The School Helping Business

Q: “So, tell me, what business is the in?“

A: Truth be told, for the past five years, our team at the Hyde Institute has been so focused on designing, developing, explaining, promoting, and implementing our current core program, the…

… that I don’t think we realized that we’re actually in the… School Helping Business.

Q: What does that mean?  A: We help schools develop and nurture great community cultures.

In fact, one nationally respected character educator refers to Hyde as “a strength and conditioning coach for school culture.” (Although I’ve been known to bristle at various public characterizations of Hyde, I can get behind this one.) Looking back, our body of work includes the development of four dynamic proven programs to help schools “strengthen and condition” their cultures. A thumbnail summary of each one follows:

1) The Discovery Process

Discovery is a school culture “strength and conditioning” program proven to inspire students, teachers, and whole school communities to strive together to be the best versions of themselves. Teachers have 24-7 on-line access to over 130 teacher-facing character-based lessons organized among 25 character-themed modules.

The Discovery Process exists to help any school attain and continuously embody five signature benefits:

1.  Students feel safe and cared for with a sense of connection to school and one another.
2.  They exhibit better coping skills in day-to-day interactions with both peers and adults.
3.  A synergistic rapport between younger and older students.
4.  Advancements in learning due to positive learning attitudes and sharper concentration.
5.  Enriched teachers due to the impact of the Hyde Discovery Process in their own lives.

Teachers are supported by over ten hours of training and guidance that includes 133 PPT slides and 50+ instructional videos. The teacher-training component is in two parts. Part #1 focuses on the philosophy of the Discovery Process and kicks off with this slide:

Part #2 focuses more on the nuts & bolts of implementation and ranges from daily/weekly schedule models to teacher buy-in strategies. Here is a slide from Part #2:

As extensive as the training is, a superintendent of schools of a Pennsylvania Discovery Process school district cautions, “But remember, it’s a culture, not a program.” I might translate that observation this way: You can’t just do it, you have to live it. In any case, the Discovery Process helps schools both design and nurture an inspiring school culture. (FMI, see Culture by Design – The Discovery Process as a New Way for Schools – Rowman, Littlefield – 2023)

2.  College Success Guaranteed 

“CSG” is a college readiness workshop program for both college-bound high school seniors and their parents. These workshops are offered annually in the spring of the academic year — i.e., after students have faced (and endured!) the pressures, anxieties, the dreaded waiting, and the actual admissions decisions. We have found that once students and families have settled on where they are going to enroll, they are more likely to be open to internalizing a plan for how to ensure success.

The two books and corresponding workshop offers 2 separate sets of rules for students and their parents. Part #1, the student portion, focuses on the 5 Rules explained in detail in the book College Success Guaranteed – 5 Rules to Make it Happen (Rowman Littlefield, 2011).

Then, transitioning to the parents, Part #2 outlines the 5 Rules for parents described in College Success 2.0 – 5 Rules for Parents – Rowman Littlefield, 2014).

Workshops have been conducted separately for seniors and parents as well as all together at once. In some cases, CSG staff professionals will remain on campus for an extra day of voluntary one-on-one consultations with seniors and/or their parents to develop more individualized strategies.

3. The Biggest Job (We’ll Ever Have) 

“TBJ” is an interactive parent workshop that brings parents into the mix of that Discovery Process culture, extending it out beyond the gates of the school and into the home. The Biggest Job book and workshop focuses on Ten Priorities…

… introducing parents and their children to a common language proven to help students, teachers, and parents work together on the same page. See The Biggest Job We’ll Ever Have – The Hyde School Program for Character-Based Education and Parenting – Scribner, 2002. (Note: A Mandarin Chinese translation was published in 2018.)

4. Public Speaking

At Hyde School, where I have taught, coached, and “administrated” for over 45 years, students devote one double-period a week to public speaking.

This workshop-based program expands upon the “Find Your Voice” module in the Discovery Process program. Beyond writing and delivering prepared speeches, the program challenges students to develop their extemporaneous speech capabilities, resulting in greater personal self-confidence as well as, according to some of our alumni, increased effectiveness in future job interviews! (Contact me for a copy of the Hyde School Public Speaking Program Manual, 2021.)

Would love to discuss how some of these programs might enrich the culture at your school. Feel free to email me — mgauld@hyde.edu — to set up a call or Zoom.

Onward, Malcolm Gauld