The new year brought a new initiative to the King Lower School that celebrates the school’s virtues of integrity, kindness, perseverance, and respect.  

Counselor Maki Itoh was searching for ways to bring the virtues to the forefront of student life when the idea of Virtue Cards occurred to her. When a student demonstrated one of the virtues, they would be rewarded with a card.

The initial plan featured all four virtues on one card, but brainstorming led to collectible card games like Magic: The Gathering and Pokemon. Working with designers from King’s marketing team, Itoh created a card for each virtue, hoping to inspire students to collect one of each.

The cards were officially rolled out on January 9, when Itoh joined Dr. Sandy Lizaire-Duff, Head of Lower School, to present the Virtue Cards in grade-level meetings. 

Each teacher received a set of cards. When they witness a student going out of their way to exemplify kindness, integrity, respect, or perseverance, they give the student one of the corresponding cards. 

“The idea is to recognize students who go above and beyond in demonstrating the virtues of King,” Itoh said. 

Lizaire-Duff praised the work Itoh has done to spearhead this initiative. 

“Thanks to Maki, we have an additional way to embed our King virtues into the daily life of our students as we focus on fostering a safe, joyful, inclusive, and predictable learning environment,” said Lizaire-Duff.

The hope is that every student will earn at least one Virtue Card before the end of the school year.