Product reviews for From My Heart

Neil Hawkes has been working at developing a values-based education for the last 30 years as a teacher, head teacher, local authority administrator and consultant. He is the founder of the Living Values Network, which has affiliates around the world. The book is widely endorsed by influential educators from around the world. It is written very directly with the reader in mind and there are various points to pause and reflect throughout the text. Neil's basic mission is to inspire children and adults to be the best they can be and to adopt a practical living philosophy for life and education. The starting point for values-based education is flourishing and relationships. Neil draws on the work of Nel Noddings, with her moral vision of education as -˜nurturing the growth of competent, caring, loving and lovable people' beyond a curriculum based on verbal and mathematical achievement. The reader will notice that both performance and moral virtues are included here. This means that the teacher as role model is critical, especially as their words can either empower or disempower their pupils. Neil emphasises the importance of unconditional positive regard in the development of relational trust.

He defines a value as a principle that guides our thinking and behaviour involving both reflection and practice, especially in positions of leadership. The rest of the book is devoted to an exposition of the ten focuses of values-based education: a focus on the environment, atmosphere and routines, a focus on you, a focus on your relationships, a focus on adopting reflective practices, a focus on ethical vocabulary, a focus on being a role model for values, a focus on school assemblies, a focus on the school's curriculum and its leadership, a focus on community and finally a focus on values assessment. There are plenty of examples drawn from schools around the world and these chapters provide invaluable advice for any principal trying to embed a values-based approach in their schools. There are simple recommendations like the wording of signs, the importance of pausing to be and especially of fostering trust. Many of us suffer from what Neil calls TBD - too busy disorder - stress leading to strains on relationships and consequent misunderstandings.

The responsibility of the leader of the school is primarily for its values, vision, culture, philosophy and practice. It is these that mark out a values-based school in a qualitative fashion. Neil goes further by referring to the development of greater consciousness, which he defines as awareness with a purpose. At the end of each chapter there are points to ponder and applied to answer situation. This important and inspiring book is a conversation between the author and the reader, but also a conversation of the reader with him or herself. One is left in no doubt of the importance of embracing universal, positive values that transcend specific cultures and are ultimately a contribution that each of us can make. It is a simple but powerful message.