Character and Ethics

A Tale of O, the most popular video about diversity worldwide, is unique both in style and content. It shows the striking consequences of being "different" from the others around you - being an O among X's. The videotape illustrates dramatically how this alone powerfully affects both the X's treatment of an O and the O's view of itself, regardless of the nature of the difference. Whether the O differs from the X's by gender, race, age, language, age or other factors, the effects are similar.

The Blue-Eyed diversity training video or DVD offers viewers a chance to watch a full-length workshop with America's most dynamic diversity trainer, Jane Elliott. Elliott's exercise, initiated in 1968 as a ground-breaking experiment in anti-racist training, has been featured on Today, the Tonight Show, Donahue, Oprah, ABC News and PBS' Frontline. Elliott believes, Blue-Eyed is by far the most comprehensive and useful video on my work available; it sums up 28 years of experience in schools, universities and corporations."

Grade Level: 3-6. Follow the trail of gossip as it races through a school from child to child, leaving confusion and hurt feelings in its wake. This lively program uses dramatizations to help youngsters begin to consider and discuss how it feels to be the target of rumors and gossip.

Most people learn traditional standards of behavior and respect for others by the time they are teenagers-but many don't realize that those rules are just as valid in cyberspace. This program helps students take the high road on the information superhighway and avoid the temptations of the fast lane, pointing the way toward an ethically sound Internet presence and lifestyle. Guidelines for the use of intellectual property are featured, with emphasis on the consequences of illegal downloading, copyright infringement, and plagiarism. Pornography, gaming sites, chat rooms, and online social networks are also discussed, helping viewers steer clear of antisocial and abusive activities, especially cyber-bullying. Comments from experts, as well as questions from peers who are confused about the fine points of cyber legality, serve to clarify central ethical principles. A viewable/printable instructor's guide is available online. Correlates to National ISTE Technology Foundation Standards for Students. A Cambridge Educational Production. (14 minutes)

Grade Level: K-2

Show youngsters the power of integrity and honesty. Through true-to-life vignettes, children learn how doing the right thing not only benefits others, but gives them a sense of pride and self-respect . Includes 11 reproducible student worksheets on CD.

Is your self-esteem too high, too low, or just right? Do your actions reflect your values? How do you tell good peer pressure from bad peer pressure? Are the decisions you make bringing you closer to or further from your goals? This five-part series will help viewers address these issues by discussing simple, everyday ways to develop and maintain Goals, Self-Esteem, Values, and Decision-Making Skills, and deal with Peer Pressure. Interviews with experts and students show the importance of these five issues in daily life. Definitions, cultural history, and short- and long-term ramifications are covered to make viewers more aware and deliberate in the choices they make. These informative programs will show individuals how their everyday behavior will shape their future. A Cambridge Educational Production. 5-part series, 27-30 minutes each.

Sometimes positive and sometimes negative, peer pressure is a powerful force for molding behavior. How does it work? This program investigates the dynamics of subtle, overt, and group peer pressure, along with approaches to resisting persuasion to do irresponsible or antisocial things. The importance of reality checks-Is this what I really want?" "Is this who I am?"-is emphasized. A Cambridge Educational Production. (28 minutes)"

People talk a lot about values, but what exactly are they, and how do they work? This program answers both of those questions in detail, discussing how values are formed by upbringing, culture, socialization, and exposure to the media as well as how they function as standards for behavior. The dynamic interplay between individual and group values and the price of adhering to one's values are also explored. A Cambridge Educational Production. (30 minutes)

Following the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Jane Elliott, a third grade teacher in an all-white, all-Christian small town, wanted to teach her class what it feels like to be discriminated against based on a physical characteristic over which one has no control.

Sleepovers, camping trips, phone calls, and hanging out-all part of friends being friends. It's hard to imagine growing up without friends, but how do we manage to find those individuals? Why can some kids hook up in kindergarten and stay together all through school while others go through friends like used Kleenex? Viewers learn the basics of choosing friends as they follow new student Sara in her search for friends. Using vignettes and actual student interviews, we discover the elements of a healthy friendship as well as those negative qualities that can spell trouble. Choosing good friends who share your values and beliefs may be one of life's most important, yet least understood truths. (13 min.) A Meridian Production.

Gay, Straight & Accepted Life can get confusing for adolescents when they begin to develop sexual attractions. Through the perspective of straight teenagers, we meet students coming to terms with how they feel and dealing with the anxiety of "coming out." Noel became extremely depressed because she did not know how to deal with being a lesbian. We meet Sam, who is a victim of homophobic harassment. He overcomes the bullying by building a support team. In the end students will realize that sexual orientation should not be isolating.

