Louis J. Alloro, M.Ed., MAPP is a consultant to schools in the area of character education. He has an intriguing perspective on making leadership come alive in organizations. I wanted him to share some of his thoughts on PPND this month. JY
“Luckily, I was busy working for most […]

Sleep Deprivation is rapidly becoming a major health issue for many adolescents. The adolescent sleep research is now telling us that teens ought to be getting 8-9 hours of sleep, while we know that many have habituated themselves into 4-6 hour bouts of shut-eye. There are a variety of factors responsible for this behavior. […]

The following is a brief excerpt from an interview I conducted with Ed Kelley, a humanities teacher and coach at the Culver Academies. He chats about integrating positive psychology in the good work he does with our students.
I am always looking for ways to measure what is happening in the classroom. As I […]

The Culver Academies – a rigorous co-educational, college-preparatory boarding school in Indiana – is committed to integrating a systemic strengths-based approach to broadening and building character strengths and positive emotions in its academic, athletic, wellness, leadership, arts, and spiritual life programs….

I have spent a good amount of time helping build strengths among well-adjusted adolescents – young people who are at a “plus” level in their lives. Recently, I had the opportunity to work with high risk youth, ages 12-20, who are members of a residential treatment center. These boys/young men grew up in […]

I am currently enjoying working with several of The Culver Academies’ humanities instructors who are teaching the nuances of John Knowles’ A Separate Peace, the coming of age story of young men at a boarding school set in mid-World War II. The main characters, Gene and Finny are good friends who look at life from […]

le�ver�age Pronunciation: ‘le-v&-rij, ‘lE-; ‘lev-rij
1: the action of a lever or the mechanical advantage gained by it
2: an agent through which vital powers are exercised
The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition (2007)
The genesis of knowing, valuing, and acting on one’s character strengths is founded in the timeless and enduring virtues that Aristotle […]

I was blessed to have the opportunity to attend a two-day seminar on “Caring in Education” led by Nel Noddings, professor emeritus from Stanford University. I had known of her work for many years, and was excited to hear her thoughts in person.
To care for young people and to be cared for should not […]

Morality is an essential part of human nature. Morality is also a central element […]

One of the goals in life is to achieve “authentic happiness”, to aspire to feeling genuinely complete. As part of the balance of life, we constantly go through a loss and rebirth process in our quest for well-being. Several years ago, one of our students was killed in an automobile accident. Richard (name has been changed) was a very special young man who was loved by all who knew him in our school community. He was in a student in my Foundations of Health Behavior class and we had just completed an exercise on “character strengths observations” several days before his passing. His parents asked me to say a few words at his memorial service …