Values education for children and young adults - Living Values Education
 Values Education for Children and Young Adults

 



Lebanon

Rula Kahil
Living Values Education Coordinator

lebanon@livingvalues.net
Fax: +961 1 366050
Attention Rula Kahil / Elementary School

 
 

Current Status  -  June 2002 

Living Values: An Educational Program (LVEP) began in Lebanon two years ago. Since that time, the program?s progress has been steady and noticeable. LVEP was first introduced at a seminar in Beirut on the 15th of May 2000. The three-day seminar titled ?Quality Based Education: Integrating Social Skills into Classroom and School Programmes? was jointly hosted by LVEP and UNESCO?s Regional Office for Education in the Arab States. The Living Values program was then adopted by the American Community School at Beirut. Rula Kahil, a teacher at the school, attended the TTT training the same year, at Oxford Shire, and was appointed as the program?s coordinator in Lebanon.


The following summarizes the program?s progress for the past two years:


First year of Implementation, 2000 - 2001:

  1. Lebanon?s first LVEP Training for 45 elementary and pre-school teachers at the American Community School was conducted in September 2000.The teachers chose two values to work with during the academic year; Peace and Respect.

  2. Another LVEP Educator?s workshop was conducted for 35 teachers at Alturath Elementary school in November 2000.

  3. A prominent school in Mount, Lebanon called Brummanna High School hosted a two-day training and invited its own teachers and educators from other schools in Mount, Lebanon. Rula Kahil and Allie Farnloff, educators from the American Community School, conducted the training attended by 100 educators. The pre- and lower elementary schools started the program the same year choosing the values of Peace and Respect for the academic year.

  4. In March 2001, the American Community School hosted schools from Beirut for a one-day LVEP training. A team of teachers already working with the Program from ACS conducted the training. The training included 55 educators and university students. Following the training, two schools started activities from the Peace unit; Beirut Modern School and Houssam Hariri High School at Saida - Lebanon.

  5. In April 2001, a one-day training was conducted for interested teachers in Beirut Modern School and plans were prepared for a school-wide program implementation for the coming year.

  6. In July 2001 ?Beit Atfal Assumoud? hosted a five-day training for its teachers? from all around Lebanon. The training was conducted by Diane Tillman with the help of Rula Kahil and Marjo Linssen. The training was on ?Living Values Activities for Refugees and Children Affected by War?.

  7. In July 2001, three educators from Lebanon joined the Train-the-Trainer (TTT) in Oxford Shire, adding to the LVEP team in Lebanon. The Trainers were: Jenny Nassim (Brummana High School), Nadia Hijazi (Beirut Modern School, and Kawthar Abu-Dargham(American Community School).

 
Second year of implementation 2001 - 2002:


During this year there was more focus on developing the program?s material in Arabic language, aiming to broaden the local interest of the LVEP:

  1. Four days of training were conducted in September 2001 at the American Community School for the whole school. The school adopted the program as one of its school-wide goals where all teachers would participate in implementing the program. This training was conducted by Rula Kahil, Peter Williams, and Sue Emery. The teachers agreed to repeat the value of Respect and add Responsibility and Tolerance for the academic year. 

  2. Throughout the academic school year 2001-2002, parental seminars were conducted at the American Community School to raise awareness and discuss each of the values adopted. The seminars were positively accepted leaving an amazing impact on the program effectiveness. Parents requested similar seminars to be repeated next year. 

  3. In October 2001, a one-day training was conducted by Rula Kahil and Nadia Hijazi for ?Beit Atfal Assumoud?s? social workers, psychiatrists and psychologists. 

  4. Through Jenny Nassim, Brummana High School moved along with the program and started regular assemblies at the lower elementary level which was a great success. 

  5. A two-day training was conducted by Jenny Nassim and Rula Kahil for the first time for a French school in Lebanon. The training was conducted mainly in Arabic and the school decided to adopt the program at the fourth and fifth grade levels. The school used the program?s Arabic translated material. Their interest in implementing the program school-wide made the school reserve more training sessions for the coming academic year. 

