africa, and I have a sense of awe and wonder as I watch a pair circling in the blue sky. The sun is shining on the water, creating diamond-like sparkles; the countryside seems full of expectant energy as spring finally arrives.
My mood and the scene I am witnessing give me a sense of the incredible privilege it is to be alive. I recall my brother, Maurice’s, words, ‘Remember, Neil, this is not a rehearsal; embrace life now.’ My understanding is that people, just like you and me, have a huge potential to embrace life and to live in harmony with other people and our environment. However, we are all capable of sabotaging our potential happiness and well-being and the sustainability of our beautiful planet, and frequently do so. Is there an answer to this paradox?
Over the last thirty years, my life’s mission has been to support others and myself to kindle a spark of goodness, which I believe resides in each of us. And, by so doing, embrace and release into the world the creative, dynamic energy of our innate human qualities, which include love, peace and compassion. I have also been acutely aware that such a desire to nourish virtuousness can appear idealistic and naive, failing to recognise the reality of our human condition.
Not to be deterred, I have engaged on a quest to find a practical philosophy that would make a contribution to the evolution of human consciousness. This mission has brought me into contact with many truly remarkable human beings who have supported me. The content of this book is witness to their wisdom, and I make no claims that my work is mine alone.
I believe that this book represents a modest contribution to helping each of us explore our human potential. In it, I invite you to discover the core philosophy and practices of what I have termed valuing and its practical application, values-based education (VbE).
The evidence that I will share with you, from many countries, is that values-based education is a powerful way to foster a values-based person, family, school, business, community, country and world.
I hope that you enjoy the experience of engaging with the ideas you will encounter on your journey through this book. They have changed my life; they may also change yours.
Warmest good wishes,
Neil
Contents
Chapter 1
You and me
Hello! Thank you for choosing to read my book, which is written ‘from my heart’. It is unlikely that you know me, so here is a photo …
Before reading my book, I would like to invite you to find a picture of you to put in the space next to mine or, if you prefer, make a sketch of yourself. You see, this book is about more than just reading a text: it is about you and me, and the relationship we can develop through the exploration of values which this book provides. I believe that good relationships are paramount – they help us to make sense of our complex world, and most of us desire them. They are the fundamental core principle of a values-based family, business and school.
