Six years ago, students at Birch Meadow Elementary School (Reading, Massachusetts) were polite to adults, but callous and uncaring toward each other. Today, thanks to a "Just Community" approach modeled on Lawrence Kohlberg's philosophy, students feel a sense of school ownership and responsibility for their classmates. (MLH)

Educating students about character development and responsibility can and should be an integral part of the academic curriculum. This collection contains units of study that were written to exemplify some of the many ways that these themes might be taught in preK-12 Massachusetts classrooms. Using the standards of the Massachusetts Curriculum…