What does the "Discovering the Real Me" have to do with "Training of Heart"?
From the "Discovering the Real Me" teacher's manual about the "Three Basic Goals of Life and Education":
This curriculum is developed around the idea that there are Three Basic Goals of Life and Education that systems of education need to be aware of and address if they are to educate responsibly. Bearing these goals in mind shapes education to fulfill its deepest purpose: to produce well-rounded, capable, and benevolent people who are a boon to society and to themselves.
We would say that developing a mature heart and character is the first basic goal of life and of education. Yet it is not an end in itself. Ultimately the goal of developing heart and character is to become a person capable of altruistically loving others. True love cannot be separated from virtues such as respect, responsibility, fairness, honesty, loyalty, unselfishness and others, as these are concerned with the way to properly relate with others. We may say that virtues facilitate the flow of love in human relationships. Thus a person of virtue is a mature person capable of beneficial and loving relationships, which are further contexts for fostering human development and growth. To develop loving relationships, especially in the context of a family, then, is the second basic goal of life and education.
As people develop their knowledge, skills, and technical expertise, they have the potential to be of enormous benefit to the larger society. With their maturity and sense of social responsibility, such people can balance their natural desire for personal success with the larger purpose of serving their society. A strong conscience and a well-developed capacity to love make for a more ennobling contribution to the human community. We consider making a contribution to society to be the third basic goal of life and education.
The pursuit and fulfillment of these three life goals: 1) Becoming a person of mature character 2) Establishing loving relationships and family, and 3) Making a contribution to society -- point the way to valuable and productive lives. By designing our educational system with these three life goals in mind, we can help our young people to find true satisfaction and fulfillment in life while realizing their full potential as human beings.
The Discovering the Real Me curriculum and teaching manuals emphasize the development of heart and conscience within the context of attaining the three basic life goals. Educating children to be better and happier human beings is the essential goal of education, even as they learn the technical expertise needed to serve our world to the best of their abilities. Discovering the Real Me seeks to correct the imbalance in current education by devoting special attention to the development of the inner human being, the core of which is heart.
From the "Discovering the Real Me" teacher's manual about the "Experiential Learning":
This is a concept with a long history in educational theory but which has been given new impetus in recent times in reaction to the excessive emphasis on cognitive learning during the course of the 20th century. Most theories of education, even in character education, have stressed the development of a person’s reasoning faculties and intellect. We, too, acknowledge the importance of learning to think logically, rationally, analytically and critically. However, as we have already stated, the development of one’s heart and conscience is more important in order to deeply internalize moral and ethical values. This requires the active engagement of the student in relationships with other people and the surrounding environment, where both the mind and body can be involved.
We can understand the value of experiential learning if we consider the way a person learns to drive a car. One aspect, of course, involves studying and memorizing a driver’s manual. However, this by itself is not sufficient to qualify to receive a driver’s license. What is ultimately necessary is real driving experience. Only through actual experience behind the wheel of a car does a person come to really comprehend the contents of the manual.
As Kathy Winings states in her book Building Character through Service Learning, “When the ‘experience’ outside the classroom was structured meaningfully and carefully integrated with the classroom, it could become an excellent teaching tool. Learning involves more than absorbing data and information. For profound learning to take place, the student needs to not only understand the academic aspects of the question, but also to see how this knowledge is relevant to his/her life.”[1]
Experiential learning seeks to integrate the cognitive with the active and thus lend greater meaning to both. For character education to be effective, it must take virtues out of the realm of the abstract and show what they mean in practice. Through experiencing virtues in action, the student naturally absorbs them into his or her character. Educator David Kolb states that constructive experiential learning requires four basic steps: 1) the experience itself; 2) reflection on the experience; 3) synthesis and abstract conceptualization; and 4) testing the learned concepts in other situations.[2]
What kind of experiences? The best are those which are structured to serve others. In the U.S. such programs have come to be known as “service learning” and can take any number of forms, such as:
- Big brother/big sister programs
- Tutoring younger children
- Visiting or working in a nursing home, hospital, homeless shelter or orphanage
- Doing jobs for elderly people living alone
- Providing meals for homebound senior citizens
- Food or clothing drive
- Clean-up activity: park, streets, graffiti
- Planting trees, flowers, vegetable garden
- Painting murals to beautify the neighborhood
- Letter-writing or petition campaign on some public issue
- Serving a religious, civic or service organization
- Fundraising for a worthy cause: playground equipment, computers for the school, etc.
Such activities afford students the opportunity to step beyond the boundaries of their previous experience. They experience the joy of living for the sake of others.
The reflection step is important to the student internalizing the experience. This helps to keep service from becoming simply a passing phenomenon. To stimulate reflection the teacher may encourage students to ask themselves the following questions:
- How did I feel before the activity compared to how I feel now?
- How did it help me to become a better person?
- What did I learn from the experience?
- What obstacles did I have to overcome?
- How did the activity benefit others?
- How do I feel about helping others now?
Overcoming obstacles, both internally and externally, in one’s heart, mind and body, has been shown to be essential to achieving lasting personal growth. The student needs also to experience the substantial beneficial effect of his or her action on the recipient of the service. This gives a profound stimulus to offer oneself for other altruistic activities in the future.
Through reflection the student can begin to comprehend the internal value of the experience and synthesize this with previous experiences that have shaped his or her attitudes and character. New conceptualizations of living can take form in the student’s mind and heart, which then can be tested in other areas of life. If the experience of planting trees and flowers in a neighborhood park has sensitized the student to the value of creating a beautiful environment, s/he may be stimulated to plant flowers in his own backyard or take better care or his own room at home. By experiencing the effect of caring for or feeding the elderly, the student can be naturally stimulated to show greater care and concern for those in need in general.
Through experiential programs such as service learning, students will be encouraged and challenged to adopt a lifestyle at variance with the self-centered and consumer-oriented one advocated by much of modern culture. Hopefully, the experiences gained through such programs will stimulate the natural goodness residing within each person and become precious memories that will feed the development of their overall character.
[1] Kathy Winings. Building Character through Service Learning. Chapel Hill, NC: Character Development Publishing, 2002, p. 16.
[2] David Kolb. Experiential Learning: Experience as the Source of Learning and Development. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, 1984.
Is the "Discovering the Real Me" curriculum geared for or promoting a particular religion?
The DTRM curriculum is non-sectarian and can be adopted and incorporated into any religious or secular environment.
What are the objectives for the "Discovering the Real Me" curriculum?
Here is the list of the Learning Objectives from the DTRM Curriculum.
