More than 300 educators and administrators from throughout the United States and Canada gathered at the University of Utah recently to discuss ways to incorporate character education into K-12 curriculum.

Caring, respect, responsibility, trust and family — values that teachers at the four-day conference hope to integrate into their curriculum to bring about a more caring and responsible community in their schools.

The character education program, called Community of Caring, was established 22 years ago by Eunice Kennedy Shriver, sister of John F. Kennedy, who founded the Special Olympics movement in 1968 that has spread to nearly 1,000 schools in the United States and Canada.

"I think the country particularly is interested in character education because of all of the problems and differences we have . . . but character education comes into people's lives when they are thinking 'how can we get together, what can we work on together' — it's a tough one, but this is part of that," said Shriver, who attended part of the conference.

She said the program was started with two ideas in mind — to accent kids with special disabilities enabling them to build confidence and make responsible choices and to instill these core values in children earlier on.

Community of Caring is now a schoolwide, comprehensive and research-based program, involving students, teachers, bus drivers, custodians and administration. Its philosophy aims to enhance a school's culture and weave the five values into every aspect of school life.

The conference covered issues including discipline, social inclusions, preventing teen pregnancies, improving school climates and ways to teach the character values through literature.

In Utah the program is in place in Salt Lake City, Park City, Granite, Nebo, Duchesne and Washington school districts.

McKell Withers, superintendent for Salt Lake District, said Community of Caring has far-reaching effects.

As a high school principal, he saw annual decreases in crimes on campus every year as well as decreases in violence.

A 1991 Center for Health Policy study reported that in Community of Caring schools students earned higher grade point averages and students had reduced involvement in at-risk behaviors, such as teen pregnancy and the use of alcohol.

The program creates a framework and expectation for behavior that has a positive impact on many different levels and rewrites discipline to reflect the language of core values, Withers said. "Once kids start making connections on how their lives and the lives of others are positively impacted by identifying with these values it has incredible halo effect."

Salt Lake City and Salt Lake City School District formed a unique partnership earlier this spring in promoting the values through the YouthCity program and other city organizations. Shriver recognized the partnership and awarded Withers and Mayor Rocky Anderson with an Outstanding Partnership award Thursday.

Kristin Fink, the program's executive director, said Community of Caring schools seem to be a microcosm for the kind of country we want to be — one that cares for everybody and gives everyone a chance to be part of things.

"In a way," she said, "this whole notion of including all kids and serving their needs is really a metaphor for the larger work that we are trying to do — make certain everybody is at the table, is part of things — and to me it's really a metaphor for the kind of nation we want to be."

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