Includes twenty plays, grouped under five main headings (service, courage, quest, education, and brotherly love). Plays preceded by descriptions of historical setting, introduction to main characters, and suggested activities.

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Pediatrician and CSEE Trustee Avril Beckford offers practical suggestions to both parents and school staff members.

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A listing of texts, supplemental material, and audio-visual resources used in courses in ethics and character education, values in literature, the Bible, religious studies, and world religions in the late 1990s.

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Spencer and Tanner introduce virtue-based, utilitarian, justice-based, deontological and teleological approaches to ethical decision making, but focus primarily on applying ethics. This text encourages students to participate in debate and open discussion. The course covers several areas of applied ethics: medicine, business, environment, and gender. Includes case studies and related articles.

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Students study several ways that religious adherents read sacred texts. A comparison of devotional, analytical, and literal approaches. Concise, accessible guide developed for students.

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Provides descriptions of 78 programs that demonstrate student leaderhip. The programs highlighted in this publication received awards from the Council for Religion in Independent Schools (CSEE’s former name) between 1988 and 1994. The book includes student and faculty essays submitted with award applications.

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Introductory Bible course. Includes lessons in Genesis, Exodus, Kings, and the gospels. Designed to develop students’ discovery of and reflection about life, so that they will begin to connect the Bible’s insights with their own. Includes texts, materials, maps.

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Examination of the methods of violence (war, prejudice, personal and peer abuse) and nonviolence (civil disobedience, war resistance, disarmament, and pacifism). Designed to improve students’ ability in moral and religious thinking. This text is now over 20 years old, but contains some good material.

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This book’s 100 pages of practical suggestions are written for administrators, teachers, coaches, and others in K-12 schools. It includes background on how morals develop, games / activities to facilitate moral growth, and discusses the importance of community service and academic advising programs.

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Discusses the difficulties the children of alcoholics face in school and at home, especially regarding authority figures, the roles they assume in school, and how school people can help. The text is now two decades old, but still contains valuable insights.

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Lessons developed for an ancient history course and assume the use of either the Revised Standard Version or the new Jewish Version of the scriptures. Subject of this historical course is ancient Israel through the return from the Babylonian Captivity.

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Educator Bruce Hoff guides teachers through the complexities of both
the past and emerging Christian faith in China. The course uses David Aikman’s
textbook, Jesus in Bejing as its primary guide. Hoff’s curriculum is a clear, thorough resource for religious studies teachers.

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Review of Christianity, Judaism, and the Bible; conceptual foundations, Islam, Hinduism, and Buddhism. Includes objectives, detailed list of resources, outside activities, written assignments, vocabulary, and class plans with assignments.

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Argues that serious problems in the present educational system leave us on the edge of moral bankruptcy, threatening the system itself unless “conscience” is recovered in schools. Argues for a new understanding of “conscience.”

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The most ambitious curriculum project in the 106-year history of CSEE, Creating Classrooms is character education resource for teachers and parents of children in grades Pre-K through 6th grade. (Four volumes, one each for grades Pre-K/K, 1-2, 3-4, and 5-6.)

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The most ambitious curriculum project in the 110-year history of CSEE, Creating Classrooms is a character education resource for teachers and parents of children in grades Pre-K through 6th grade. (Four volumes, one each for grades Pre-K/K, 1-2, 3-4, and 5-6.)

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The most ambitious curriculum project in the 106-year history of CSEE, Creating Classrooms is character education resource for teachers and parents of children in grades Pre-K through 6th grade. (Four volumes, one each for grades Pre-K/K, 1-2, 3-4, and 5-6.)

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The most ambitious curriculum project in the 106-year history of CSEE, Creating Classrooms is character education resource for teachers and parents of children in grades Pre-K through 6th grade. (Four volumes, one each for grades Pre-K/K, 1-2, 3-4, and 5-6.)

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The most ambitious curriculum project in the 106-year history of CSEE, Creating Classrooms is character education resource for teachers and parents of children in grades Pre-K through 6th grade. (Four volumes, one each for grades Pre-K/K, 1-2, 3-4, and 5-6.)

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Second volume to The New CRIS Case Studies. Cover areas such as religion, social action, sports, and academics. Includes case study questions designed to provoke discussion, and related activities such as reflection papers, oral reports, and debates.

