After 30 years ('57-'86) in the classroom I am convinced that the personal example the teacher sets before the student is the
single most important reason learning occurs. Example offers a behavioral definition of character that may determine
a student's perception of his own value, the value of others, and reciprocal rights and responsibilities. Since emulation is
both an early and an on-going learning method and because everyone passes through the hands of the teacher, the example of
the teacher-leader is, I believe, fundamental to the successful human experience.

When standards are personalized and manifest in teacher conduct, the student's perception of other criteria for measuring
other values and options prior to decision-making becomes more and more comprehensible.
Such a comprehension may be considered critical to the student's personal ability to anticipate consequence of choice and
ensure survival and progression.

Because decision-making is the proper domain of the mind in the hierarchy of the individual person (spirit/mind/body), it
is essential that enlarged opportunities for observation and awareness be encouraged and available. Such opportunities go far
toward raising the qualitative level of selectivity on the part of the student.

Additionally, because selection occupies the fulcrum point of the creative process in the individual, it is essential that
criteria be available to the intellect of the student in order that evaluation and progress will occur.

We are reminded that the unique individual person is the basic unit of value and a prime source of social values in a free
society.

Consistent with a criteria concept and personalized value definition, the individual student should continually
experience high levels of challenge, expectation, and goal orientation, eliciting and reinforcing standards of
excellence. Such a conceptual environment teaches, encourages, and reinforces valid self-esteem.

It is thus that the teacher completes the appropriate fulfillment of his/her role: Enabling the student to become a self-
directed, responsible, choice-maker in freedom.

James Fletcher Baxter
choice.maker@verizon.net
http://www.geocities.com/James-Baxter/