IntroductionWhy the Nurtured Heart Approach Belongs in Schools SCHOOLS MAY WELL BE OUR MOST VIABLE HOPE FOR A BETTER SOCIETY. Five days a week, nine or more months a year, students are a captive audience, learning everything from reading and history to impressions about whom and what they are and who they are likely to become. They are being taught how valuable they are, how much they belong in the stream of life, and how likely they are to have friends, a good and happy life, or an impact on the community. Teachers, administrators, office staff, janitors, aides, volunteers and other students constantly send each other messages about these lessons. Every time we smile at one another, every time we avoid a glance, every time we speak, and every time we look up to see what another person is doing, we send a message. We cannot avoid doing this. Even in trying not to send a message, we send one. Children are on the lookout for those messages all the time as they try to figure out who and what they will be in this life As teachers and parents charged with sending those messages, the Nurtured Heart Approach gives us tools to consciously and caringly send the ones that are best--most encouraging, positive, and constructive--for the children and for the world they will eventually have to negotiate as adults. Few people are as important to a young person as a teacher. No social environment outside the home is more encompassing and important than school. Children with a wonderful home life may be devastated by school; or the reverse may be true: school can elevate children above all obstacles. . As a teacher, you well know that you have an awesome and wonderful responsibility that goes far beyond the math or English or social studies knowledge you impart to your students. The Nurtured Heart Approach gives you a formula, a method, for sending positive and uplifting messages to every student, with focused intensity, no matter what subject or grade level you teach. And you'll find that those messages will transfer to other aspects of your life, and will lift you--as well as your students--into a more positive place. Even while you read this, entire schools and teachers within schools are using this approach. Perhaps even an entire school district or several districts are implementing the Nurtured Heart Approach as you read these words. ♥ TEACHERS ARE BESET by many internal and external forces beyond their control. Curricula, budgets, administrations, policies, unions, parents school boards and the building's facilities are but some of the factors pressing daily on many educators. Just getting some photocopies made is often a major challenge. The Nurtured Heart Approach is a tremendously helpful way to build teachers' faith and trust in themselves as professionals regardless of these fluctuating influences. Administrators often don't have the tools to support teachers who are putting their hearts, souls and sweat into their work. Co-author Tom Grove cites the following examples. The most respected veteran teacher at one school lamented to Tom that the principal had not once set foot in her room during the school year's seven months. He had never told her how well her classes were going nor even struck up a conversation with her in passing. But the principal had told Tom several times that "Mrs. S" was an excellent teacher. Had he said this to "Mrs. S." as well, it might have made a tremendous difference. A school where the Nurtured Heart Approach is in place would be a school where the principal could do for teachers what teachers do for students: increase their inner wealth, which in turn helps them do their work with greater enthusiasm and confidence. IT ALL BEGAN at a school in Tucson, Arizona. Tolson Elementary School principal Maria Figueroa realized it was not the academic curriculum but the social curriculum (the messages being "taught" about the value of each person and about how people optimally relate to one another) that was driving suspensions, teacher burnout, classroom problems, academic failure, mental health referrals, and medication referrals in her school. She realized that the Nurtured Heart Approach was a way to deliver a social curriculum with messages of value, competence, and belonging. She has made her vision a reality for thousands of students. Tolson Elementary is a school of over 500 students, 81 percent of whom qualify for free and reduced lunch programs, meaning that they typically are disadvantaged children facing poverty, family stresses, and limited access to health care resources. At eight times the district average, Tolson used to have the highest rate of suspensions among the more than 60 schools in the district. In 1999, the principal implemented Howard Glasser's Nurtured Heart Approach school-wide. Since the Nurtured Heart Approach became integrated into the school's classrooms, Tolson has had only one student suspended; no referrals to the juvenile justice system; no bullying; dramatic decreases in referrals for special education; no referrals for ADHD evaluations; and no new children on ADHD medications. Teacher attrition also fell dramatically. And Tolson's standardized test scores have risen dramatically. These amazing and sustained improvements are not the result of a better or different academic curriculum, but of a dramatically improved social curriculum. It is a curriculum of inner wealth. It is a curriculum where school personnel can convincingly "teach" students that, just by virtue of their existence, they are already amazing, likeable, wonderful people. Tolson's example clearly demonstrates that children who are "convinced" of their greatness will manifest it as a reality. As as you learn to see and point out the best in your students, you will learn to do the same for yourself and for everyone, adult or child, with whom you interact. Even if you're already a joyful person who feels successful in work and at home, this book will raise your expectations and build on the joy you already have. ♥ THE TOLSON STATISTICS are compelling. Huge amounts of money can be saved when teacher turnover is low, attendance is up, less staff and less time are spent on behavior problems, the use of substitutes declines, and people help rather than fight each other. Using rich relationships balanced with clear limits, the Nurtured Heart Approach increases time actually spent teaching, student achievement, and grades. Children are less worried, less stressed, and less distracted. Special education costs plummet. Everyone in the school can see the impact of using this approach day after day. Being liked and love, for 30 plus hours a week, is great therapy. Teachers and other school staff will feel effective at helping students overcome problems--or at least make school a place where students can thrive despite problems elsewhere. Students will truly sense that they are living in a sea of positivity while at school. How many gifted students have you met who perform poorly due to lack of effort? How many low-average students have you seen pour their hearts into something and succeed tremendously? That willingness to make a big effort is founded in relationships with important adults, including parents and teachers. Once the child's internal sense of greatness takes hold deep within, he can take that sense of well-being with him through every relationship, joy, sorrow, and challenge he faces in his lifetime. The Nurtured Heart Approach is an architecture and a process that's about creating relationships that energize and support success and positive choices. It has many applications, but this book is about its application in schools. The Nurtured Heart Approach is a curriculum of forgiveness and restoration: problems no longer define who you are or what you will become. It is also a curriculum of optimism and trust. Through it, school personnel demonstrate the highest expectations of students--teaching each student that there is nothing the student can do to lower those expectations or to prevent the staff from creating success as the only option. The students no longer have to worry about being liked, strive for attention, or fear their problems. Teachers no longer have to fear their students, spend valuable time on discipline problems, or worry about being respected. In the best situations--where this curriculum is implemented school-wide, classroom by classroom--the entire school comes to inspiring levels of respect, emotional safety, and development of character. The natural outcome becomes greater academic achievement. At that point, as a teacher, you will see an amazing increase in your productivity in terms of how much actual teaching you are able to do!
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