By Tom Black

There are laws that apply to building bridges, laws of mathematics, structure and dimension, stress points and balance. But when bridges are necessary to create harmony across cultural, ethnic or racial lines, laws of the land don't accomplish nearly as much as spiritual laws written on the heart.

The Plymouth-Canton school district in suburban Detroit had a problem. Respect for races and cultures was losing its presence in the social fabric of the schools. There was, instead, evidence of growing disrespect along racial and ethnic lines.

The question was, "What could be done?" The need for greater harmony was vital to the social progress of the students. The events of September 11 and their aftermath had evidenced a complete lack of understanding and respect. How can schools teach peaceful co-existence and appreciation of all people?

They saw the racial crisis as a moral issue.
 
The answer that the school administration in Plymouth-Canton came up with was a departure from the usual lectures by law enforcement or mental health professionals. They saw the racial crisis as a moral issue that needed a moral solution that would appeal to the hearts of teachers and staff.

Dr. James Ryan, deputy superintendent, felt the need to bring more harmony to that community's diversity. So after some investigation of the situation, he engaged writer and ethical consultant, Clifton L. Taulbert, of Tulsa, Oklahoma, to conduct an in-service training day on the subject. Ryan scheduled it for Martin Luther King Day in order for people to make the connection between the leader of the civil rights movement and the need for peaceful change. The purpose of the training, according to Ryan, was to "discuss and celebrate diversity." And it was a "wonderful" success, he said.

"Eight Habits of the Heart."
 
Taulbert's message to the teachers and administrators was based on his book, "Eight Habits of the Heart: The Timeless Values that Build Strong Communities"--within our homes and our lives.

In a phone interview, Taulbert explained that he first thought of naming his book "Eight Gifts of the Heart." But he felt that gifts could be left on the shelf. He wanted to communicate his deep conviction that communities can be built and strengthened when moral qualities such as dependability, friendship, brotherhood, courage and hope are consciously cultivated. He said that when those moral qualities are ingrained in a community's heart, they are beyond personal gifts or even habits of the mind; they become active patterns in daily life that enrich, strengthen and protect the community.

Gail McMahon is a seventh and eighth grade language arts and communications teacher in the Plymouth-Canton school district. She attended the teacher/staff in-service training day, and said it was "absolutely phenomenal, terrific."

But Gail felt something deeper in the workshop than the promotion of moral qualities among students and teachers. "Community support for the school administration hasn't recently expressed as much of those qualities as was needed in order for the community to have a diversity that is natural, easy, and even happy."

Moral qualities don't stand on their own.
 
The "something deeper" Gail felt is that moral qualities don't stand on their own. Gail said they stem from and gain their strength from eternal spiritual values. To Gail, their basis is divine Love, God. She said, "I feel the workshop helped us all recognize the power of good in the quality of love in ourselves and to express it more in our daily lives. In a way, I felt a divine message at the workshop."

There was another message for Gail that day: to expect good in and from others. She said the tendency in much of education, as she has observed it, is to measure students' abilities and therefore their life-prospects according to the very narrow standards of the classroom. She never has liked that tendency. But at the workshop she heard Taulbert say, "You are marked for good and I expect great things out of you." Gail loved this idea.

Taulbert said he learned that message in his own childhood from the adults around him, like Ma Ponk, Mama Pearl, Poppa, Uncle Abe Brown, Uncle Cleve the iceman, Mr. Johnson the school janitor, and a host of others in his little close-knit African-American community of Glen Allan in the Mississippi Delta.

A collective dream that each one had to work out individually.
 
He writes in his book, "High expectations were commonplace in our community. They fueled all our dreams." He said those dreams were bigger than individuals in the community. They were a collective dream that each one had to work out individually.

"The adults of our community told us daily that we were of value and that big things were expected of us," he said. "Even now I feel compelled to do my best--not just for the people I encounter each day, but also for those foundational people who believed in me when no one else did. In spite of legal segregation, racism, and poverty, they believed in their children and also in themselves."

Speaking of those who influenced him this way, Taulbert said, "They took a giant spiritual leap into a world we could not see, but that they knew awaited us. They said we were marked for good, and I believed them."

Nearly one thousand teachers attended.
 
According to Gail and Superintendent Ryan, the Plymouth-Canton in-service day of training was successful. Nearly one thousand teachers attended. Each was given a coupon for a free book on the subject of diversity. Each teacher or staff member attended any two of 50 break-out sessions on a range of subjects such as: harassment, First Amendment rights, Mexicans in America, the culture of India, Islam, back to basics, Anne Frank, Buddhism, etc. According to Gail, a feeling of approval and hope permeated the sessions.

Ryan reported that since the workshop, teachers have taken its messages to their dance, art and other classes. The messages are being integrated into character education programs and into orientation sessions for new teachers, staff and administrators, many of them new to the job. This has given the district an unusual opportunity for diversity development. Also sessions are being conducted for parents on cultural awareness and appreciation.

Indications are that when an honest, earnest effort is made in a situation where expectation of success is reasonable, progress in harmonious diversity is possible. Gail said, "I think this is evidence of divine Love working in all of us."