Group activities is the most versatile of the Teaching Techniques used in the Toogoolawa Schools. Under this name we include a wide variety of teaching devices such as:

      1.  Integration of the Human Values into every subject in the curriculum
      2.  Public Speaking
      3.  Art and Crafts
      4.  Character Building Exercises
      5.  Community service projects

Aims and Objectives

This large group of teaching activities aims to integrate the Human Values into all aspects of the School’s curriculum, as well as into all co-curricula activities such as motivational games, field trips, sport and so on. To ensure that the Human Values are lived and not just remembered and understood, it is important to employ teaching activities which promote active experience in living the Values in real or symbolic form. To achieve this objective we can say that Group Activities should give the students opportunity to:

• We will now look at a small number of Group Activities within each of the five areas listed earlier

Toogoolawa Schools have all made significant progress in developing lesson plans which integrate the Human Values into all aspects of the curriculum. Just a small sample of these is shown here to give a general illustration of how such integration can take place.

The subjects coming under the broad title of ‘Literacy’ give many opportunities for Values-integration. Accordingly we will offer a few examples in that area and leave it to the imagination of the reader to see how the Values can be brought into every one of the curriculum subjects.

At some stage after the students have been made familiar with the Thought-for-the-Week, the teacher creates a list of ten or so spelling words which relate to that particular wise saying. For example, if the Thought-for-the-Week is ‘Help ever, Hurt never’, the words to be learned might be as follows:

                                                  help                    hurt
                                                  assist                 every
                                                  kindness             sharing
                                                  never                   harm
                                                  always                gentle

When writing up or pointing out each of the words to be rote-learned for spelling, the teacher would be saying something like:

The teacher writes a Virtue on the blackboard (say, ‘friendship’, which is a sub-Value of the Human Value of ‘Love’). She invites the class to find another word to say what ‘friendship’ is. As each student makes a suggestion (e.g. ‘caring’), he is asked to come out and write it on the board. If it is incorrectly spelled the teacher will tactfully ask if anyone can improve on what is there and to write that on the board too. This is repeated until the correct spelling is reached, and another synonym for ‘friendship’ is asked for; and so on until the board is filled with words, all of which will be a sub-Value of ‘Love’ and perhaps other Values as well. The end result could look like this:

Perhaps the most popular spelling lesson in Toogoolawa Schools is the supervised game of Scrabble, the board game. What happens is this:

A teacher works with three or four students, playing the board game of Scrabble with two changes in the rules:

Firstly, the score is doubled if the word is correctly spelled. Some assistance is of course given to those with poor literacy skills.

Secondly, the word-score is doubled again if the player can explain how that word relates to the Human Values. The teacher and other players can make suggestions to assist him reach the goal.
An example follows:

1.4  Current Events

Students are given old newspapers and acceptable magazines to search through and find news stories describing the Human Values in action; for example, acts of selfless service to those less fortunate. These are cut out and pasted in the student’s workbook.

Toogoolawa uses only those books which have an uplifting moral virtue woven into the story, avoiding those with gratuitous violence, horror and sexuality.

Every week the students prepare and then present a few minutes’ talk on the wise saying for that week. Their performance is rated on a number of factors by the teachers and also their fellow students.

For a student who is struggling, the teachers will ease him into the performance over several weeks. Eventually each student becomes adept and confident in public speaking.

It is in these weekly presentations, as well as in the Monday morning discussions about the meaning of the Thought-for-the-Week, that the real value of having such an in-depth focus on words of wisdom shows itself. It is not unusual for teachers and visitors to be moved to tears as they listen to a boy’s sincere attempt to present his understanding of the wise saying for that week. One example of a student’s weekly talk is given below:

Jeremy’s Talk

 Teachers, fellow students and visitors. My name is Jeremy and today I am going to talk about the Thought-for-the-Week which is:

“I (we) should not cause harm to anybody in our thoughts words and deeds.”

 The way that I will not hurt anybody else is by not reacting to everything that they say, because if I react I get angry and that causes me to hurt people. I will not say mean stuff to people because that can hurt their feelings and we do not want that, because if we hurt their feelings that can make them angry and frustrated.

Another way is that I will not fight and not swear at them because that can make them angry. I will not tease them because that could start a fight and we are trying not to start a fight. Another way is this: When I feel like fighting I can just walk away from the problem or go to the quiet-time room until I settle down and then return to the class.

 Another way is by not thinking bad thoughts and instead think of the five Human Values and then I will have no need to fight.

The end.

Integrating the five Human Values into this part of the curriculum is relatively easy in one sense but difficult in another. The easy part is that practical creativity lends itself easily to the integration of harmony, noble ideas and uplifting themes into a piece of art or work; but it can just as readily go in the direction of ‘dark’, superficial and violent images.

The difficult part is that students with old habits of anger, disrespect, non-cooperation and self-doubt are reluctant at first to create something which is balanced, harmonious and uplifting. Toogoolawa teachers are quite firm in resisting all appeals and demands to express in art and craft the student’s attachment to and familiarity with themes opposing the Human Values.

The end result – although sometimes a struggle to achieve – is always satisfying for the student and no doubt beneficial as well.

These can be in the form of

Discussion or debates on moral themes
Adventure therapy activities (eg. high ropes course)
Games involving co-operation, self-honesty and leadership and self-affirmation
Rock and Water martial arts program (non-violent and non-competitive)
Role playing to develop compassion for others

We will give just one example to illustrate the potential for character building in these exercises.

This one is called ‘I am’:

5. Community Service Projects

All Toogoolawa Schools spend one half-day or more each week engaged in projects to care for the environment and those less fortunate than themselves. One such activity involves going to a nursing home to join in playing bingo with the residents; another is to work in a kitchen for the homeless, preparing the meal, serving it and clearing up afterwards; another is to pull out weeds in a designated wetlands; and so on.

The rationale is that when we practise love towards others we get more in touch with the limitless love waiting within ourselves; and the same applies for the other Human Values as well. Engaging in community service clearly has a good effect upon the boys – on their confidence, consideration for others, respect for elders, as well as compassion and generosity.