Chapter Seven: Moving Upward and Beyond
“The foundation of every state is the education of its youth.” - Diogenes Laertius, quotation on ceiling of Joliet Township High School Central auditorium
Covey opens chapter seven with words that capture the importance of a village truly embracing its youth. As the title indicates, the move was first upward from elementary schools to junior and senior high schools and then beyond to international sites.
While Covey focuses on the Leader in Me’s impact on elementary school students in previous chapters, he takes us to some junior and senior high school campuses “to provide a glimpse of what is happening at those levels—and there are some great things happening. There are also some interesting things happening at district and government levels that I will briefly introduce at the end of the chapter.”
A tiny spark of The Leader in Me was ignited in Joliet, Illinois at a moment where a high school counselor named Tony Contos was fed up with the educational system. Contos wanted desperately to make a difference on campus but his efforts were repeatedly thwarted by school bureaucracy and red tape. A colleague insisted that he read the 7 Habits book. Contos not only got excited, but he was able to see connections between the 7 Habits and the problems his counselees were experiencing. He took a leap of faith and reached out to Covey to see if there were lessons and exercises suitable for high school students. There were no programs for teens at the time, but Contos began to experiment with students and staff and got wonderful results.
Once again, parents saw their children begin to change and wanted to know who or what was responsible. Parents discovered that the culprit was a set of principles contained in a book called 7 Habits and they began to get excited. As the good news about 7 Habits began to circulate in the community a unique funding opportunity became available. A representative from the District Attorney’s office offered to give the school a portion of the proceeds from confiscated goods found at drug raids.
Shortly after Contos’ pioneering efforts to deliver the principles to teens in Illinois, Covey’s son Sean wrote and published 7 Habits of Highly Effective Teens.
Still, the concept of empowering teens, especially low income teens was very attractive. A cluster of schools in Chicago offered the program in a mandatory class for incoming freshmen. Additionally, each freshman is assigned an advisor for the entire four years. The advisors are trained in the 7 Habits and are able to integrate the program into their advisory sessions. Even without a full immersion in 7 Habits the schools report increased test scores, decreased disciplinary issues and a greater propensity to attend college. A pilot program in California has also experienced a similar impact.
Covey’s most exemplary high school program is at Roosevelt Junior High in Oklahoma City. Marilyn Vrooman, the incoming principal, describes Roosevelt as a school where the “halls were filled with young students whose academic lives were drowning in social issues they were not equipped to handle.”
Vrooman attacked the problem on two fronts: the facility first and then the faculty.
She discovered some special interests the students had and designed student hangouts around those interests. Her intent was to to give them opportunities to experience interpersonal communications in customized settings.
She also took the advice of a book entitled If You Don’t Feed the Teachers They Eat the Students! and built a faculty exercise room. She empowered the teachers with the 7 Habits training and allowed them to incorporate the training into as many student lessons as they saw fit.
One especially significant campus innovation involved a group of young men. “She received a $10,000 donation to fund the building of a ropes course for teaching leadership skills and hired a contractor to work with fifteen at-risk boys to design, build, and install eight low-level rope elements. The experience allowed the young men to gain a confidence in themselves that they were then able to transfer to their coursework.”
Covey admits that Roosevelt is “not paradise” but it certainly is on the upswing.
The Leader in Me program’s impact is certainly not restricted to the United States. Covey reports amazing results from Singapore, Guatemalan and Japanese schools. In Singapore, for years the trainings were exclusively held for teachers and there was no systematic attempt to bring the program to the students. At the insistence of parents, in 2000 Covey and educators combined forces and developed a Highly Effective Youth (HEY) program that has positively transformed the school culture for adults and youth.
Covey is particularly proud of his accomplishments in Guatemala. In 2005, the minister of education responded to what seemed like an epidemic of national hopelessness by implementing a program called Path of Dreams.
“The more she and her team synergized, the more María came to believe that the habits would empower both teachers and students to “relearn how to dream” and provide them with the tools to make their dreams become a reality.”
Path of Dreams is working and the take away for youth and adults is a burning desire to improve themselves and the country at large.
Covey’s 7 Habits program has literally swept Japan and although it was initially a ‘hard sell in a tough school system’ the results are really extraordinary.
“Today more than ten thousand students a year receive the 7 Habits via cram schools, while another three thousand receive training in the habits from private schools. Since parents must pay for cram schools and private schools out of their own pockets, I believe this says something about what parents in Japan want from a school.”
Covey ends the chapter by emphasizing the growing list of corporations, community groups and school districts contributing to a 7 Habits culture.
“I share the Louisville and Dow Agro Sciences stories—and single out their activities—to emphasize how interested community and business groups are in the well-being of today’s young people and how important they find these basic life skills and principles to be.”
The uncanny thing about this transformation is the culture shock students experience when they graduate or go into a 7 Habits-free environment. For Covey that culture shock may be just the driving force necessary to take his program to yet another level.
