An Introduction

Vision Statement

The story of the Good Samaritan and the question, “Who is my neighbor?” orients our work and our educational focus.  This is a universal story found in the writings of both ancient and contemporary cultures. It teaches a way of peaceful living rooted in care for our neighbor.

At every level in our Good Neighbors community, this program will bring together  volunteers, community partners, college interns, and area children; we will be learning through doing, learning to be good neighbors as we practice becoming neighbors and friends to each other and those we reach out to serve. 

Nature of the Curriculum

The Good Neighbors Curriculum is designed to nurture Good Neighbor skills and values while promoting a commitment to learning and positive self-identity within children. Four characteristics point to the nature of the curriculum.

1. Values-based – the curriculum teaches values common to religious and non-religious groups: caring, fairness, integrity, honesty, responsibility, restraint, respect for self and others.
2. Asset-building[1] – the curriculum seeks to build skills and assets in children that will help them flourish, including positive identity, a commitment to learning, decision making, motivation to make a difference, and peaceful conflict resolution skills.
3. Expanding Circles of Care – the curriculum promotes an awareness of our interrelatedness with and responsibility for others near and far, including our relation with the natural world.  The four week curriculum sequences attention to self, family, community, and world – our four expanding circles of care.
4. Community-based Learning – the curriculum supports and is supported by a learning community of college interns, volunteers, and children, surrounded by a community partnership of churches, schools, and civic organizations.  Life together in a learning community becomes the curriculum itself, where values, assets, and awareness of expanding circles of care are learned through stories and shared practices. 

Teaching Good Neighbor Values and Skills through Stories

Each week the curriculum builds activities and lessons around a richly textured story. 

The central story of the week becomes the creative backdrop for children to reflect on relationships in their expanding circles of care as we teach Good Neighbor values and skills. 

Storytellers will be guided to remind children that all religious and cultural groups have special stories that help to teach us how to live with each other.  We can learn from the beloved stories of our neighbors from other cultures.  The basic value of respect for self and others are discovered in the central teaching stories of every group.

Teaching Good Neighbor Values and Skills in our Community through: Daily Practices, Service Learning, Circles of Kindness[2], and Restorative Justice Practices[3].

We teach children not only through stories but also through the ways we live together.  The Good Neighbors Curriculum is designed to help interns and volunteers practice what the curriculum seeks to teach, making methods consistent with desired outcomes.  The following methodologies for teaching-learning and for peace-building within community serve to foster Good Neighbor values and skills.

Daily Practices: Nurturing Character Development in Children 

The Good Neighbor Curriculum views character development as a natural dimension of our humanity that supports well-being in children and equips them to live peaceful and responsible lives. Character development, therefore, should be nurtured in positive ways.  Daily practices within a community setting help to build community and nuture this development.   

Character growth can be nurtured by music, art, nature, and community practices that promote sensitivity to the wonder of life and the interconnection of all living things.

In daily, simple practices of reflection, expressing gratitude and circles of kindness, the Good Neighbor Curriculum is designed to support children as they examine the characteristics of Good Neighbors.

Service-learning   Service-learning is an educational approach that emphasizes learning through serving.  Children gain confidence and world experience as they engage in service that impacts both the local and the global community.  Projects that enable the children to serve others, will give them direct experience in being good neighbors.

Circles of Kindness   A circle of Kindness involves a peacemaking process which draws on Native American tradition.  This process has been used in schools to solve behavior problems and create positive climates.  An approach to community building that hinges on storytelling, circle processes engage children in becoming problem solvers as they listen to others and tell their own story.

Restorative Justice Practices  “Restorative Justice is a process to engage, to the extent possible, those who have a stake in a specific offense and to collectively identify and address harms, needs, and obligations in order to heal and put things as right as possible.” (from The Little Book of Restorative Justice by Howard Zehr)