Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Table of Contents:
I. Executive Summary
II. Assessment of Strengths and Deltas
III. Constructive Suggestions for Positive Change
IV. How DVA Can Support These Changes (Short-Term & Long-Term)
V. DVA Requests for More Information
Appendix: Contributors, References
I. Executive Summary
The Developing Virtue Alumni, with its membership including Developing Virtue Secondary School
graduates and former students, serves to fulfill two goals:
1. Establish an alumni support network
2. Work together to help our schools and current students
As a network of individuals who have all experienced a year or more in the Developing Virtue Secondary
education system spanning its founding in 1976 to the present day, we believe we can collectively
support, if not initiate, some of the constructive changes needed in the schools. An Education Committee
has been established within DVA with the purpose of beginning a dialogue with the Education Board.
One of our first projects has been to gather alumni to brainstorm and assess their experiences in the
DVS education system. Going forward, the DVA Education Committee would like to work in conjunction
with the Education Board to stay abreast of critical issues, problems and needs in the following areas:
A. Overall Education: Principles & Foundation – Integration of the Venerable Master Hsuan Hua's
guidelines and school values into the curriculum and pedagogy.
B. Curriculum & Pedagogies – The high school 4-year curriculum plan, course development, and
development of established teaching methodologies, both sensitive to the environment and reflective
of the values we’d like to transmit.
C. Administration & Admissions – The management of the school system, including how the school
operates, how it manages a consistent school image, how it processes admissions, how it forges
change and improvements to the system.
D. Faculty – All aspects related to faculty and their welfare, including recruiting, hiring, retaining,
compensation and faculty standards.
E. Student Welfare & Personal Development – The fostering of community/school spirit, attendance
to psychological and emotional needs sensitive to diverse backgrounds and attention to leadership
and teamwork development.
F. Non-Academic Programs – Formal programs, college preparation, extracurricular activities, sports
and community service projects initiated and supported by the schools or student body.
G. Facilities & Services - Food, buildings and grounds maintenance and new development projects (i.e.
computer network, library, playgrounds, gardens, re-painting, air conditioning). There is a
responsibility to ensure both safety and accordance with codes at all times.
H. Equity & Communication Between Schools – Cooperation between DVGS and DVBS to ensure a
smart sharing of resources and an equal education for students of both genders.
I. Dormitories – Program (separate from school) with fair administration and rules designed to develop
the personal potential of boarding students, while ensuring a healthy lifestyle and attendance to
psychological and emotional needs (concept of “home”).
What are the strengths of our education system? And what are the deltas, the weaknesses and areas
that need improvement or change? In a brainstorm at the DVA Reunion on 6/17/00, we came up with a
list of strengths and deltas—many of which, we discovered, our strengths were also our deltas. For each
area, we concluded with some critical issues that we feel need to be addressed by the Education Board
in the upcoming school year.
Strengths Deltas
Home The concept of "home" is very important for
the dormitories, as many students live far
away from their parents and need a safe
environment in which they feel accepted.
The dormitories would not suffer if they
consciously strove to create this
environment. Also, dorm supervisors need
to be on grounds at all times.
Fraternity Students learn to look out for fellow
"brothers/sisters" younger than
themselves
Room & There needs to be more clarification about
Board & the disbursement of funds and fees
Fees collected from students. Fees should be
standardized between dormitories and the
breakdown of how they are used should be
made publicly available
The Boys’ Dorm have individual rooms Girls want individual rooms.
Privacy & for creating personal space. Lack of control over personal space. In the
Personal past and to this day, there are problems of
Space teachers searching students’ rooms without
their permission. It is assumed that the
students are hiding something and often,
the situation is not clearly explained to the
student. Stealing is also a big problem in
both dorms.
Punishment Buddhist practices and going to the
Buddha Hall should never be wrongly used
as punishments, which gives the student
the wrong impression and attitude towards
cultivation.
The “No Need to enforce this rule with healthy
Contact with intentions and be very clear about why we
Opposite have this rule. Examples of negative
Sex” Rule effects are chauvinism, sexism, guilty
feelings about relationships later in life,
etc.
Conclusion The dormitories should be modeled after a comfortable, safe and homey living
space for all students, many are those that live far from their parents and homes.
The dorm supervisors need to be careful about explaining why we follow certain
rules. They also need to keep in mind that enforcement of rules should be given
in a compassionate manner that encourages preventive learning, not punishment
learning, challenging students to use ethical reasoning and not only blind
obedience.
Faculty
Begin to brainstorm a formal teacher and personnel recruiting program and establish network of
contacts.
Continue the development of a faculty-training program, with workshops in both Knowledge (their
respective fields: Chinese, History, etc) and Skills (communicating, disciplining, creative/effective
teaching methodologies).
Figure out how to retain and take care of our volunteer teaching staff by designing a Volunteer
Teacher Program that is considerate of their background, skills, time availability and families. This
program would also aim to recruit qualified short-term teachers in exchange for room & board, meals
and health care benefits (consider providing internships for college and education student-teaching).
Dormitories
Attempt to make the dormitories a comfortable, healthy and homey environment.
Document rules and clarify explanations of the rules (why we have them) and be careful when enforcing
the rules that encourages ethical reasoning and not blind obedience.
Short-Term
1) Initiate one-on-one mentoring with students (college preparation, careers, majors, personal, lifestyle).
2) Host "alumni weekends" (alumni come back to spend time with students).
3) Provide input on the "Social Living" course plan.
Long-Term
1) Work with schools to establish a Volunteer Teachers Program that would recruit heavily for short-term
positions from pool of alumni and college students/graduates for a semester/year period.
2) Solicit alumni input on developing an applied Buddhism curriculum/pedagogy for DVS
3) Eventually establish an endowment and the ability to fund various projects at the school within DVA,
that also allows alumni to donate computers, equipment, books, money and other needed materials.
4) Eventually work with the schools to establish a Scholarship Fund that will assist graduating seniors in
light of increasing college expenses and foreign student fees.
Appendix
If you have comments or questions, please e-mail them to: ed.committee@dvaweb.org
This e-mail reaches the DVA Education Committee, which as of today, includes the people listed below.
Contributors:
This document was compiled by Bonnie Lin, based on the brainstorm that was held with the 38 DVS
alumni who attended the Developing Virtue Alumni Year2000 Reunion. Please note that we have not had
a chance to give everyone in DVA an opportunity to review the document and so this document is not
assumed to reflect the views of the entire DVA. We hope this document is the beginning of many good
things to come with the cooperative efforts of both DVA and EB. This document was reviewed and edited
by the following DVS Education Committee members, save Sarah Babcock and Sam Lin:
References Used in this Document: DRBA School Policy, provided by Ron Epstein