By Lorenzo Salinas

l.v.salinas@panews.com

 

Life’s a lot like rock-climbing—or so the folks with Rock Solid Character would say. But whether or not the hundreds of children who rock-climbed Friday had kept that in mind at the time didn’t seem to matter all that much. All that mattered was that they had a great time doing it.

Taft Elementary School hosted the adventure-based character program Rock Solid Character all day Friday at its campus in Groves. A 25-foot freestanding portable rock was erected in the parking lot for students to climb.

“It’s a character education program,” Kim Bell, school counselor at Taft, said. “It’s kicking off the character education program this year.”

RSC is a Spring-based program intended to equate the challenges of life with the challenges of rock-climbing. Each handhold on the portable structure represents character choices that an individual might make in life.

“Students have the opportunity to climb a 25-foot rock wall while they are learning about what makes good character traits,” Bell said.

Bell recited the seven traits, or “Handholds of Success,” that students were encouraged to learn through the program: respect, responsibility, honesty, trustworthiness, courage, perseverance and caring/cooperation.

Bell said the program was open to all Taft students. In addition, she said she felt getting this program, which was originally scheduled before Harvey hit, underway was important after the storm that had flooded much of Southeast Texas left many Groves residents with water-damaged homes.

“They (RSC) even called and asked if we wanted to continue it,” Bell said. “We thought it was important because it’s important to keep a routine… These lessons kick off the educational character program.”

Bell likened many of the seven character traits to the real-life work students (and faculty) might find themselves engaging in as the school year progressed.

She mentioned the respect students exhibit for their work in school and toward the people helping them; she pointed out the trustworthiness of trusting that everything would be OK; and she cited the role models neighbors and families become when they strive to be good citizens.

“Many students may not even know they’re being good citizens, but they’ll know the principles behind it when they see it,” Bell said.

Jacob Wood, program director of RSC, said a person’s character is revealed by actions.

“Character is what you do when no one is around,” he said.

RSC, which has worked with 450,000 to 500,000 students since its inception in 2000, is a unique learning experience, according to Wood.

“We offer a fun experience and fun activities with the learning experience of motivational speaking,” Wood said. “Basically, how life is like rock-climbing—the choices you make are important to the life you’ll lead.”

Near the shadow of the 25-foot rock wall, students who had already climbed the structure sat and thrilled to their adventure-filled day.

“I enjoyed it,” Jackson, a third-grader, said.

“It shows a lot of experience,” Jaxin, a fellow classmate, said, pointing out that the more times one climbs it, the easier it becomes. It was his third time to climb such a wall.

“I like how you can climb and you can go and touch the top,” Christina said. She didn’t quite reach the top this time, but her smile and high spirits ultimately said it didn’t matter.