This was a letter written by Amy Evans, our Director of Communication. This letter is in response to the possible change of verbiage in one Core Value, and the addition of another Value, to make the total, 10 Core Values.
Please accept this Amicus Curiae for, or letter in support of, the proposal to change the ninth core value, currently stated as “Preserving a Culture of Greatness” to read “Building a Culture of Greatness” and to add an additional core value addressing Self Governance, Personal Responsibility and Accountability.
As new staff member at John Adams Academy, a supporter and parent of a scholar, I fully support the proposed changes. Being new to John Adams Academy I have spent much of the past school year trying to fully understand and internalize what the Academy stands for and will accomplish. For John Adams Academy, I have come to believe those answers center around three things; our motto, our core values and our emphasis on classical education through classical works and mentors. This proposal is important because it pertains to two of them; our motto and our core values.
In Lewis Carroll’s classic, Alice in Wonderland, the young girl, Alice, encounters the Cheshire Cat at a fork in the road. Being confused, she asks, “Would you tell me, please, which way I ought to go from here?” The cat replies, “That depends a good deal on where you want to get to.” That same wisdom applies to all of us when we encounter a choice, such as the decision to alter and add to our Academy’s core values. And so, the question becomes: Where do we hope to go (what do we hope to accomplish) at John Adams Academy? The answer, I believe lies in our motto: “Developing Servant Leaders and Restoring America’s Heritage.” With our focus on classics and mentors, we are likely to turn out great thinkers, which in itself is a worthy goal. However, great thinkers do not always become servant leaders and are not necessarily focused on restoring America’s Heritage. In fact, logic alone, no matter how perfectly followed, can only lead to conclusions as sound as the premise on which the logic is based. This is summed up in a statement by Mahatma Gandhi, “All of your scholarship, all your study of Shakespeare and Wordsworth would be vain if at the same time you did not build your character and attain mastery over your thoughts and your actions.” At John Adams Academy, this is where our core values become the bridge.
In his book “The Passion of the Western Mind”, author Richard Tarnas laments that when Copernicus discovered that the earth was not the fixed center of the universe, and that the movements of the heavens could be explained in terms of the movements of the observer, man also came to see that he was not the center of the world, and his objectivity was inseparably colored by his own unconscious condition. Because of this, according to Tarnas, modern thought has accepted that there can be no objective truth or correct viewpoint, effectively cutting man loose from the anchor of truth. This lack of an anchor has had a profound effect on our society as a whole as many have rejected principles and virtues whose value has been proven throughout history. A classical leadership education re-acquaints us with those proven concepts and our core values serve to provide the anchor we need to accomplish our goals. Each of our core values is a statement of an underlying principle or virtue required to truly develop servant leaders and restore America’s heritage and our core values permeate all that we do at John Adams Academy.
As we approached our WASC accreditation this fall it is quite telling that as we, as an Academy, chose our Nine Core Values, rather than educational outcomes that would have been easier to quantify and measure, as our Schoolwide Learning Results (SLRs). Then, throughout the process of our application and the following site visit, teachers demonstrated how completely these values are woven through all that we teach. At John Adams Academy the core values, prominently displayed in every classroom, provide the lens through which lessons are viewed. As scholars proceed through their education (as their genius is drawn out) the core values provide the framework for analyzing literature, for understanding history, for learning from experiences and for discussions in the classrooms. As teachers present a story or a concept they are able to turn and point to our core values to direct scholar’s attention and focus them on those foundational principles.
As you know, our ninth core value was mis-printed from the original “Maintaining a Culture of Greatness” to read instead “Preserving a Culture of Greatness”. While we could simply re-print our materials to return to the original, this printing mistake gives us the opportunity to assess our current condition to ask if this is the best statement for our time. And so, which wording best fits: preserving, maintaining or building? In order to “preserve” or “maintain” something, it must currently exist. And does it? In reading the Declaration of Independence again earlier this year I was struck again with the opening phrase penned by Thomas Jefferson, “We hold these truths to be self evident…” The phrase is followed by “….that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness”. This has been called the best known sentence in America, but I would argue that many who quote it have forgotten its meaning. In fact, last fall as I listened to presidential debates, political pundits, the media, everyday people and even the presidential candidates themselves, I found very little evidence that these truths are self evident today. Closer to home, in the California State Legislature, there seems to be a theme emerging in much of the proposed legislation; the theme that government is better suited to dictate the choices of individuals, parents, schools, businesses and our communities than the people themselves.
The proposed intrusions into personal liberties and the ability to self-direct are astounding, as is the profound silence and apathy toward them by Americans and by Californians. At the school level, as I pondered writing this letter of support, my son, a junior at a local High School, came home frustrated over a “debate” held in his history class over burning the American flag as a form of protest. What frustrated him was that while many students were vocal in their opposition to flag burning, their reason was simply that the many deaths of brave men and women have hallowed the flag (although those are not the words they chose to express their thoughts). While this is true, the expressions of violent responses toward any who would dare to question, the simple logic used to defend their stand and the labeling and demonizing that passed as “debate” proved to him that few understood or gave any head to the principles for which our flag stands and the symbol it should be. It appeared to him that the ideals our Founding Fathers fought for have been completely forgotten, and I would agree. As we take stock of our cultural condition, we need to acknowledge that John Adams Academy indeed needs now to “Build” or at least “Re-Build” a Culture of Greatness based on the original truths and principles that built this country, if we hope to restore America’s Heritage.
