What is EarlyAct?
EarlyAct FirstKnight® (or EAFK) is a proprietary program of The Knights of The Guild. Sponsored by Rotary Clubs, EAFK motivates and teaches elementary and middle school children to become civil, service-oriented people during their most formative years. Schools are interested in character education programs for students and many have embraced this program. Experts agree (Gibbon, 1776; Black, 1995; Bonta, 2005.) that the survival of any culture depends upon the ethical strength and moral courage of its people. Just as these historians attribute the fall of ancient Rome to moral decline, any society can be destroyed from the inside if the character values of its citizenry are compromised. Once part of a traditional family upbringing, studies show that healthy values are being taught less today than ever before (Damon, 2005; Elliott, 2004; Greenwalt, 1996; Wakefield, 1997; Burke et al, 2001). Basic concepts like respect, personal responsibility, honesty, compassion, fairness, tolerance, and service to others are becoming increasingly unfamiliar to young people. To arrest this decline, the instruction of character values must be integrated into daily mainstream public education and treated as important as reading, writing, math, or science. So urgent is this need, that 36 states have enacted bipartisan legislation that either mandates or strongly encourages character education in their public school curriculum. Seven additional states are on record for supporting character education in their public schools, but have not yet created legislation.
Why "knights"? The word, “knight”, means “servant”, and every major culture in the world had its equivalent of the knightly class, such as the Samurai of Japan, the Han Warrior of China, the Bengal Lancers of India, the Knights of Islam, the African Cavalry, and the Native American brave. The common threads between all these groups, as well as their modern contemporaries, are that they each had collective codes of noble conduct, and all of their members were imperfect human beings. So yes, the knightly class has their share of poor examples in history, but so does politics, the clergy, the military, law enforcement and every other institution comprised of people. We don’t negate them all just because of a few bad actors; instead, we celebrate the best of all chivalric cultures that lived by a code of honor. It is not the imperfect individual we esteem, but rather the chivalric ideals that inspired and guided the best of them.