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Free character education lessons

Start with a free week of The Positivity Project's Perseverance Tier 1 lessons

Get a free week of Pre-K–12 Perseverance lessons, differentiated by grade level and ready to teach in 10–15 minutes. Includes videos, activities, discussion prompts, a family newsletter, and a morning announcement script. Trusted by 800+ schools.

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How a P2 lesson is designed

Understand. Engage. Reflect.

Every P2 week follows the same three-phase architecture. It's the design that makes a 15-minute daily lesson teachable across Pre-K–12, sustainable across a school year, and consistent across every classroom in a building.

Understand

Students build a shared vocabulary for the character strength. They learn what it means and what it looks like in action. The goal at this phase isn't application — it's a clear, age-appropriate understanding every student can hold.

Engage

Students move from learning about the strength to working with it. The engagement phase asks them to create, evaluate, and connect the strength to people and situations they recognize. This is where the concept starts becoming personal.

Reflect

Reflection is what turns a week of lessons into something students carry. The final phase gives them space to connect the strength to who they are — to move from "I learned about perseverance this week" to "I see myself as someone who perseveres."

Teacher proof

The model behind the results

In peer-reviewed research at the University of Vermont, P2 teachers reached 93–94% implementation fidelity — the technical term for the lesson actually getting taught the way it was designed. Hear from Julianne Riedle, a teacher at Franklin Fine Arts Center in Chicago Public Schools, on why she loves P2:

"From day one, new people, they could not make this easier on you."

- Julianne Riedle, Franklin Fine Arts Center
  • “At this point, if I were to start a school year by announcing that we would no longer be doing P2, I think there would be a revolt; it has become such a fundamental part of what we do and who we have become.”
    Joe McDonough
    Principal (now Superintendent of Canton CSD) at J.M. McKenney Middle School, Canton Central School District
  • “A sobering 34% of students agreed that students were kind to one another. … Our student perceptual data from the following year amazed us! 84% of respondents agreed or strongly agreed that students were kind to one another. 77% believed students respected the differences of others.”
    Lenny Compton
    Principal at J.L. Simpson Middle School, Loudoun County Public Schools
  • “Within a short period of time, office referrals were cut in half. … For ten years, P2 has not been treated as an ‘extra’ or an add-on.”
    Monica Coles (with Kaitlyn Brennan, Ryan Mulderig, Hannah Jones)
    Teachers at Swift Creek Elementary, Wake County Public School System
  • “That 9-point increase is more than a number—it is an encouraging reflection of the intentional work happening across our campus to help students feel that they belong, build positive relationships, and know they are a valued part of the Vista Grande community. P2 has become an important part of that work.”
    Katie Berger
    TSA Administrator at Vista Grande Elementary, San Ramon Valley Unified School District
  • “I would be the last person you would expect giving an online testimonial for The Positivity Project… But here it is, because we've been doing P2 at Todd MS for the last two plus years, and it has been a great addition to our culture and practices.”
    Daniel Doherty
    Principal at Todd Middle School, Spackenkill UFSD
  • “If you have good character, you're going to make it — regardless of if you're not the best speller, or the best mathematician, or the best reader. You have good character. You're going to make it in life.”
    Dr. Virginia Hill
    Principal at Lincoln Elementary, Pittsburgh Public Schools
  • “Four brand-new teachers on my staff didn't skip a beat.”
    Donelle Kellom
    Principal at Clovis Elementary, Clovis Unified School District
  • “When a child can have a conversation with another child instead of running to get an adult, they really started to own the relationships that they were building… and that's what starts to change the culture on the playground and the culture in the classroom.”
    Lisa Vuola
    Learning Director, Multilingual Services at Clovis Unified School District