Over the years, I’ve often told the story of how S.T.R.I.V.E. came to be. It was born from the desperation of a first-year principal who was trying to get a handle on an abundance of discipline problems—frequently described as “a line of children issuing out of my office.” It seemed as though my first year as principal was spent dealing with student discipline issues.

Character education has never seemed so necessary. A decade or so ago, we shifted our academic curriculum to prepare our students for the challenges of the 21st century, understanding that, in an increasingly complex world, they would need to know how to deal with the many and varied challenges they will face.