The Words of the Pople Family
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The Words of the Pople Family |
New York, USA -- UPF's character education program is expanding with the shipment of student texts and teacher manuals to our chapters in 25 nations in Africa, Asia, Eurasia, and Oceania.
"I want to thank you very much for sending the UPF character education books to Zimbabwe," responded Iyolangomo Bosako, Secretary General of UPF-Zimbabwe. "This will help us to promote peace at a grass root level."
To help develop the program, a website has been created offering resources to help people teach the Discovering the Real Me lessons and share experiences adapting them for different contexts. (discoveringtherealme.wikispaces.com/)
The lesson plans begin with traditional fables and stories and suggest discussion topics and various activities promoting the lesson's objectives. "I can begin to search for similar stories in Palauan," wrote Margaret Sisserson, who recently returned to the Pacific island where she was born and envisions the curriculum being useful in local schools.
"Every month at Principled Academy there is a virtue that the whole school focuses on," reports Poppy Richie from the San Francisco Bay Area of California. "During our morning assembly, teachers tell stories and share biographies about people that demonstrated that virtue in their lives. I often use the Discovering the Real Me stories to illustrate these virtues. For example, when the virtue of the month is generosity, in November, I read the stories 'The Elves and the Shoemaker' and 'The Fisherman and His Wife' to contrast generosity and greed. I use the questions in the teacher's manual for a guided discussion after I read the stories."
The curriculum was developed by the Universal Peace Federation, building on the work of the International Educational Foundation. Mrs. Poppy Richie and Mrs. June Saunders wrote the lessons in the series, which was spearheaded by Mr. Alan Saunders. The program was field tested in Asia, Africa, the US, the Caribbean, and Pacific islands.