Thurmont Elementary and Catoctin High Receive State Character Awards

Thurmont Elementary School and Catoctin High School were two of eight schools in Maryland, and the only schools in Frederick County, to recently be recognized as Maryland Schools of Character. The awards are given annually by Character.org, a national advocate for character development. In Maryland, the program is sponsored by the Maryland Center for Character Education at Stevenson University. The awards are based on how well the schools fulfill eleven aspects of character education, including that the school regularly assesses its culture and climate and the functioning of its staff as character educators, and the extent to which its students manifest good character. “It’s a nice honor to receive to recognize the hard work that we’ve done over the year with character education,” said Beth Myers, Thurmont Elementary guidance counselor. Schools had to submit a comprehensive application package that showed statistics and anecdotal evidence of how well they were meeting the different aspects of character education. “It was a lot of work to prove that we have a solid program built on the eleven principles of character education,” said Dana Brashear, Catoctin High guidance counselor. According to the Character.org website, the principles are as follows:

• The school community promotes core ethical and performance values as the foundation of good

character.

• The school defines “character” comprehensively to include thinking, feeling, and doing.
• The school uses a comprehensive, intentional, and proactive approach to character development.
• The school creates a caring community.
• The school provides students with opportunities for moral action.
• The school offers a meaningful and challenging academic curriculum that respects all learners, develops their character, and helps them to succeed.
• The school fosters students’ self-motivation.
• The school staff is an ethical learning community that shares responsibility for character education and adheres to the same core values that guide the students.
• The school fosters shared leadership and long-range support of the character education initiative.
• The school engages families and community members as partners in the character-building effort.

The Maryland School of Character Award is a three-year award that can be reapplied for. Once the schools received the state award, they were automatically eligible to receive national recognition. A national team visited the schools last year, and met with personnel who were responsible for each of the character principles. “Their feedback was invaluable,” stated Myers. “It gave us an awareness and focus on how we can continue to strive to do better.” Although neither school received national recognition, it is an award that can be applied for annually. Brashear said that she is planning on having the Catoctin character teams make improvements so that she can submit an application at the end of this year. Myers said that the effect of the award can be seen in how the students act, noting that they are recognizing more that they are responsible for their own behavior and working more collectively with the teachers. Brashear agreed, adding that when things like that happen, it creates a culture in the school. “I feel like we are raising good kids,” Brashear said. “They come out of here with good traits and skills.”