Presented by the Shoah FoundationUsing video diaries and workshop discussions, today's teens explore issues of bias and tolerance in their own lives. Giving Voice weaves interviews with this diverse group of teenagers with the testimonies of Holocaust survivors and witnesses. Equipped with mini-DV cameras, seven young people document their surroundings at school and at home, with friends and family, and share their emotional responses to viewing survivor testimony. In the process, they make candid and poignant observations about the examples of intolerance and bigotry they see every day and offer eloquent examples of how each of them strives to take responsibility for building a better, more tolerant world.When young adults see the faces and hear the voices of men and women who suffered what others can only imagine, they make the connection between history and the moral choices they confront in their own lives, opening up the possibilities for profound change.Survivors of the ShoahAfter completing the Academy Award-winning film Schindler's List, Steven Spielberg established Survivors of the Shoah Visual History Foundation to preserve the testimonies of Holocaust survivors and witnesses. Ten years later, the Shoah Foundation has created Giving Voice, a new educational product for students. This is the legacy of Schindler's List: a vehicle for facilitating a dialogue" between students and the testimonies, this extraordinary three-part set is an immensely powerful tool for launching a meaningful discussion about the causes and effects of hatred and prejudice.Student Video Diaries & WorkshopThis half-hour reality TV-style video illustrates how the participants grew, changed, and rethought their own closely held assumptions over the course of the filming project and the daylong workshop that brought it all together. The video weaves student video diaries with first-person, primary-source interviews with Holocaust survivors and witnesses. (25 minutes)Survivor & Witness First-Person TestimoniesThis video, a compilation of the actual testimonies the students watched, can be used as a part of an in-class re-creation of the workshop-or on its own to deliver a transformative experience that will open eyes, minds, and hearts. (43 minutes)Standards-Driven Teacher's GuideThis modular, standards-driven teacher's guide provides educators with all the materials they will need to utilize both videos to maximum effect-and, if desired, to conduct the entire student workshop in their own classrooms. Ideal for curriculums involving character development, conflict mediation, and human rights. (36 pages)"

Presented by the Shoah FoundationUsing video diaries and workshop discussions, today's teens explore issues of bias and tolerance in their own lives. Giving Voice weaves interviews with this diverse group of teenagers with the testimonies of Holocaust survivors and witnesses. Equipped with mini-DV cameras, seven young people document their surroundings at school and at home, with friends and family, and share their emotional responses to viewing survivor testimony. In the process, they make candid and poignant observations about the examples of intolerance and bigotry they see every day and offer eloquent examples of how each of them strives to take responsibility for building a better, more tolerant world.When young adults see the faces and hear the voices of men and women who suffered what others can only imagine, they make the connection between history and the moral choices they confront in their own lives, opening up the possibilities for profound change.Survivors of the Shoah Visual History FoundationAfter completing the Academy Award-winning film Schindler's List, Steven Spielberg established Survivors of the Shoah Visual History Foundation to preserve the testimonies of Holocaust survivors and witnesses. Ten years later, the Shoah Foundation has created Giving Voice, a new educational product for students. This is the legacy of Schindler's List: a vehicle for facilitating a dialogue" between students and the testimonies, this extraordinary three-part set is an immensely powerful tool for launching a meaningful discussion about the causes and effects of hatred and prejudice.Student Video Diaries & WorkshopThis half-hour reality TV-style video illustrates how the participants grew, changed, and rethought their own closely held assumptions over the course of the filming project and the daylong workshop that brought it all together. The video weaves student video diaries with first-person, primary-source interviews with Holocaust survivors and witnesses. (25 minutes)Survivor & Witness First-Person TestimoniesThis video, a compilation of the actual testimonies the students watched, can be used as a part of an in-class re-creation of the workshop-or on its own to deliver a transformative experience that will open eyes, minds, and hearts. (43 minutes)Standards-Driven Teacher's GuideThis modular, standards-driven teacher's guide provides educators with all the materials they will need to utilize both videos to maximum effect-and, if desired, to conduct the entire student workshop in their own classrooms. Ideal for curriculums involving character development, conflict mediation, and human rights. (36 pages)"

Grade Level: 6+ Addresses the problem of rumors and gossip and the speed with which they circulate through an entire school, often becoming exaggerated along the way. Using realistic scenarios, this program details the heartache, and frustration rumors can cause, then follows up each scenario with thought-provoking questions to give viewers opportunities to talk about a problem so painful to and prevalent among middle school and high school students.

Angry at Dave for teasing him, Phil tell Latasha that Dave cheated on a test, gossip that spreads quickly throughout the school. When Gabby fails to make the soccer team but Sara does, she puts out word that Sara got picked only because her father contributed money to the team. These and other vignettes help students understand the impact of rumors and gossip.

The teen years are a time of experimenting with identity, but along with that search for self come major decisions about what groups to fit into—and how to fit into them. This video explores peer group influences; how they can cause young people to change their attitudes, values, or behaviors in order to conform; and what can be done to avoid their pitfalls. Topics include positive, negative, direct, and indirect peer pressure; cultural forces, especially media-driven ones, that push the desire to be a “star” instead of making a genuine journey of self-discovery; and media stereotypes of what it means to be attractive, smart, or successful. The program also looks at how friendship groups can become cliques, how low self-esteem leads some people to manipulate or intimidate others to fit in, and how peer pressure, as pervasive as it is, can be countered with honesty, self-expression, and self-knowledge. A viewable/printable instructor’s guide is available online. A Cambridge Educational Production. Part of the series Combating Conflict with Character. (30 minutes)