Dr. Hal Urban is well known to the character education community. For decades he has presented to packed halls at Character.org national conferences, served on numerous of its committees, and was its 2005 recipient of the Sanford N. McDonnell Lifetime Achievement Award for character education. He is a captivating storyteller, a character educator basing much of the wisdom he shares on the integration of lessons learned from important books he’s read and his vast experience.
Urban spent a full career in California as a high school social studies teacher teaching history and psychology and receiving both his school’s Distinguished Teacher Award and the Students’ Choice Award. He was more than a teacher of content of course, including in his classes key points and connections he hoped would shape the character of his students. He cared deeply for his students and their development, directing their social development through guidance from classical sources, applied psychological research, and practical here-and-now connections. As he relates, “[schools ] weren ’t teaching our students about life itself, about how it works in the real world, or about what’s essential. I wanted to give our young people a game plan for life so they could get off to a good start.” He continues those efforts in his current book.
For almost 3 decades he has shared his practical wisdom and insight with a broader audience through his many books. Life ’s Greatest Lessons: 20 Things That Matter and Lessons From the Classroom: 20 Things Good Teacher Do are two of my personal favorites and constitute the topics for many of his public talks and workshops. Those books were directed to the current generation and offer perspectives and tips for excellence in life and excellence in teaching. Much of the advice readers gained through those books is both thoughtful and immediately implementable.
His latest book, Grandpa’s School of Life: 7 Great Lessons on Being a Good Person, takes a bit of a different approach from his earlier work. It is certainly more personal. The premise is that the author and several friends, all in their 60s and 70s and grandparents themselves, each with a different life history, met regularly to discuss the principles and habits the next generation, their own grandchildren, would need to succeed in life. They called their group “Grandpa’s School of Life.” From those discussions emerged seven attributes, or founding principles. These seven great lessons are then shared by that group with the author’s own grandchildren over nine weekly meetings.
In a sense this is a family Saturday school. Hal Urban, ever the teacher, constructs the body of the book like a fully developed set of narrative lesson plans replete with an introduction, a bit of group cohesion humor, and a discussion of the seven attributes told in story form and presented by one of the “grandparent group.” Each chapter models thought-provoking questions and follow-up suggestions providing an engaging set of “great lessons” around each of the principles—attitude (the attribute holding the rest together), kindness, integrity, grit, input, wellness, and finances. Each member of the grandparent group leads a weekly lesson on one of the attributes, revealing significant aspects of their own life story, their personal backgrounds, setbacks, obstacles, and resolutions.
The result is a set of lessons on how to shape a discussion with a group of children/ young adults that hold their interest (the lesson structure) and a set of interesting life stories focused on becoming a good person (the lesson content). These are real-life stories related by real grandparent-teachers, converging on the values of helping others, hard work and determination, building trust and earning respect, focusing on what ’s important, prioritizing health and healthy habits, and managing money wisely.
What emerges is an easy to read, accessible, important set of principles (virtues) most of us would like to see in the next generation and told from the perspective of seasoned, wise adults who have learned these lessons through their own mistakes and experiences. Each chapter reads like a warm, positive, intergenerational dialog, interspersed with relevant quotes and serious interaction.
The essence of this book is explained by the author:
the answer is simpler than what many might think. What’s most important is learning what wise people of the past and present have taught us about having a good life. To repeat, Life is simpler when we know what’s essential. And it’s a lot more rewarding and fun.
This is vintage Hal Urban and Grandpa’s School of Life is a worthwhile read.
