The Virtues Project

I came across the Virtues Project when visiting a friend and fellow educator in New Zealand. They use this project as an integral part of their curriculum. It was started over ten years ago by Linda Kavelin Popov. As a young mother, she looked around her children's school environment and community and was unhappy with what she saw. She knew things could be better and set out to make a difference. She created the virtues project, which has quickly spread all over the world, helping children develop the virtues, empowering children to make moral choices, teaching teachers character awakening activities, and inspiring excellence, respect, compassion, justice and cooperation in children of all ages. What could be more important?

Three years ago, I created a "virtues tree" in our classroom and each week we work on a virtue. The children and I discuss what it means, what it looks like when practiced, and how it is used. We act out different situations using a particular virtue and we look for the virtues in each other.

We have noticed a marked difference in the children's behavior on the weeks that we do virtues education. In an effort help the environment, I have placed all of the virtues on this website as jpg files and you may print them as needed.

I had the pleasure of meeting Linda Kavelin-Popov last year. I talked about wanting to share this information with the parents at our school and how beneficial it would be to have this information online. The below pages are copied with permission of the author, and the book contains much more useful information, tips and ideas for teaching virtues. For more information please visit their website, www.virtuesproject.com

Thank You for Your Enthusiasm and Support!

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