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Stories intended to help children develop their moral judgment. Basic issues include kindness, honesty, fairness, and personal integrity. Contains ten stories, background for teachers, and discussion questions.

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Anthology of articles by and about teachers who integrate ethics and/or the spiritual quest into academic courses in history, literature, general humanities, and science. Attention to both theory and practice. Companion volume is In Pursuit of Values.

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This text is now quite old, but it contains some excellent information and activities. Provides students tools to deal with death and dying more creatively and effectively in their own lives. Opportunities abound to relate to lessons to life’s ’mini-deaths" (divorce, family move, job loss, etc.) Includes lesson plans complete with assignments.

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Misbehavior can be curbed in such a way that the misbehaving child’s autonomy and competence are still fostered, and such that the child is easily reintegrated into the classroom community. In contrast to disciplinary approaches that too often leave children frustrated and angry, Developmental Discipline fosters the kind of climate that leads to moral growth in schools.

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Presentation and analysis of a survey of school heads done by the Council for Religion in Independent Schools regarding their vision of teachers and teaching, including their moral and spiritual commitments.

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Composed by a national team of educators with expertise and experience in education for environmental sustainability, this booklet was published in paper copies for a first printing, with the support of the Forum on Religion and Ecology. The booklet explores why being reverent stewards of our Earth makes financial, social, ethical, and spiritual sense. The booklet was revised in 2007.

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Lessons in uniqueness, family love, respect, fairness, friendship, feelings, talents, rules, environment, and helping those in need. Includes introduction, lesson plans, and student activity sheets.

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 Field Notes on the Compassionate Life: A Search for the Soul of Kindness

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A pragmatic, complete guide to developing or revitalizing an honor system in a school community. David Gould’s original text has been revised and expanded by experienced honor council advisor and workshop presenter Dr. John Roberts. It outlines the procedure for instituting an honor system and addresses ways to integrate it fully into the school’s ethos. Includes a sampling of honor codes from a variety of schools and emphasizes the honor council as a vital part of the system.

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A research-based, point-by-point, easy to read guidebook for independent school educators who care about creating a climate that nurtures the development of empathy, altruism, conscience, and moral thinking.

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Fifty lessons on biblical theology, including sin, salvation, and love, applied to modern life. Includes introductory material, objectives, teaching notes, and exercises.

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Anthology of articles exploring the ethical and religious dimensions of school life, reprinted from the CRIS Newsletter and The Chaplain’s Craft. Topics include priorities, community, academic excellence, awards, athletics, service, and diversity.

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An excellent one-semester course that introduces students to the academic study of the New Testament. This course guides students and teachers through scholarly and traditional readings of the New Testament, remaining sensitive to students from all traditions. Ten units include objectives, resource list, key questions, key terms, and teachers guide.

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Selected stories from the Hebrew bible and the Christian Testament designed for use in English curricula. Suitable also for Bible courses. Includes introduction, syllabus, activites, bibliography, maps, tests, and study guides to introduce Bible stories.

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Designed to introduce students to the great themes of philosophy and religion, with articles focusing on major subjects like the scientific worldview, the “problem of evil,” and the traditional arguments for the existence of God.

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Discusses the no-win situation of schools blaming parents for students’ ills and proposes ways for schools and parents to work together. Adapted from an NAIS presentation and originally published in Independent School magazine.

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Objectives are to enable the student to see events in present-day Israel as related to Biblical events in history; and to help the student develop some sense for the “time-space” elements of Palestine during the lifetime of Jesus.

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Teacher’s guide to a ten-week scriptural study on the birth, teachings, death, and resurrection of Jesus. Texts, lesson plans, study skills, annotated bibliography, and a list of films.

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Year-long course in masterpieces of world literature that raise deep psychological and philosophical questions on such themes as existence, altruism, the absurd, suffering, and responsibility. Readings from Salinger, Sartre, Camus, E.B. White, Wiesel, T.S Eliot.

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Concentrates on the literature of the Holocaust. Guide includes a detailed set of lesson plans for six literary works. Books to be read include works by Anne Frank, Elie Wiesel, Saul Bellow, and others.

