"Root Man" Buy In Exercise
At Oxford Central School, the “Root Man” Buy In exercise was created to engage faculty, staff, and students through small group discussions. Upon returning to the larger group, members placed the notes on the “Root Man” logo, a figure standing with arms upward, and “rooted” below. "Roots," rather than feet were chosen to display on the bottom of the logo, with the message that “good character grows from these roots of core values.” Next, each teacher did the same exercise with students. Teachers facilitated discussion about behaviors that show good character; students gave names to the qualities the behaviors represented, wrote down the words, and placed them on “Root Man.” Then the classes gathered this feedback and agreed upon seven core values to recommend to teachers and students. This resulted in consensus that Courage, Optimism, Responsibility, Respect, Empathy, Citizenship, and Trustworthiness would become the core values of the school, and the useful acronym CORRECT.