Dear Middle School Parents,

"The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge; but fools despise wisdom and instruction." Proverbs 1:7

One of the key tenets of our FaceGroup time has always been guiding students along their life journey and helping them understand what they should do in a variety of settings. For the past many years, ICS has used a curriculum called Second Step as its primary resource for our FaceGroups. Throughout this curriculum, students have gone through lessons designed to help them understand emotions, friendships, digital citizenship, goal setting, bullying, and more. Over the past few years we have been discussing if Second Step is the right curriculum to use and if we might change to something with more depth that is more rooted in the formation of wisdom and virtue for our students.

As we move forward into the 2026-27 school year, we will be moving to a new set of resources and vision for our FaceGroup curriculum. We will be using a virtues curriculum that uses the book “The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe" by C.S. Lewis to explore a variety of situations where the characters had to choose between virtues and vices. We will explore the outcomes of each and make real world connections to our own lives and decisions. This “Narnian Virtues” curriculum will be something that we spend time on all year. Students will have their own copy of the book and read together in FaceGroup before engaging in discussion and learning through the text. 

There are six virtues that will be covered throughout the year with some of the virtues containing a subcategory as shown below:

• Wisdom [Curiosity]

• Love [Forgiveness, Gratitude]

• Integrity [Humility]

• Fortitude [Hard Work, Courage]

• Self-Control

• Justice

We will also be using an additional resource called the “Middle School Culture Curriculum” that also uses virtues to teach about real world situations that students might encounter to further develop their ability to properly navigate the complexities of their Middle School years. 

Between these two curriculum resources we are mapping out a unique Middle School course that will help students grow in both wisdom and virtue in order to honor God and each other with their lives. We will look to point students back to Biblical truth and help them discover who God has created them to be through our time together in FaceGroup.