Back in 2018 I was working as a part-time art specialist at Havens School (TK-5) in Piedmont California. As they do every year, all grades were learning more than grade level academic skills, the teachers were also focusing on social skills and character building. That year the concepts being taught were “caring, courage and integrity.”
The project was to create a huge, permanent banner for the multi purpose room celebrating these concepts and including an art piece from every child in the school (about 420 kids aged 5-12). I met with each classroom to discuss these character traits, what they meant to the kids and to ask them how caring, courage and integrity are important in their real lives! Then each child made a multi-media collage self portrait.
This giant banner of portraits still hangs in Havens multi purpose room even though today, in 2025, even the youngest kinder child is past elementary school. This morning when I read some other ridiculous article in the news about people behaving badly, I thought back to the banner and the discussions we had about being good people. How wise these young children were about caring for ourselves, others, our community and our planet, about being courageous and having integrity. And I wonder how so many grown-ups seem to be forgetting these simple, but exquisitely important ideas. Kids are so smart, aren’t they?
First Grader
Kindergarten. working on cutting
Third Grade
Fifth grade
The Final Banner