Wednesday, February 15, 2012

Earlyact First Knight Implemented In Lake Travis Schools_44176


Developed by Rotarian Chris Byrd and Founder and Executive Director of Knights of the Guild, Randall Parr, EAFK developed into an unprecedented character education program that would put Rotary ideals into the daily academics of mainstream K-8 education for the first time ever. The EAFK approach to teaching character education creatively integrates the instruction of noble character traits with the exciting theme of gallant knights and chivalry.

There is a huge ethical impairment in this country. When one hears, watches or read the news and look at popular culture these days, one sees people who are hardly role models for our kids. There are people in politics, sports and entertainment that are sending the wrong message to the children of this country. The way to reverse that is by catching children early in life and that is exactly what EarlyAct First Knight does.

In many schools across our country,fake uggs boots, we see bullying, dishonesty, irresponsibility, disrespect, hatred, cheating, jealousy, greed, and a lack of tolerance of others. This sort of behavior can manifest itself outside the schools through things like substance abuse, crime, gangs and violence. We are even seeing kids attacking other kids and posting videos of the assault on youtube and other video sharing websites. In other schools, we see conceit, arrogance and elitist behavior. All of this has to stop and EarlyAct First Knight can help build the kind of moral and ethical ideals in our children early in life so that they can be of better character as young adults and beyond.

Students from Kindergarten through eight grade have in their daily curriculum a ten minute lesson,cheap hermes birkin, discussion or activity on ethics and character. In addition, there is an EAFK community service club at the schools and all students in the school can become members. The Rotary motto of Service Above Self is taught to the children at EAFK Club meetings. Students recite the Rotary Four Way Test every day during school and at each bimonthly service club meeting.

Lakeway Elementary and Lake Travis Middle School both implemented EAFK in January, 2009. They are the first schools in Rotary District 5870 to have EarlyAct First Knight Clubs. The show on January 23 had the kids completely engaged. Sir Randall had the students attention the entire time and worked character, service and Rotary into the program masterfully. He even had the students and teachers recite the Four Way Test for the first time ever. The program was absolutely inspirational to watch and listen to.

At Lake Travis Middle School (LTMS), Sir Randall has been coming to school-wide assemblies every Thursday for three weeks. These assemblies are part of what was already planned to be a 10 week program. At each assembly, fully armored,chanel ceramic j12, Randall talks about a character trait and he tells a story about a knight who exemplified that specific character trait. The kids sit listening, absolutely captivated by what they hear and eager for more.

At each LTMS assembly, Randall also talks about the garments and armor that knights wore. He talks about the weapons of the times and the conditions. He usually gets a student to volunteer to come up and model a piece of equipment. One week it was a boy modeling a jousting helmet. One week it was a girl modeling chain mail as protection for a knight�s head. While the kids are being thoroughly entertained, they are learning and they don�t even seem to realize that they are learning about service and character.

Once a month there will be school-wide Knighting Ceremonies. The first at Lakeway Elementary will be February 27. Students will be recognized achievements that involve ethics, character or noble deeds. These ceremonies will be emceed by Rotarians. Students can achieve the ranks of Page, Squire or Knight. Not only will students, faculty and staff be present, but parents will be invited. These ceremonies will not just recognize students, they will be a way to get Rotary more exposure in the community.

For a typical EarlyAct First Knight Club, there will be around 90% or more of students in the school participating in the EAFK service club. We, as Rotarians, need to roll this program all through our District. We need to roll it out all over the state and we need to encourage clubs throughout the country to buy in. If we can get EarlyAct First Knight rolled out throughout the country,replica rado watches, think of what our kids can be like in 10 years. Think of the impact they can have in college and beyond.  

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