When a parent phones a school to ask, “What are you teaching my child?” it can be a hold-your-breath moment for the receiver. “He just called me ‘ma’am,’” the parent says. Then it’s clearly, positively, an Early Act First Knight situation.
That’s just one among many anecdotes “Lady” Amber Parr used as an example of how this educational program is building character in student programs throughout Texas and beyond. Early Act First Knight brings the chivalric tradition of courtly knights and ladies to life in student assemblies and classrooms of participating public schools. The curriculum is teaching and acknowledging how important it is to act with kindness, empathy, honesty and respect for others; to be truthful and fair. If this sounds a lot like the Rotary Four-Way Test, it is central to the EAFK curriculum. Each month a theme focus is introduced, and each day there is at least 5 minutes spent in the classroom from Kindergarten to 5th-Grade discussing this trait.
“Learning right from wrong. Learning why do we need to have empathy, to be generous and helpful?” Parr said.
Ages 5 to 12 are primetime for social-emotional learning, research shows. “It’s the most impactful age. By age 12, ideas of what’s right and wrong are set,” Parr said.
Randall Parr, Amber’s husband who is founder of EAFK, knows well the challenges of changing behavior in adults. A retired U.S. Naval Officer and chaplain for both Navy and Marine Corps commands, he taught core values in boot camp in weeks-long leadership training sessions of thousands of sailors and Marines. Upon leaving active duty for the Reserves, he took a prototype of the program called The Knight Life to schools throughout Oklahoma. Soon educators were requesting from him age-appropriate curriculum that complied with various state guidelines on character education (Social/Emotional Learning), and the program grew from there.