  6. Nadia Kaddoura conducted a one-day training for the entire faculty at Beirut Modern School where an action plan was furnished to start the program school wide. 

  7. An interest in the program was developed through an article published in French by the ?L?Orient Le Joures? a local newspaper. The article created interest from a member of the Women?s National Commission and ideas have been discussed for possible plans in the community with regard to the program. This interest reinforced the need for an Arabic version and interest of some people in sponsoring the publishing of the material was stated. Editing is now being done in collaboration with Reem Bahghat, Egypt?s coordinator who worked on most of the translations.

 
Plans for the next year, 2002-2003: 

  1. Two days training in early October in the Saint Couers School to adopt the Programme school-wide for the academic year 2002-2003. 
     
  2. Two more trainings to be planned early during the coming academic year for the two English schools in the area. 
     
  3. The American Community School is again adopting the Programme for this academic year and two teachers from its high and middle schools will be receiving LVE training at international training sessions in the UK and USA.

 

Number of Sites Using Living Values Education 

Total number of sites  10

 Division of sites:
1. The American Community School (Elementary and Pre-school)
2. The Heritage School (Elementary and Pre-school)
3. Beirut Modern school (Middle, Elementary and pre-schools)
4. International College, Elementary school (a teacher using some of the lessons in combination with another programme) 
5. Rawda Pre-school
6. Brummana High school (Elementary and pre-schools)
7. One elementary teacher in a school in the mountains
8. Houssam Hariri High School in Saida-Lebanon,


Impact of the Programme

1. Impact on children: 

  • Impact on children:  Children exposed to the program were able to transfer what they learned from the school to home. Some parents reported that their children play the role of conflict mediators and solved problems between siblings and adults as well. Other children were talking to their parents about ways to show responsibility and respect.

  • The impact of the program is also very clear in the children?s work. In the different schools implementing the program, the children are the ones who are demonstrating the impact. Here are some examples, if you wish to look at more please refer to the section on children share on the Living Values web-page.

2. Impact on teachers: 

  • Allie Farnlof, a third grade teacher at the American Community School, spoke of how resistant he was to the plans that he heard of starting LVEP, thinking that it would be just one more thing to add to an already heavy work-load. After 2 months, he found a 20 minutes slot between two periods and taught the first lesson of LVEP?s peace activities. He stated that it was like magic: the students responded beautifully to the lesson - and so did he! Since that first spark, they have been working on the lessons daily; his students are conflict mediators in the classroom and playground. Allie himself participates in all the workshops that take place and talks about the impact of the Programme on teachers, students and parents.
     
  • Sue Bowden, a fourth grade teacher, mentioned the impact of LVEP on her students and the big difference it is having on their behaviour. Sue believes that the school should base its whole curriculum on the Programme.
     
  • Sister Marlene from the Saint Couers School reported on behalf of one of the teachers who started implementing the Programme. She said that after finishing the unit on respect one of her students told her that he had learned what respect means. He said that he stopped ridiculing his grandfather who has a speech problem and lives with them; now he tries to understand what he wants instead of laughing at him. 

3. Impact on parents: 

  • Seminars at the American Community School have had a big impact on parents. One parent expressed how much she appreciates understanding how to deal with her son. In a session on responsibility, another parent mentioned that she realized that she has to give her son more responsibilities at home to feel that he can do things on his own. In a high school session on tolerance, a father realized that it was his biased conversation at home that made his son biased as well. He stated that he is aware now of his responsibility as a role model.
     
  • A parent from the American Community School, Mrs. Boueri, was interested in the Programme and attended a Living Values Educators? training in New York in the summer of 2001. She shared some information about the Programme with The International Women?s Club of Lebanon and the women enjoyed some of the activities on respect and humility and stated that the Programme is ?truly international?.