A Film on A.B. Combs Elementary

Stephen Covey gives an example of a school, whose principal embarked upon introducing character based education in their curriculum. It resulted into a true partnership between the teachers, students and parents to the benefit of all concerned,
We don’t know when we would start developing the moral authority and inner strength that flow from the four human intelligences. In his book “The 8th Habit” Stephen Covey gives an example of a film which has a story of a woman who is principal of A.B Combs Elementary School (K-5) in Raleigh, North Carolina- a magnet school with a mission to produce leaders for society. The film shows her in her finest hour.
The author asks when it is the best time to learn the software that helps in finding our voice, which is one’s life’s best time to get the cultural overlay, the software, to be completely in harmony with our “hardwired” gifts? All of us would agree that it is primarily in our early childhood. Some of us would have had a bad early home lives and learn the software of victimism, scarcity and the cancers of competing, complaining, contending, comparing and criticizing. When the children are very young, impressionable, innocent, uncorrupted can a teacher or a school administrator become a surrogate parent to compensate for this dysfunctionality at the home?
There would be a continuous support for the child if we get a better partnership from both the sides, home and the school. The film is like a home movie than a professionally produced film and has very low production quality. Covey tells us about great partnership between a school and the homes of its students under the leadership of the principal, Mrs. Muriel Thomas Summers.
Mrs. Summers got a vision of the possibilities of introducing principle-based character education into the curriculum of a K-5 school (little children ranging from ages five through ten), and of involving fellow administrators, faculty and families. The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People was chosen as their curriculum by her. The Action Guide at the back of the book shows 7 Habits as a powerful framework for developing our human intelligences, particularly EQ.
The Habits are universal, timeless principles belonging to all humanity which Covey organized into actionable, sequential framework of thinking when he visited the school. He further talked about T.S Eliot who said, “We must never cease from exploring. At the end of all of our exploring will be to arrive at where we began and know the place for the first time.”
In the video of the school celebration we can see the little children who conducted this assembly and gave the speeches. The families can’t be seen in front but we can hear babies crying, so we can feel their presence. The principles of responsibility, purpose, integrity, win-win, seeking first to understand synergy and sharpen the s aw became an important part of their curriculum as a true partnership.
We must continuously strive to explore ways of using the universal, timeless principles that bind us together like it did in the case of A.B Combs Elementary School where the teachers, student and parents provided continuous support to the students both at home and school.
All the best,
John Meredith
The Learning Center - A UK partner of Franklin Covey

Tags: film, leadership, partnership, school