Many young people today are growing up without clear guidance about foundational character qualties that help all people succeed and make healthy choices. Throughout human history, these critical qualities have often been identified using the ancient term "wisdom."
The WiseSkills program, founded in 1994, was developed to teach young people the critical traits and principles summarized in the concept of wisdom, which the program defines as, "Making good choices for myself and others." (For Character Counts!™ schools, the program can easily be used to teach the Six Pillars of Character.)
WiseSkills is an interdisciplinary, teacher-friendly approach to character education that teaches young people the importance of wisdom and good character through three program strategies:
Modeling Teachers, parents, and community members model positive character.
Teaching Educators and families teach good character and combine academic knowledge (what we KNOW) with wisdom (what we DO).
Reinforcing Schools and families reinforce good character with schoolwide activities, home activities, and service experiences.
The WiseSkills Vision
To effectively model, teach and reinforce the principles of character that are critical for success, WiseSkills involves the three primary influences in young people's lives: School, Family, and Community:
♦ Family The WiseSkills family materials engage families in simple, interactive home activities that teach and reinforce good character. Family Wisdom features
reproducible newsletters and activity pages that schools send home to involve families in their character education initiative. TheFamily Wisdom License Packfeatures video training, licensing, and additional resources for facilitating the program schoolwide. Family materials include:
♦ Community WiseSkills can involve the local community with ongoing career speakers who model good character and regular service projects. Volunteers are trained and equipped to contact local organizations to arrange speakers and service projects in the community. Materials include: • Community Implementation Kit
