On Wednesday morning at St John's Preschool a group of about 20 four-year-olds shouted, sang, danced, and made a general ruckus but when school counselor Anthony Peets said 'sit' they sat just like that.

The school recently undertook the REACH programme that aims to instill basic moral values otherwise known as 'character' into young children. REACH stands for 'Respect, Enthusiasm, Citizenship and Hard work' and is based on a similar programme in the United States.

Even the ruckus was part of the programme as the kids were dancing along to the kind of religious song video normally shown in vacation Bible schools or in Sunday school.

After the more lively songs, the children bowed their heads for a quieter song about prayer. Then the noise level started to rise again.

"Class, class," Mr. Peets sang.

"Class, class" the students sang back.

"I'm ready to teach now." "Teach!" was the response and the children were back to quiet again without Mr. Peets having to raise his voice.

"You won't see me get frustrated," Mr. Peets told The Royal Gazette. "The little song we sing is a strategy I have developed to capture their attention."

And he needs to keep their attention because he has 51 different rules to teach them.

"We are on rule number ten," he said. "Always say 'thank you'."

He called a little child over. "What does respect stand for," he asked. "R is for respect, E is for enthusiasm," said Kaya Lambert, aged four.

"When we want to be friends with someone, do we treat them nice, or bad?" Mr. Peets asked.

Whispered: "Nice."

"If you had five grapes and I had no grapes what would you do?"

Another whispered response: "Give you some."

"We want them to develop positive character," said Mr. Peets. "The R in REACH is the number one value that we push which is 'respect'. A lot of it involves getting kids talking and modeling good behaviour.

"I meet with them every Wednesday morning. The first part of my presentation always involves talking about a value such as friendship, why we get along, the importance of going to school, or the importance of listening."

He called over a little girl, Laquay Christopher, also aged four. He made the American Sign Language sign for the letter R.

"What does this mean?" he asked her.

She said pretty much what the last child said. "When you watch TV — you have to be quiet and you sit down and watch the television.

"Respect means you have to be nice to other people. Being nice means you do not hit nobody and you do not slap anybody."

And just in case she or any of the other children forgot what RESPECT stood for, it was painted and pasted up all over the school.

REACH seemed a fitting tribute to the drawing of civil rights leader Dr. Martin Luther that was taped on the wall at small child eye-level. Dr. King once said: "The function of education is to teach one to think intensively and to think critically. Intelligence plus character — that is the goal of true education."

St. John's Preschool administrator Andrene Curtis said she has seen a difference in the children since implementing REACH.

"Our children are learning how to talk out their problems," she said. "They are showing more respect, and encouraging each other to show respect. Whenever they see a friend doing something wrong, they put up the 'R' for respect to remind them that they have to be respectful.

"We have seen a decrease in fighting, and an increase in sharing and helping each other. It is a more peaceful environment so we can spend more time teaching instead of disciplining."

St. John's Preschool parents signed a contract allowing their child to be part of the programme. They also learned how to use the REACH ideas at home at a special parent meeting. So the lessons at St. John's Preschool are enforced outside the classroom.

A little girl approached Mr. Peets. "We didn't have the puppet dance today," she said to him, clearly disappointed.

Mr. Peets turned and looked at a blond puppet poking out of his backpack. "She didn't dance today, because she is taking a break," he said.

The girl seemed satisfied and wandered off.

Mr. Peets has been a puppeteer for about 12 years. The puppets help him reach the children. He also works with children in the primary school level, and the puppets help there also.

"You have to have what I call 'MTPs' or 'Motivational Teaching Practices'," he said. "If you excite kids about learning then they will learn. I use the puppets with kids who might be struggling with reading or writing, or self-esteem. This is one way they can shine.

"The older kids get excited about learning. They write scripts and they perform with the puppets."

On Wednesday mornings, after talking with the children, Mr. Peets usually goes outside with them on the playground.

He pushes them on the swings, plays games with them and tries to give a little one-on-one time to the children who need it.

Mr. Peets is a bit of an oddity, as he is the only male school counsellor at the elementary level in the government school system.

"We know that early on in the kids' careers they need to have positive experience with men," he said. "It is an absolute fact that today's boys suffer from a lack of male role models."

And he said researchers had found that many girls in the school education system also suffered from 'father hunger'.

He has been a school counsellor for 24 years. He started working at St. John's Preschool last year, and was previously at St. George's Secondary school and Clearwater Middle School.

He decided to go into counselling because in high school he was the kind of person that other kids came to for advice.

"I listened, and then I would sometimes challenge them on the way they looked at things," he said. "When I first said I wanted to be a counsellor, there was the query about whether or not there would be a job. My parents suggested I consider something else that would pay the bills.

"But I know kids need guidance. This is my calling," said Mr. Peets. "With that calling I know that I have to educate the kids. Society has to provide opportunities for them to be successful. I just keep giving, because the more you give the more you get in return. These kids will one day run Bermuda.

"Kids replay messages in their head. If REACH is in their head they will remember that when they are 25-years-old and have kids of their own.

"The number one thing I get out of this is knowing that I am preparing characters for society. It is sinful to think that in elementary school you could have a kid for 1,200 days, and at the end of that their character hasn't developed any."

So far the REACH programme has worked so well at St. John's Preschool that two other preschools Warwick Preschool, and Paget Preschool have picked it up.

"So hopefully, we will get it in all government preschool and then island-wide," said Ms Curtis.