| Senator Schwartz, Thank you for your interest in and support of character education programs in our public schools. I was very pleased to learn of the passage in June of your Senate bill to encourage districts to develop and implement such initiatives. My interest in these programs comes from my experiences as a parent, coach, and youth ministry worker in my community. It is my long-held belief that some form of character and social responsibility instruction is desperately needed in our educational system. I am encouraged to see the efforts being made around the state and would like to make you aware of one school that has been providing “character building” instruction for over a decade. For the past 16 years, the Dauphin County Technical School (DCTS) in Harrisburg, PA has been involved in educating its students through participation in a curriculum developed by Constance Dembrowsky of the Institute for Affective Skills Development entitled, “ Personal and Social Responsibility”. This course, taught by the school’s very gifted and committed 9th grade facilitator, Larry Evans, is presented as an in-school class for 9th graders with a voluntary, free six-week companion class for parents and other family members or caregivers. The curriculum, as the name suggests, teaches students and adults “affective skills”, encouraging personal and social responsibility. Affective skills are life skills or lessons that all too often are never taught to or grasped by today’s young people. The concepts shared in the class, encourage respect for self and others, develop decision-making and anger management skills, and improve understanding and communication between students, parents, and school staff. Larry Evans helped bring this curriculum to DCTS at a time when the climate in our educational system was not very supportive of this innovative program. As your bill and the growing number of districts who offer this type of instruction indicates, attitudes have changed and that is a positive step. I am part of a growing concerned parents group called “School Partners” that is working with school districts in Dauphin County, asking them to give serious consideration to adding the “Personal and Social Responsibility” curriculum to their educational programming. Having experienced the program’s benefits directly, our group believes that these positive, life-impacting concepts should be shared with other school districts. Support from the state government level can only help our efforts to move forward. Affective skills can and should be taught at home, but reinforcement in local school districts will build on those home-based principles or develop them where they did not exist before. As the children grow and learn, they will not only positively impact their schools, neighborhoods, and states with these skills, but our nation and the world will ultimately benefit. I hope you or your staff will be encouraged by this letter to learn more about this program at Dauphin County Technical School. For further information, please contact Larry Evans by e-mail at levans@dcts.org. Our parents group also has a web site that provides more information about the “affective skills” ideas and concepts in use at DCTS. It’s found at www.affectiveskill.com. Constance Dembrowsky also has a site with information about her affective skills curriculums and resources at www.iasd.com. Thank you again for your service to our Commonwealth. We support your continuing efforts to encourage schools, parents, communities, and government to work together in educating our children for life. “School Partners”
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