At the start of each week, the St. Joseph’s School Knights gather in the gym for Monday Morning Meeting. During this meeting, one special class receives a banner. This isn’t a reward for stellar quiz scores, athletic achievements, or pristine attendance. It’s recognition for something harder to measure yet integral to our mission—a virtuous character.
Maybe a teacher noticed the way their students banded together to navigate a conflict, support a peer through hardship, or patiently grapple with difficult lessons. Whatever it was, it made the teacher stop and think: This is what we’re all about here at SJS.
The Lifelong Guidelines & Skills Program
We’ve spent the past two decades building a culture of virtue at St. Joseph’s with the Lifelong Guidelines & Skills Program. Created by Susan Kovalik, this framework is grounded in brain biology and focuses on building character, establishing boundaries, and setting personal expectations. The program supports the cultivation of something that Principal Sills loves to emphasize with our students: the importance of striving for one’s personal best.
The Lifelong Guidelines & Skills Program gives us a clear-cut vocabulary for the sometimes abstract work of becoming a good person. Instead of being told to simply “be nice” or “work hard,” our students are taught to identify concrete traits in themselves and others that support the formation of virtuous behavior.
The Lifelong Guidelines are made up of five foundational principles:
- Trustworthiness
- Truthfulness
- Active Listening
- No Put-Downs
- Personal Best
The Personal Best Guideline is formed by eighteen Life Skills that students can identify and turn to in different situations. When students are familiar with these skills, excellence is no longer a lofty concept. It’s the result of specific responses to specific situations.
These Life Skills range from courage to organization to common sense. Even a sense of humor finds a home on this list. One student’s personal best in math might require perseverance. In their friendships, it might require flexibility. Some skills are highly active, like initiative, while others, like curiosity, are more receptive. A virtuous character goes deeper than being a nice kid: it’s well-rounded, adaptable, and thoughtful.
Daily Practice
It’s not just Monday Morning Meetings—at St. Joseph’s, every morning is an opportunity to boost our students’ morale. Deanna Pham, St. Joseph’s guidance counselor, highlights one Life Skill or Lifelong Guideline daily during morning announcements.
“I highlight and discuss one of them each week, and about every five weeks there is a review week where students are challenged to guess which one is being reviewed each morning,” writes Deanna. This kind of reinforcement and challenge helps students internalize these lessons and apply them to real life. At the end of every quarter, Principal Sills presents a “Personal Best Award” to two students, further highlighting the many ways this Guideline can present in our community.
When teachers nominate their classes for the banner at Monday Morning Meeting, they are asked to identify specific reasons for the nomination. These reasons are discussed and celebrated, allowing every Knight to see exactly how these skills are being lived out in the St. Joseph’s community and why they’re worthy of praise.
Living Out Our Faith
This research-based program offers practical tools to encourage young hearts to be trustworthy, truthful individuals who honor the dignity of others, engage thoughtfully, and show up with integrity, making the most of the circumstances. Our students are learning, day by day, what it means to do the next right thing. Their personal best isn’t about being better than someone else, but about being faithful to what they know is good, honest, and true. At St. Joseph’s, we believe the best education forms not only the mind, but the heart.
