5 Ways to Root Your School in Virtue

Living the virtues in your daily “school” life is meaningful for students throughout their day, from classroom time and attention to homework, to social interactions and, of course, their faith journey and growth.  

This way of life supports a school’s mission to educate the whole child.  

Here are 5 ways to successfully root your school in virtue:  

1. Ensure that the teachers and all adults in the building are well trained, have the right vocabulary, and have all the materials they need to feel well informed and prepared for their students.  

2. Include the parents and community/shareholders. The students will benefit more from a virtue program if they hear it all around them. For example, have weekly/biweekly/monthly communication to parents in different forms (e.g., social media, family bulletin, Back to School Night, things you can send home). 

3. Pray together as a staff. Pray for virtue, and pray for help with infusing virtue into your classrooms and school building!  

4. Integrate the virtues into your staff faith formation, your school awards, and visuals throughout the building. Make the virtues accessible to the students all around their school.  

5. DIVE IN and BE AUTHENTIC! If you are excited about the program, the kids will feed off of that excitement! 

On a personal note, here at O’Hara Catholic School, we are in year two of implementing Education in Virtue. We are absolutely loving the program in every way! Our staff sincerely appreciates the materials that the Education in Virtue program offers, as they are very “teacher friendly” and easy to implement. Additionally, working with Sister John Dominic is a true blessing, and her unconditional devotion to our faith and to the development of our students is priceless. 

Tammy Conway is principal at O’Hara Catholic School in Eugene, OR, and they have been using Education in Virtue for two years.