Choose Love Program
At Hickam Elementary School, we are proud to integrate the Choose Love Program into our academics and daily school life. This evidence-based social-emotional learning (SEL) curriculum empowers our students with essential life skills, fostering a positive school culture where every child feels safe, connected, and loved.
The Choose Love Program is inspired by the profound story of Jesse Lewis, a 6-year-old who demonstrated immense courage and compassion. His mother, Scarlett Lewis, founded the Choose Love Movement to share a universal message of love and resilience, which resonates deeply with our school's mission.
The Choose Love Formula™: Its Four Core Values
The Choose Love curriculum is built upon four powerful character values, which together form the Choose Love Formula™:
Courage: This is the willingness and ability to work through challenges, even when we feel uncertain or afraid. It teaches students to step outside their comfort zone, express their feelings, make ethical choices, and admit mistakes.
Gratitude: This means being mindfully thankful and finding ways to appreciate things, even when life is challenging. Practicing gratitude helps students recognize the good around them and share that positive feeling with others.
Forgiveness: This means choosing to let go of anger or resentment toward ourselves or others, surrendering thoughts of revenge, and moving forward with our personal power intact. It helps students understand that hurt people sometimes hurt people and teaches how to respond with kindness rather than anger.
Compassion In Action: This involves both understanding a problem or someone else's suffering (empathy) AND taking action to help solve the problem or ease that suffering. It teaches students to be kind and helpful without expecting anything in return.
Choose Love: Reinforcing Our HEART Values
The Choose Love program doesn't just teach new skills; it deeply enriches and reinforces Hickam Elementary's very own HEART Values. By practicing Courage, Gratitude, Forgiveness, and Compassion in Action, our students are naturally developing into individuals who embody our core principles:
Honor & Choose Love:
Choosing Courage to do what's right, even when it's difficult, directly aligns with living with Honor and integrity.
Practicing Forgiveness helps students maintain their honor by letting go of bitterness and seeking restorative solutions.
Excellence & Choose Love:
Developing Courage allows students to take risks, try new things, and persist through challenges, all crucial for striving for Excellence.
Gratitude can foster a positive mindset that fuels continuous improvement and Excellence in learning and behavior.
Aloha & Choose Love:
Compassion in Action is the very essence of Aloha. It means understanding and caring for others, and then taking kind and helpful steps.
Forgiveness promotes harmony and deepens relationships, embodying the spirit of Aloha.
Resiliency & Choose Love:
The value of Courage is fundamental to Resiliency, equipping students to face and overcome obstacles.
Learning Forgiveness allows them to bounce back from setbacks and disappointments, both their own and those involving others.
Teamwork & Choose Love:
Compassion in Action naturally leads to effective Teamwork by encouraging students to understand and support their peers.
Gratitude for others' contributions and the ability to practice Forgiveness when conflicts arise are essential for successful collaboration.
Together, the Choose Love Formula and our HEART Values provide a powerful framework for developing students who are not only academically strong but also emotionally intelligent, empathetic, and responsible citizens of our community.
What Students Learn and How It Helps
Through engaging lessons and activities, the Choose Love program helps students develop crucial social-emotional skills, including:
Self-Awareness: Recognizing and understanding their own emotions, strengths, and limitations.
Self-Management: Learning how to manage emotions and behaviors to achieve their goals.
Social Awareness: Showing understanding and empathy for others, and recognizing diverse perspectives.
Relationship Skills: Building and maintaining positive relationships, working well in teams, and resolving conflicts peacefully.
Responsible Decision-Making: Making thoughtful and ethical choices.
By incorporating neuroscience, mindfulness, and positive psychology, Choose Love helps students to:
Increase test scores and improve attendance.
Become more engaged in learning.
Reduce bullying and promote a more positive school climate.
Develop resilience to cope with stress and challenges.
Cultivate self-esteem, confidence, and a growth mindset.
The lessons are designed to be flexible and include supporting Google Slides, videos, and "Home Connection" activities to extend learning beyond the classroom.
Resources for Families
We encourage families to reinforce the Choose Love concepts at home. You can learn more about the program and find additional resources by visiting: