Värdegrundsförlaget
Virtues and Life Skills
Here are some documents sent from qualified educators in Australia and New Zealand concerning a successful school programme and philosopy - the Virtues Project, so far spread in more than 95 countries, founded in Canada in 1991 by Linda Kavelin Popov, Dr. Dan Popov and John Kavelin. The project was honored by the United Nations during the International Year of the Family (1994) as a "model global program for families of all cultures".
At www.virtuesproject.com you will find lots of inspiring ideas and articles. With the permission of Linda Kavelin Popov I publish one of her articles concerning a workshop with virtues in a prison for young people in Fiji.
Judy Dixon, Principal at Frankton Primary School has sent a document with a summary of comments from two Education Review Office Reports from the Education Review Office. This school is situated at Frankton, Hamilton, New Zealand and has more than 600 students. "The school continues to successfully implement a virtues programme that underpins its philosophy… The positive and settled tone is consistent with a school value of 'a place of aroha and respect'. You can read the summary in this pdf-file: ERO_reports_2006-2009.pdf
In this informative and illustrative document you will find a Sabbatical Report (2005), 10 pages, well worth reading, by Judy Dixon: Dixon_2005_sabbatical.pdf
In the following document you find a paper concerning research at Myponga Primary School in Australia (2005), prepared by Jillian Jordan, Jenni Chand and Kris Mott about The courage to lead, Reculturing for wellbeing and learning through whole-school change: Myponga_PS_VP_2005.pdf
In the next document you find a paper about Early childhood moral development through language by Derek W Patton, Child & Family Psychologist and PhD candidate at the University of Melbourne, Australia: Paper presented at the Asia Pacific Network for Moral Education Conference:
“Interdisciplinary Perspectives on Moral Education”, Seoul National University, Republic of Korea (2009)
In another document by Derek W Patton you may study and learn from a paper investigating: The Virtues Project™ effects in a preschool: A paper presented at the Positive Psychology and Well-Being Conference 12 – 13 February 2010, Monash University, Melbourne Australia.
Here is moreover a link to an extensive PhD thesis, 2014, by dr Derek W Patton about
Quality talk interactions in preschools
and here you can listen to a talk by Derek W Patton about The Challenge of Early Conduct Disorder at a TEDx event: http://tedxtalks.ted.com/video/The-Challenge-of-Early-Conduct
All who have meditated on the art of governing mankind have been convinced that the fate of empires depends on the education of youth. — Aristotle
Here is my own article The True Foundation of Democratic Values which was published by Umeå University in a publication titled Proceedings from the 2nd International Conference Values in Education across Boundaries.
This short article is a proposal for instruction of global ethics in education: Global Ethics
Värdegrundsförlaget is a firm and publishing trust aiming at producing study materials on virtues and life skills for children and youth. The book ”Building Blocks for a Better World – Life skills and Virtues in Theory and Practice” is currently being translated into English.
Maria Melin Blomqvist
For inquiries write to
info@livskunskap.net