Two of those great principles that have quietly disappeared from our collective consciousness are the values of Personal Responsibility and Accountability, and both are essential to self governance and to our American Heritage. In observing through the presidential election, taking stock of the bills being considered by the California State Legislature, and listening to scholars and parents, it is obvious that in our time once again, a war is being waged to determine who should govern, and yet many seem so unaware of their part in it. It is disheartening and surprising that in less than 300 years we have lost the drive for the very goal our forefathers pledged their lives, fortunes and sacred honor: the right to self govern. In so many cases it seems, Americans are willing to trade the power to create, and the responsibility it brings, for the shackles of victimhood and the futile resistance to the natural consequences of their actions. Those who support increasing regulation by government often base the continual stripping of freedom of choice for the individual on misdeeds and tragedies cause by a few. Rather than acknowledging those as rare cases, and exerting themselves to find better answers, many simply accept the rationale.
Personal Responsibility and Accountability are the keys to inoculating against this logic and the continual erosion of choice it brings. Steven Covey explained the basis of personal responsibility by saying, “our ultimate freedom is the right and power to decide how anybody or anything outside ourselves will affect us”. Personal responsibility is also the understanding that every individual is responsible, meaning able to respond or to choose, for himself/herself AND is also obligated to act on those choices. Personal responsibility, when truly understood, then unlocks the cage that allows men to move from the prison of victimhood into the freedom and power of creation. Personal responsibility means that we retain our freedom continually, and our actions are always our own. Once we accept responsibility for our own thoughts, words, actions and character, we begin to recognize the opportunities presented in every situation. Personal responsibility also provides the opportunity to stop resenting the effort required to improve and resisting natural laws and consequences, such as in the case of dress code, home study and other requirements, and to start directing our energy in support of those things we believe in and determine to be of worth.
Accountability is the second key to self governance. Just as a classical education needs to be paired with core values to develop a servant leader, personal responsibility needs accountability. Those who truly understand our ability to respond, or to be “responsible”, also must acknowledge that the results of our choices will be felt by others, as theirs will impact us. Our actions then help to create our own experiences, our community and society as well, and therefore we must be accountable to ourselves and to others for those choices and actions. The twin principles of Personal Responsibility and Accountability then become balances for each other. Together, these principles solve the dilemma of self interest by adding to what it is “our right” to do, the consideration of what is truly “right to do”. Gandhi summed up the importance of personal responsibility and accountability when he identified the roots of violence as “….Wealth without work, Pleasure without conscience, Knowledge without character, Commerce without morality, Science without humanity, Worship without sacrifice, Politics without principles” and added, “There are limits to self-indulgence, none to restraint.”
Both of these principles, Personal Responsibility and Accountability, are essential to self governance and the ability to self govern is essential to developing servant leaders and restoring America’s heritage. Because these principles are essential, weaving these principles into our core values will be a powerful way to instill them in our scholars. How powerful it would be to have “self-governance through personal responsibility and accountability” be one of those often seen, heard and reinforced, key foundations.
For example, in my son’s fourth grade class a mentor is working with the scholars to plan and design a community. The scholars have each constructed a home from recycled materials and together are considering community needs such as water treatment, parks and social structures. During the course of these lessons the subject of guns came up in discussion. Many scholars discussed the pros and cons of allowing guns in their community carefully, but a few took a less mature approach and the discussion digressed. The mentor then ended the discussion by determining that guns would not be allowed. In the hands of an insightful John Adams Academy teacher this example became on opportunity to discuss what happens when a few chose not to self-regulate and also how a community can respond to those situations.
Another example is with compliance with our dress code. Earlier this year an upper grade scholar was bragging to her classmates during study hall about the fact that she was “getting away” with wearing a sweatshirt with a logo on it to school in spite of the fact that at least one staff member seemed to look right at her. Because the study hall was in our Development Directors room, she overheard. While this may sound like an issue for enforcement alone, she took the time to engage the scholars in a Socratic dialogue about the dress code, compliance with it and the idea of personal responsibility and self governance. Later, the scholar sought out the Development Director to tell her what an impact her conversation had made and that she, the scholar, would be the one to ensure her dress met the requirements from then on. An issue of compliance and enforcement for one scholar is now an issue of personal responsibility and accountability instead.
It is well known that we remember only a portion of what we hear, slightly more of what we see, and more still of what we do. Our core values provide this valuable reinforcement. In both cases, and many others, staff members could point to our core value of self-governance through personal responsibility and accountability, to leave the scholars with a visual reminder that also connected to an earlier assembly and re-enforcement through their years at John Adams Academy.
As the members of the Board of Trustees for John Adams Academy, please vote to adopt the changes to our core values. Self governance is critical to the John Adams Academy goal of developing servant leaders and restoring America’s heritage. Personal responsibility and accountability are critical to self governance. Although they may relate to other core values, self governance through personal responsibility and accountability is both separate and distinct, and largely missing from our collective consciousness. By accepting the proposed changes to the core values we can recognize where we are, take action to reach our goal, and build a culture of greatness within our scholars and ourselves. Through our efforts we may indeed be able to say again, “we hold these truths to be self evident…” and know that we have done our part to ensure that they are.
On May 9th, 2013, the Board of Directors voted to change the wording to "Building a Culture of Greatness and added the value, "Self-Governance, Personal Responsibility and Accountability". We now have 10 Core Values!
Guest Blogger: Amy Evans, Director of Communications
