History

The growth of Personal, Social, Health and Economic (PSHE) education in the school curriculum is a worldwide phenomenon. Schools everywhere are being asked to inspire good citizenship and pre-empt antisocial behaviour in matters such as drugs, alcohol, bullying, eating habits and especially in teenage pregnancy and sexually transmitted diseases. However, everybody knows that you have only to tell children not to do something for them to want to do the opposite. Many PSHE strategies consist of quick fix courses with a negative tone which can exacerbate the problems they seek to solve.

Christine Vollmer, creator of the Alive to the World programme, began working in 1985 on a new approach to PSHE. Her intensive study of child development in all its aspects, physical, emotional, intellectual and spiritual, and her experience as the mother of seven children convinced her that a completely different approach was needed. A key feature would be to show that everything about the human person is connected with everything else: the growth of the body, the impact of the feelings, the depth of the intellect and the longings of the spirit. It would also illustrate how some established patterns of behaviour lead to happiness and fulfillment while others are destructive of both. These have always been basically the same for people everywhere, regardless of the country or age in which they happen to live.

Putting across good moral values

The outcome of a child’s life is dependent not so much on avoiding certain ills as on developing a strong and rounded character, one built up on virtue. Virtue is not something which we are born with but has to be acquired.  We do so by building up good habits and this can be done by anybody, regardless of background, with the necessary guidance and support. Building up the willpower of the young is as important as giving them clear goals and developing their commonsense.

It may be clear to adults what is good for young people but how does one impart it to them without sounding preachy? How does one encourage them to put into practice behaviour which demands discipline and is often counter-cultural?

Christine Vollmer says “It finally dawned on me that maybe I could just tell them stories, stories which would unfold over twelve school years. And so Alive to the World was born. It tells the tale of some friends who grow up as all children do, with their normal points, good and bad. Little by little they open their eyes to the world about them, to what they can achieve if they try, and to the values of life which bring true peace and happiness. Central to the books would be the precept "do unto others as you would have them do unto you". This simple rule applies in all relationships, whether among friends, in the family or in the community, and it leads seamlessly to all the universal values, such as respect, generosity, perseverance, integrity and responsibility.”