Columnist Susan Snyder: A lesson in Mustang morals

Friday, June 15, 2001 | 8:58 a.m.

Susan Snyder's column appears Fridays, Sundays and Tuesdays. Reach her at snyder@vegas.com or 259-4082.

For now, the sunshine plays alone on Joseph M. Neal Elementary School's playground.

Not the sun from the sky, the one painted on the asphalt. But when classes resume in August, the sidewalk sun will be filled each morning with Neal's 1,100 kindergarten through fifth graders.

They'll recite the Pledge of Allegiance, have a moment of silence, then recite the 20 skills their principal, Lee Douglass, hope they learn as children and practice as adults.

"A Joseph Neal Mustang," they begin, "is caring, curious, confident, cooperative, courageous ..."

The teaching world calls it "character education," a term that encompasses everything from citizenship classes to the Ten Commandments. Punch it into an Internet search engine and it pops up on 20,000 Web pages.

In North Carolina this week House members passed a measure to allow public schools to post the Ten Commandments.

Douglass' approach requires the participation of everyone in the school, from bus drivers to custodians to teachers and pupils. But it reaches everyone without excluding Hindus, Muslims, Buddhists and other non-Christians.

It revolves around the list of skills that Douglass compiled with the help of teachers at Oran Gragson Elementary School, where she was principal before moving to Neal two years ago.

"A Joseph Neal Mustang is flexible, friendly, honest, organized responsible, respectful ..."

Each skill is spotlighted for two weeks at a time throughout the year. Teachers work it into the curriculum. For instance, if a child presents a project to the class he or she also may explain which life skills they used in doing it.

School staffers carry special tickets. When a student exhibits one of the skills without being asked -- such as showing respect for a classmate by helping him pick up books or papers he dropped -- the student gets a ticket good for a pizza lunch with Douglass.

"A Joseph Neal Mustang is patient, motivated and shows initiative, effort, perseverence ..."

Douglass says "character education" are new buzzwords for something schools have been teaching kids for ages.

"I don't think it's because of the times we live in. I think it is something that has always been around," she said. "I think in a democracy these are the basic principles of being a responsible citizen."

She does concede that the teachings once happened mostly at home, during a time when most homes had two parents, one of which stayed home. Lifestyles weren't as strained for time.

Today's schools are strained for time, too. That's why Neal Elementary's morning ritual lasts less than 10 minutes and ends before the first bell. Instruction time isn't cut, and the children are settled down and ready to work without announcements or other interruptions.

"It takes all of us working together," Douglass said. "If we teach kids to be straight-A students but not to be responsible citizens, we've still failed society."

"A Joesph Neal Mustang has integrity, a sense of humor, is a problem-solver and uses common sense."

Yep, they do -- by example, from the top down.