Deliberate Honor

We are living in a time of increasingly active student voices. Students arrange protests, form societies to further their causes, develop messages, and fight to change laws they find unjust. As educators, our place in these movements is one of support. How can we help prepare young people to cope with the enormous responsibility that comes with taking on essential roles in social movements, spanning from #marchforourlives to environmental reform? How can schools better teach students to be civil and live with integrity?

Daniel R. Venables has been teaching in classrooms for more than 20 years, and has coached educators in hundreds of schools. What he’s found is that classroom time is so overburdened in meeting curriculum standards, there is little space for students to develop the key citizenry skills they need to succeed with decency. . . and most schools cannot live up to the mission statements they post in the front office.

Student-Run Honor Councils are the most effective way to change that. This book will guide you through the why, what, and how of developing a Student-Run Honor Council in your school, coming from someone who helped his students build their own council from the ground up. There’s no better way to help kids grow into people living with deliberate honor.