“The foundation of every state is the education of its youth.” - Diogenes Laertius, quotation on ceiling of Joliet Township High School Central auditorium
Covey opens chapter seven with words that capture the importance of a village truly embracing its youth. As the title indicates, the move was first upward from elementary schools to junior and senior high schools and then beyond to international sites.
While Covey focuses on the Leader in Me’s impact on elementary school students in previous chapters, he takes us to some junior and senior high school campuses “to provide a glimpse of what is happening at those levels—and there are some great things happening. There are also some interesting things happening at district and government levels that I will briefly introduce at the end of the chapter.”
A tiny spark of The Leader in Me was ignited in Joliet, Illinois at a moment where a high school counselor named Tony Contos was fed up with the educational system. Contos wanted desperately to make a difference on campus but his efforts were repeatedly thwarted by school bureaucracy and red tape. A colleague insisted that he read the 7 Habits book. Contos not only got excited, but he was able to see connections between the 7 Habits and the problems his counselees were experiencing. He took a leap of faith and reached out to Covey to see if there were lessons and exercises suitable for high school students. There were no programs for teens at the time, but Contos began to experiment with students and staff and got wonderful results.
Once again, parents saw their children begin to change and wanted to know who or what was responsible. Parents discovered that the culprit was a set of principles contained in a book called 7 Habits and they began to get excited. As the good news about 7 Habits began to circulate in the community a unique funding opportunity became available. A representative from the District Attorney’s office offered to give the school a portion of the proceeds from confiscated goods found at drug raids.
Shortly after Contos’ pioneering efforts to deliver the principles to teens in Illinois, Covey’s son Sean wrote and published 7 Habits of Highly Effective Teens.
- “Since its release, The 7 Habits of Highly Effective Teens has sold over three million copies and traveled to schools all over the world, including a classroom in Korea where students are learning a 7 Habits song with actions.”
Still, the concept of empowering teens, especially low income teens was very attractive. A cluster of schools in Chicago offered the program in a mandatory class for incoming freshmen. Additionally, each freshman is assigned an advisor for the entire four years. The advisors are trained in the 7 Habits and are able to integrate the program into their advisory sessions. Even without a full immersion in 7 Habits the schools report increased test scores, decreased disciplinary issues and a greater propensity to attend college. A pilot program in California has also experienced a similar impact.
Covey’s most exemplary high school program is at Roosevelt Junior High in Oklahoma City. Marilyn Vrooman, the incoming principal, describes Roosevelt as a school where the “halls were filled with young students whose academic lives were drowning in social issues they were not equipped to handle.”
Vrooman attacked the problem on two fronts: the facility first and then the faculty.
She discovered some special interests the students had and designed student hangouts around those interests. Her intent was to to give them opportunities to experience interpersonal communications in customized settings.
She also took the advice of a book entitled If You Don’t Feed the Teachers They Eat the Students! and built a faculty exercise room. She empowered the teachers with the 7 Habits training and allowed them to incorporate the training into as many student lessons as they saw fit.
One especially significant campus innovation involved a group of young men. “She received a $10,000 donation to fund the building of a ropes course for teaching leadership skills and hired a contractor to work with fifteen at-risk boys to design, build, and install eight low-level rope elements. The experience allowed the young men to gain a confidence in themselves that they were then able to transfer to their coursework.”
Covey admits that Roosevelt is “not paradise” but it certainly is on the upswing.
The Leader in Me program’s impact is certainly not restricted to the United States. Covey reports amazing results from Singapore, Guatemalan and Japanese schools. In Singapore, for years the trainings were exclusively held for teachers and there was no systematic attempt to bring the program to the students. At the insistence of parents, in 2000 Covey and educators combined forces and developed a Highly Effective Youth (HEY) program that has positively transformed the school culture for adults and youth.
Covey is particularly proud of his accomplishments in Guatemala. In 2005, the minister of education responded to what seemed like an epidemic of national hopelessness by implementing a program called Path of Dreams.
“The more she and her team synergized, the more María came to believe that the habits would empower both teachers and students to “relearn how to dream” and provide them with the tools to make their dreams become a reality.”
Path of Dreams is working and the take away for youth and adults is a burning desire to improve themselves and the country at large.
Covey’s 7 Habits program has literally swept Japan and although it was initially a ‘hard sell in a tough school system’ the results are really extraordinary.
“Today more than ten thousand students a year receive the 7 Habits via cram schools, while another three thousand receive training in the habits from private schools. Since parents must pay for cram schools and private schools out of their own pockets, I believe this says something about what parents in Japan want from a school.”
Covey ends the chapter by emphasizing the growing list of corporations, community groups and school districts contributing to a 7 Habits culture.
“I share the Louisville and Dow Agro Sciences stories—and single out their activities—to emphasize how interested community and business groups are in the well-being of today’s young people and how important they find these basic life skills and principles to be.”
The uncanny thing about this transformation is the culture shock students experience when they graduate or go into a 7 Habits-free environment. For Covey that culture shock may be just the driving force necessary to take his program to yet another level.