Back seen his future as"jail, not college DiBattista remembers his first days at hyde <Wheni came here i insulted and cursed everybody. Every other school was, 'Get out, we don't want to deal with you.'I came here and they said, ' We kind of like that spirit. we dont like it with the negative attitudes we want to turn that spirit positive.Where Principles Come First The Hyde School operates on the principle that if you teach students the merit of such values as truth, courage, integrity, leadership, curiosity and concern, then academic achievement naturally follows. Hyde School founder Joseph Gauld claims success with the program at the $18,000-a-year high school in Bath, Maine, which has received considerable publicity for its work with troubled youngsters. “We don’t see ourselves as a school for a type of kid,” says Malcolm Gauld, Joseph’s son, who graduated from Hyde and is now headmaster. “We see ourselves as preparing kids for a way of life — by cultivating a comprehensive set of principles that can affect all kids.” Now, Joe Gauld is trying to spread his controversial Character First idea to public, inner-city schools willing to use the tax dollars spent on the traditional program for the new approach. The first Hyde public school program opened in September 1992. Within months the program was suspended. Teachers protested the program’s demands and the strain associated with more intense work. This fall, the Hyde Foundation is scheduled to begin a preliminary public school program in Baltimore. Teachers will be trained to later work throughout the entire Baltimore system. Other US school managers are eyeing the program, too. Last fall, the Hyde Foundation opened a magnet program within a public high school in the suburbs of New Haven, Connecticut, over parents’ protests. The community feared the school would attract inner-city minority and troubled students. As in Maine the quest for truth is also widespread at the school in Connecticut. In one English class, the 11 students spend the last five minutes in an energetic exchange evaluating their class performance for the day on a 1-10 scale. “I get a 10.” “I challenge that. You didn’t do either your grammar or your spelling homework.” “OK, a seven.” “You ought to get a six.” “Wait, I put my best effort forth here.” “Yeah, but you didn’t ask questions today.” Explaining his approach to education, Joe Gauld says the conventional education system cannot be reformed. He notes “no amount of change” with the horse and carriage “will produce an automobile”. The Hyde School assumes “every human being has a unique potential” that is based on character, not intelligence or wealth. Conscience and hard work are valued. Success is measured by growth, not academic achievement. Students are required to take responsibility for each other. To avoid the controversy of other character programs used in US schools, Gauld says the concept of doing your best has nothing to do with forcing the students to accept a particular set of morals or religious values. The Hyde curriculum is similar to conventional schools that provide preparation for college, complete with English, history, math and science. But all students are required to take performing arts and sports, and provide a community service. For each course, students get a grade for academic achievement and for “best effort”. At Bath, 97% of the graduates attend four-year colleges. Commitment among parents is a key ingredient in the Hyde mixture. For the student to gain admission, parents also must agree to accept and demonstrate the school’s philosophies and outlook. The parents agree in writing to meet monthly in one of 20 regional groups, go to a yearly three-day regional retreat, and spend at least three times a year in workshops, discussion groups and seminars at Bath. Parents of Maine students have an attendance rate of 95% in the many sessions. Joe and Malcolm Gauld both say children tend to do their utmost when they see their parents making similar efforts. The biggest obstacle for many parents, they say, is to realize their own weaknesses. The process for public school parents is still being worked out, with a lot more difficulty because it is difficult to convince parents that it is worthwhile for them to participate. Of the 100 students enrolled in New Haven, about 30% of the parents attend special meetings. The low attendance is in spite of commitments they made at the outset of the program when Hyde officials interviewed 300 families. Once the problems are worked out, Hyde should work well in public schools, says a teacher at Bath who taught for 14 years in public schools. He is optimistic that once parents make a commitment to the program, they will be daily role models for their children, unlike parents whose children are in boarding schools. One former inner-city high school teacher who now works in the New Haven program, says teachers also benefit. “Here we really begin to focus on having a fruitful relationship with each student. Our focus is really about teacher to student and then we together deal with the … academics. In the traditional high school setting, it’s teacher to the material and then to the student.” The teacher-student relationship is taken even further at Hyde. Faculty evaluations are conducted by the students. Jimmy DiBattista, 19, is amazed he will graduate this May from the Bath campus and plans to attend a university. Years ago, he had seen his future as “jail, not college”. DiBattista remembers his first days at Hyde. “When I came here, I insulted and cursed everybody. Every other school was, ‘Get out, we don’t want to deal with you.’ I came here and they said, ‘We kind of like that spirit . We don’t like it with the negative attitudes. We want to turn that spirit positive.’” Back