The purpose of opening Hyde Middle School is that if you teach students the virtues of seeking truth, courage, integrity, leadership, curiosity and caring for others, students' academic performance will naturally improve. Joseph Gauld, the founder of the school, claimed that its teaching was very successful. Hyde Middle School is located in Bath, Maine. Its annual tuition fee is as high as $654.38 +0.8 million. It is famous for its excellent teaching of juvenile problems.

Malcolm Gauld said, "We don't think of ourselves as a school for a certain kind of children. He is Joseph's son, graduated from Hyde Middle School, and is now the headmaster of Hyde Middle School. "We regard it as our duty to help children cultivate a lifestyle by advocating a set of values that can affect all children."

Now, Joseph Gauld is trying to spread his controversial idea of "Morality First" to public schools in the old city. These schools are willing to use the taxes used for traditional teaching programs to implement this new teaching method. The first lesson plan of Hyde College began in September, 1992. But a few months later, the plan was suspended. Teachers protested against the high demand of teaching plan and the pressure brought by high-intensity work.

This fall, the Hyde Foundation plans to launch a preliminary public school teaching program in Baltimore. Teachers should be trained so that they can be competent in the whole Baltimore system in the future. The leaders of other American schools are also paying attention to this teaching plan. Last autumn, amid protests from parents, Hyde Foundation launched a remarkable teaching program in a middle school in the suburb of New Haven, Connecticut. Local residents are worried that the school may recruit minority students and problem students in the old city.

As in Maine, in this middle school in Connecticut, the pursuit of truth is widely respected. In an English class, 1 1 had a heated discussion in the last five minutes, and evaluated each other's classroom performance that day according to the scoring standard of 1- 10.

"I got 10."

"I have opinions. You didn't do grammar homework or spelling exercises. "

"Well, seven points."

"You can only get 6 points."

"Wait, I've tried my best."

"Yes, but you didn't ask questions today."

When Joe Gauld explained his educational methods, he pointed out that the traditional educational system should not only be reformed. He said that "no matter how to reform", it is impossible to reform cars with horses and carriages. Hyde Middle School believes that "everyone has his own unique potential", which is based on personality rather than intelligence or wealth. Conscience and hard work are respected. The measure of success is continuous progress, not academic performance. Students must be responsible for each other. In order to avoid the controversy caused by other character training programs used in American middle schools, Gauld explained that the concept of "going all out" is not to force students to accept certain moral principles or religious concepts.

The courses offered by Hyde Middle School are similar to those prepared by traditional schools for college entrance, including English, history, mathematics and natural science. But all students must choose performing arts and sports and provide community services. In each course, students will get a score that combines academic performance and "degree of effort". In Bath, 97% of Hyde Middle School graduates have been promoted to undergraduate courses.

In the comprehensive education of Hyde Middle School, parents' participation is a key component. In order for children to be admitted to the school, parents must also agree to accept and practice the school's ideas and opinions. Parents signed a contract to attend a regional group meeting once a month (***20 regional groups), go to a regional retreat for three days every year, and attend seminars, discussion groups and seminars in Bath at least three times a year. In many activities, the attendance rate of parents of Maine students is as high as 95%. Joe and Malcolm Gauld both said that when children see their parents doing their best, they will do their best. They say that for many parents, the hardest thing is to make them realize their own shortcomings.

The activity plan for parents of students in public schools is still being worked out. This job is much more difficult, because it is difficult to convince parents that their participation is valuable. Of the 65,438+000 students registered in New Haven, about 30% parents attended various special meetings. This low attendance rate violated their promise when the teaching plan was implemented, when officials from Hyde Middle School interviewed 300 families.

A teacher in Bath who has been teaching in public schools for 14 years said that once the problem is solved, Hyde's teaching plan will be successful in public schools. He is optimistic that once parents participate in the plan, they will become role models for their children's daily behavior, which is completely different from that of parents in boarding schools.

A teacher who used to teach in a school in the old city is now working on a teaching plan in New Haven. He said that teachers can also benefit from it. "Here, we really began to focus on building a fruitful relationship with every student. Our focus is really to consider the relationship between teachers and students first, and then discuss our studies together. In traditional middle schools, the first consideration is the relationship between teachers and textbooks, and then the teacher-student relationship. " The relationship between teachers and students in Hyde Middle School has been further deepened. The evaluation of teaching staff is carried out by students.

Jimmy DiBatista, aged 19, will graduate from Bath campus in May this year and prepare to enter the university. He was surprised at this. A few years ago, he thought his future was "in prison, not in college". Di Batista remembers when he first arrived at Hyde Middle School.

"I came here, insulted everyone and cursed everyone. Other schools will say,' Get out! We don't want you here. When I came here, they said,' We kind of like this energy, but we don't like its negative side. We should turn it into something positive. "