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This resource developed for and by independent school educators is divided into two sections: The Advising Program, and A Handbook for Advisors. The first is designed for administrators of advising programs; the second consists of documents and activities that may be reproduced and used to develop a handbook for individual schools.

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This survey of non-western religions addresses their origins, developments, scriptures, myths, symbols, rituals, and social structures with emphasis on the religions’ essential visions of reality, spiritual goals, and life paths.

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Four decades of research point to five practices that, when implemented by parents, lead to the development of children who are altruistic and empathic, and who have strong consciences and moral reasoning skills. In this booklet, five of North America’s leading child development researchers and character education trainers explain these practices. This booklet was written with an independent school parent audience specifically in mind.

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Covers the writings and thoughts of philosopher Philip Hallie. Focuses on Hallie’s idea that ethics often are conveyed best through stories.

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Teacher’s guide to a course on biblical and twentieth-century prophets. Eight units: What is a prophet?; Mohandas Gandhi, Martin Luther King, Jr., Archbishop Desmond Tutu, and Mother Teresa. Includes detailed syllabus, notes on the primary source readings

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In this powerpoint presentation created for the 2008 National Association of Independent Schools conference, members of CSEE’s Moral Development Team introduce research-based components of top-quality character education programs and take viewers through reflection activities about their school’s goals and culture.

Click the “buy now” link on the right to download and view this free resource.

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Formerly published as the Compendium of Readings, this book is an excellent resource for secondary, college, or adult education students; includes important selections looking at the experience of world religions through first-person accounts of practices and rituals as well as the history and texts upon which they are based. The recent updating has added new material, including recent materials readings on Islam.

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Argues that high school textbooks in the social sciences are not neutral toward religion but rather implicitly hostile, and proposes both textbook revisions and a new definition of neutrality.

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Designed as a 30-day course that introduces students to Old Testament stories with literary analyses of their themes and use in literature and/or as an inquiry into the Bible as a literary and philosphical work. Text used is The Garden and the Wilderness.

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This publication by Free Spirit Press was made available to CSEE member schools at a 20% discount after our careful review and the favorable evaluation of the guide. It is filled with ideas and resources for planning, administering, and assessing service learning programs, and includes eleven thematic chapters on issues like the elderly, animals in danger, and the enviroment.

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Lessons on uniqueness, prejudice, prayer, and the handicapped, including projects with the needy, the elderly, and fund-raising education. Includes rationales, objectives, workshops, lesson plans, activity sheets, and bibliographies.

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Series of twelve essays by the former director of the Council for Religion in Independent Schools. Has as its theme the establishment of the school as a moral community and the challenges involved in moving from blueprint to actuality in realizing moral community with students and faculty.

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Offers ethical dilemmas that continue to be relevant, such as divorce, peer pressure, plagiarism, stealing, honesty, and global awareness. Includes case studies and discussion questions.

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Introduction to theological concepts such as sin, salvation, Heaven, Hell, prophet, faith, covenant, Messiah, kingdom of god, worship, and prayer. Designed specifically for student use.

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Twenty-one ethical situations with accompanying discussion questions divided into
general areas of school, family, and self.

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Middle School teacher’s guide for ten units (about 50 classes) on the theory and practice of ethics. Part I covers sources of values (self, family, school, religions, and nation); Part II uses literature (including The Elephant Man, Gandhi the Man, and Black Like Me).

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This 52 minute documentary is one of the best resources we know for stimulating discussions with teens about issues of inter-religious understanding and being a teen with a spiritual life. Filmmaker Feinbloom interviewed hundreds of teens, and then did in-depth interviews with six: a Lakota Sioux, a Vietnamese Buddhist, a Roman Catholic, a Jew, a Muslim, and a neo-Pagan. The teens are all articulate, but eminently “real” in all respects.

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One-semester, advanced course on religion and ethics in Hinduism, Buddhism, Judaism, and Christianity. Includes objectives, assignments, class plans, tests, and resources. Includes eight lectures.

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What happens to the person’s body? Will I ever feel better? These and lots of other questions provide the framework for this little book for elementary school children dealing with a death, but perhaps not completely comfortable talking with adults about it yet.

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Developing and applying ethical standards. Contains some 30 problems/dilemmas with discussion questions.

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