Morning Story: How Openings Call to Character

By JOE PARRINO
Dean of Teaching & Learning

Birchwood students awaken to each new school day with a fresh cup. What drips into it is neither caffeinated norfoamed, but it can certainly perk up. Sipping doesn’t burn the tongue, but it may fire up the imagination. The baristas never fret if this cup spills. In fact, they keep on dripping in hopes that the contents will fill up to the point of running over.

You might be catching whiff of a metaphor. Our house blend is the morning opening. Before any classes, students spend 15 minutes in their homerooms primarily focused on character cultivation.

Forty-plus years of striving to equip children to thrive have convinced us that morning openings tip students toward success. Their higher faculties quicken. Their aspirations leap. Care for others abounds. Intentions to seize opportunities – of which Birchwood offers many – thickens into resolve.

Books form the backbone of most morning openings. Teachers in every Birchwood classroom choose books both for their savor-ability and for their application to character cultivation. As students enjoy a good book being read aloud, their desire to do good wells up. 

Whether they are aware of it or not, students are being primed to seek and practice virtue. During a school day, they will have ample opportunities to practice. Ultimately, because openings are built into every day, the thoughts andactions generated can solidify into habits.

Think of each good habit as another brick for building a sturdy character. Perhaps the best way to trace the progression from book characters to building character is to peek inside a few classrooms.

In kindergarten openings, students are read to aloud from the picture book series “Learning to Get Along,” a resource praised by self-help author Stephen Covey. The book depicts a range of common school scenarios that evoke strong emotions.

Teachers invite their students to empathize with the book characters’ moments of joy, sadness, anger, etc. Empathizing leads to deeper thinking about how to identify emotions, treat them as normal human experiences, and think about them constructively.

Depending on student response, teachers might extend thinking about a particular emotion by directing students to act out a scenario or create artwork that explores empathy. Students make connections between their learning during morning openings to books read in their classes later in the day, such as a book about a little volcano learning how to not “blow his top.”

In fourth grade openings, teachers read aloud the beloved Astrid Lindgren novel “Pippi Longstocking.” The title character’s cheerful outlook in the face of adversity presents opportunities to discuss the value of optimism and how to nurture it.

The novel’s many adventures dovetail nicely with the first quarter’s schoolwide “Smile and Say Hi” campaign. Through quotes, rationales, buttons, and posters, students are encouraged to make a concerted effort to greet others. Both adults and fellow classmates tend to respond to cheerful expressions in kind. The heavy workload that Birchwood students are known to carry becomes so much lighter in an environment of goodwill and warmth.

Fourth graders can tell you that Pippi would fit right in here. They might even greet you with a similarly gap-toothed grin.

Eighth grade openings search for virtues in the distant past. Teachers read aloud from dramatized versions of ancient history and mythology to find diverse models of courage. The famous Battle of Thermopylae in 480 B.C., between ancient Greeks and Persians, displayed the audacity of the Spartan king Leonidas to lead his forces against overwhelming odds. 

Julius Caesar demonstrated an unwavering commitment to action when he crossed the Rubicon River in northern Italy.Both Greek and Roman legends tell of the 12 impossible tasks undertaken by the demigod Hercules by which heshowed an intrepid attitude toward all forms of work.

As the eighth graders grapple with these ancient stories and join discussions about ancient characters, their relevancegrows increasingly present.

The openings can then transition to courageous goal setting for the quarter. Students are primed to make loftier goals than they otherwise may, then take steps to break down an intimidating task into manageable actions and finally commit to a course of achievement.

Not everyone is a morning person. Not everyone hops out of bed bright eyed and bushy tailed. Yet, openings at Birchwood prove that books offer a delightful fix, invigorating our humanity to reach for what lies beyond.

For more on the impact of a reading aloud from literature, visit the website of Birchwood Founder-in-Residence Helene Debelak at HeleneDebelak.com.

Joe Parrino '90 is Birchwood School of Hawken's Dean of Teaching & Learning. This article appeared in the  October/November 2025 edition of the school's newsletter, "The Clipboard." 

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