Franklin senior will go to Smith to study, play softball
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Franklin, MA
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In kindergarten through fourth grade, charter school teachers focus explicitly on character by teaching students how to behave at school, interact with each other and give back to their community. In fifth through eighth grade, those skills are reinforced while teaching academics through the bridge activity, rap writing and other projects, O'Malley said.
Character education culminates during a capstone project students complete as seventh- and eighth-graders. The project involves researching, planning and implementing a service project such as tending gardens for the Franklin Food Pantry, administrators said.
"We try to focus on the whole student," O'Malley said, noting all students participate in weekly small group sessions that address character issues. "Parents, teachers and students buy into the idea that character education is at the heart of what we do."
Several students who participated in interviews before the committee said they didn't realize how well character is integrated into their studies until they were asked about it.
"There's a sense of community here," said Cobi Frongillo, 13, an eighth-grader. "I can name about 95 percent of the students here. I don't think that would happen in another school."
It was 1945 and Crawford, an 87-year-old Franklin Army veteran, was fighting in the Ruhy Valley in western Germany. His sergeant sent him to an old lumberyard up on a hill to see if there was any salvageable lumber. Instead, he found two German soldiers.
"I pointed my gun at them and they stood with their guns pointed at me," Crawford recalled Tuesday. "It felt like 30 minutes but it was probably only a minute."
The Germans, demoralized from losing the war, gave up. On the way back to his unit, Crawford realized his gun was unloaded when he attempted to shoot a rabbit for its meat and nothing came out of the gun.
While many stories like this are forgotten when veterans die, Crawford's tales of serving in the U.S. Army's 548th Field Artillery will be saved for future generations thanks to Regis Schratz, a Franklin teenager who interviewed Crawford and is making a video of his stories to be preserved in the Library of Congress.
The Art Center will hold its grand opening from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Residents will be able to meet teachers, learn about classes for preschoolers through adults and see paintings by their first featured artist - downtown business owner Victor Pisini.
"It's something we both have always wanted to do," Linda Kabat said. "There's not much in the area. We looked around and thought Franklin would be a great town. There are so many children and so much performing arts. We felt we'd increase the visual art."
The Art Center is one of several new businesses that have come to downtown in recent months. A barbershop, insurance agent, real estate agent and psychotherapy practice are preparing to open or have opened in recently.
"It's encouraging," said Lisa Piana, executive director of the Downtown Partnership. "We really don't have the issue that so many towns have. As soon as a space opens up, we fill it very quickly. We have a lot of businesses looking to come. ... People realize it's a great town to have a business in. The rent is still pretty affordable."