PERSONAL RESPONSIBILITY
PROACTIVE BULLY PREVENTION
POSITIVE PERSONAL VISION
What Others Say
Here’s what others say about the program. Many of these videos were shot before the COVID-19 shutdown, but we are actively and consistently adding new schools to our network and are gathering new testimonials! This is actually a collage of short clips totaling less than 3-minutes. To see more complete testimonials, simplyTAP HERE.
30-Day FREE Trial
All you have to do to get started is to write to: Info@TheCharacterNetwork.org and request your 30-Day FREE Trial.
Or just pick up the phone and call 1-800-364-6883, and we’ll get you started right away. There is absolutely NO obligation. We will NOT ask for a credit card number or anything else. This is a mission and a passion for us, and we want this to be a good fit for your campus! And the only way to know for sure is to give it a try! (By-the-way, that 30-days can be a little flexible, too, if needed!)
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The Cost
As you heard in the video, the cost is $720* per campus per school year. This includes ongoing use of ALL our resources, not just the stories.
With our PROVEN EFFECTIVENESS (See below!), this is a nominal fee as compared to other programs out there. AND, this requires no extra training on the part of your faculty and staff except to back-up the language it produces in teachable moments.
*If your campus budget does not allow for the total cost, we have accommodations for that, too!
*Also, as mentioned in the video, in MANY areas, third-party corporate sponsors can become involved to provide the program for you at NO CHARGE with your agreement to use it as prescribed (The TCN Method as described below).
Just FOUR minutes a week! That’s all!
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The TCN Method
We have been developing this program for over 23 years now, and have been through a lot of trial and error. It has been many years ago now when we finally discovered that “Perfect Storm.”
For maximum effectiveness, (and this is the FIRST of three parts of The TCN Method), these stories need to be played consistently on Tuesdays and Thursdays throughout the school year at the same time of day each time. Each story is approximately 2-minutes in length. Simply play a story from The Beginning of a Hero series on Tuesdays, and a story from The Beginning of a FAMOUS Hero series on Thursdays. Each school year, you will be provided 36 stories from each series to correspond with the 36 weeks in a typical school year. (However, playing them ‘in order’ is not necessary. In fact, especially with The Beginning of a FAMOUS Hero stories, many schools play them in a timely fashion to match the birthdays of featured “Heroes”, especially Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., and Dr. Seuss (which are included EVERY year for that very purpose). Many campuses choose to spotlight certain stories during Black History Month as well.
“It’s the ART of Storytelling combined with the SCIENCE of Spaced Repetition!”
Secondly, these stories should be played on the campus intercom during morning announcements for ALL (faculty, staff, and students) to hear.
Or, if your school does announcements in a morning assembly where all students and faculty are present instead of over the intercom, then, of course that works as well. If your school uses VIDEO for announcements (as many campuses do now), we have a video version available for the asking.
Thirdly, the language produced by the program suggests that we become HEROES by HELPING others.
Before the word “Bully” became literally a LEGAL term with a very narrow definition, the language was “Heroes Help and Bullies Hurt, therefore a Bully is the OPPOSITE of a Hero.” But the bottom line here is that HELPING is the OPPOSITE of HURTING, and the people who HELP others are known as HEROES. This language can be adapted to address negative behavior and has PROVEN itself MOST effective over the years even when applying it to becoming a HERO to one’s own future-self and future family! These three parts make up what we call The TCN Method. If you will adhere to this method consistently and enthusiastically, you will create a campus-wide EXPECTATION for your students, and in a short time, you will see positive changes in attitude and behavior! The Beginning of a Hero stories cover a WIDE variety of REALISTIC situations and scenarios that your students can experience vicariously. And The Beginning of a FAMOUS Hero stories give examples of adults who have already experienced the challenges of childhood and have actually DONE what The Beginning of a Hero stories suggest. (Each of these TRUE stories has a ‘story within the story’ about his or her childhood demonstrating that even as a child, he or she was on the path to becoming the person they became by the choices they made, the obstacles they faced and overcame, the educational opportunities they took advantage of, etc.)
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Sample Stories
You can actually listen to several of our stories by searching the menu bar under “Our Programs.”
While there has not been a formal study done as to the effectiveness of this program, we did conduct an in-house survey before the COVID shutdown.
Out of a little more than 600 schools using the program at the time, we carefully identified the ones using, with fidelity, the TCN Method. From those, we randomly chose 100 schools to survey. From those 100, 67 completed the survey. The results are below:
Jim’s DAILY Morning Show!
During the COVID-19 shutdown when it became evident that many schools would be closed for a long period of time, Jim Lord started a daily (M-F) Morning Show for kids and parents.
Each episode is somewhere around 10-minutes in length, and is designed as a Conversation Starter for parents and kids around the breakfast table or in the car on the way to school! It addresses (hopefully in a fun way) the finer points of good character including, proactive bully prevention, work ethic, positive personal vision, personal responsibility, kindness, and a lot more. We’ve actually produced over 500 episodes to date! You can listen anytime on whatever device you wish by going toTCNmornings.com, or you can just Google TCN Mornings.
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About Jim Lord
Jim is a former long-time radio personality, professional speaker, and columnist, who is directing his efforts toward the encouragement of young people. A parent of six children, Jim promotes the philosophy that positive personal vision is the single most important thought process of successful youth.
“If from the earliest years a person can clearly and realistically visualize his or her own future existence, life-altering decisions are likely to be made with greater care. I am merely attempting to predict to my youthful audiences what those choices may be and what consequences could occur, positively or negatively. I think it is important for a young person to seriously ponder the question, ‘What am I going to be when I grow up (career-wise)?’ But I think first and more importantly one should ask, ‘What kind of person do I want to be (character-wise)?’ I also address issues like personal appearance, work ethic, fad following, and attitudes, all of which are manifestations of character, and I try to encourage young people to think carefully before reaping long-term negative consequences.”
Jim writes and produces a presentation for middle school and high school entitled, A Reflection of Your Future, a collection of “Life Lessons and Supporting Stories” packaged in easy-to-understand 60-second audio segments for broadcast over school intercom systems during morning announcements.
He also writes and produces The Beginning of a Hero™ and The Beginning of a FAMOUS Hero™, designed for students in grades K-6 as a PERSONAL RESPONSIBILITY / POSITIVE PERSONAL VISION / PROACTIVE BULLY PREVENTION program, and he follows up with personal appearances in live school assembly presentations. His programs are applauded as timely and effective tools for teaching character and personal vision.
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Call to Action!
The opener for each daily installment of TCN Mornings is a remix of one verse from one of our original songs. It is entitled Kindness is the Answer. The lyrics are “The choice is yours, so choose with care, to help or hurt, to keep or share. You’ll find the world’s not always fair, but KINDNESS is the answer, everywhere.”
So, now the choice is YOURS! Please consider sharing these stories with your students just twice a week… Tuesdays and Thursdays. If you do, and actually USE The TCN Method with fidelity, we are certain you will see a positive difference in not only the behavior of your students, but in time, a positive difference in even their world view. Simply write to info@TheCharacterNetwork.org and ask for your 30-Day FREE trial. Or just CALL US! 1-800-364-6883. And, once again, THANK YOU for your time to explore this program. We hope to hear from you soon!
