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COURIER photo/Gabriel Fenoyl
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| Retired Foothill Country Day School teacher Cherry Donaldson still finds time to play piano for students during their early morning chapel session. |
A unique way to start the day
Upon first glance, the word “chapel” would seem to imply a venue where church services take place and weddings ceremonies are conducted. Yet to hold the meaning of the word to simply those two functions would take away a significant amount of what the term means for Foothill Country Day School.
There is plenty that takes place within the 25 minutes that comprises the school’s morning chapel that helps set the tone for the students—not only for the school day, but throughout the school year as well.
“It brings everybody together and it is one of my favorite times of the day,” said Foothill Country Day School Headmaster Mark Lauria.
A typical chapel service at Foothill begins with the students walking into the school’s auditorium to an entrance theme played by either retired Foothill Country Day School music teacher Cherry Donaldson or a student. From there, a student chapel leader leads the participants in The Pledge of Allegiance and follows up with a prayer before the students sing a song.
After the song comes the discussion portion where either a student or staff member gives a presentation on topics of ethics and morality. The chapel time then concludes with announcements and a final song as students exit to their respective classrooms.
“It’s a good way to start off the day and it’s a good idea,” said Foothill 5th grader Eddie Bachoura, who gave a presentation on the topic of kindness on Thursday. “It also gives you a deeper understanding about things related to life.”
There are two chapel services held each school morning with the first one involving the school’s 4th through 8th graders and the second consisting of the kindergarten through 3rd graders. The upper-grade chapel is fully student-led from beginning to end with the students taking turns leading readings and discussions while the lower-grade chapel features is partially student-led and features talks from Headmaster Lauria and science teacher Jody Lawshe.
Being that the chapel program is not centered on academics, what students such as Eddie take away each morning are ways to build on their character. Right outside the school auditorium are the Josephson Institute’s 6 Pillars of Character—trustworthiness, respect, responsibility, fairness, caring, citizenship—which play a key role as themes for the chapel program through.
A variety of sources are used for the presentations. For example, Headmaster Lauria uses Old Testament stories from the Bible as a model to teach the lower graders about character while the upper graders are encouraged to integrate various sources into their presentations as well. Students are also welcome to use texts based on their personal religious beliefs such as the Bible, Torah and Qur’an.
“Part of our mission is about character and character development,” Headmaster Lauria said. “That starts in chapel. Regarding our students’ religious beliefs, they are very comfortable bringing them into the school and we want them to be comfortable doing so.” (story continues below)
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COURIER photo/Gabriel Fenoy
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| Foothill Country Day School science teacher Jody Lawshe leads a discussion about building character during morning chapel service. |
Ms. Lawshe, who presents to the K-3 students every Thursday, uses a variety of activities in order to engage the students while talking about moral topics. Recently, she spoke to the students about caring and used a heart made out of construction paper as an example of how words can either help or injure a person’s heart.
Along with presentations to the lower graders is a Star Program that rewards students for exhibiting the traits of good character.
“We have a good time on Thursdays,” Ms. Lawshe said. “What we do ranges from role playing to telling stories but what we’re getting across is how to have good character.”
Character development is not the only component that makes the chapel program an integral part of Foothill. It is during chapel that students learn about and discuss various cultures, become more aware of global issues, are exposed to the works of multiple artists and enhance their public speaking skills through giving oral presentations.
The student presenters are given feedback following their presentation, first from their peers and then from their teachers. The feedback leads to the students showing improvement each time they present.
“Chapel teaches you to be organized and talk in front of a crowd,” said 6th grader Violet Salazar.
Formerly a student at Mountain View Elementary School, Violet spent most of her elementary school years starting each day in class, working on an assignment or preparing for a test. When she became a student at Foothill more than a year ago, she found herself astonished at how the private school begins each day with chapel rather than going straight into schoolwork once the school day begins.
“It was really different because you don’t get something like this in a public school,” Violet explained. “In chapel, you learn about the stuff that is going on [in the world] and what you learn helps you to be a better person. Sometimes you take away something that you’ll think about throughout the whole day.”
—Landus Rigsby
