Hebrew Academy fourth graders (l to r) Menachem Hecht, Vered Wolpaw, Chaya Brenner,
Avi Loew, Yonatan Cohen, Dovid Trencher, David Kandel, Moshe Sheinkopf, Aliza Jaffee.

With the teachings of Stephen R. Covey’s 7 Habits of Highly Effective People and the words of the Torah and sayings of our sages as their guide, educators at the Bess and Paul Sigel Hebrew Academy have embarked on a program that aims to teach students not only academic skills, but also life-long principles to help them develop into the next generation of community leaders. The students are focusing on eight middot, or principles, that are reflected in every aspect of the school environment.
Fourth graders, for example, exercised the eight middot by spearheading a project to raise money for Od Yosef Chai, a non-profit organization that helps more than 8,000 needy families. The students spent their free time making string bracelets that they then sold – raising enough money to provide 22 meals for the hungry.