The Goodness Factor
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How it works

A character education curriculum built on what children actually do.

Most programs teach values from a poster. The Goodness Factor starts from the act: a teacher sees a child share, help, tell the truth or care for a plant, records it in thirty seconds, and the child earns Goodness Points. Over a semester, that becomes a record a child can be proud of.

Bring it to your schoolSee the Goodness Matrix

Helped a younger student find their classroom

Liam · Compassion and care · witnessed by Ms. Rivera

+10

+5Harmony week · Grade 2

One week

Witness, record, grow

Three steps, repeated every week, in every class. No prize store, no leaderboard on the wall, no extra paperwork.

  1. 1

    Witness

    A teacher sees an act of goodness: water shared, a quarrel calmed, a plant watered, the truth told when it was hard. The Goodness Matrix says which category it belongs to.

  2. 2

    Record

    Thirty seconds on a phone: who, what, done. Every entry is witnessed and attributed to the teacher who saw it. An everyday act earns 10 points, the value Mohanji set.

  3. 3

    Grow

    Points, badges and the class tree grow. Families see it the same day. Schools earn alongside the child, and the record belongs to the child and the family.

Harmony week

Five points for a week without harm to anyone

Mohanji's baseline: everybody gets five points for non-violence. Once a week the teacher confirms the class. A child who hurt someone is simply not confirmed that week; the counselor takes it from there.

+5Harmony week+10An act of goodness+25Sustained effort · proposed+50Initiative · proposed

Mohanji set 5 and 10. The higher tiers, the badges and the deduction values are proposals awaiting his decision, and they are labelled that way wherever they appear.

Goodness Matrix

Seven domains, 21 categories, every age from 4 to 18

Peace, sharing, compassion, respect, honesty, nature and service. Each category has examples for four age bands, so a kindergarten teacher and a high-school teacher recognize the same goodness at the right level.

  • Badges by category

    A Leaf at three acts in a category, a Flower at ten with a sustained effort, a Fruit for an initiative that helped others. Badges mark categories, never rank. (Proposed.)

  • The class tree

    Every act is a leaf on the class tree. The classroom sees the tree grow together; nobody sees a child's total on the wall.

  • Everyone earns

    Teachers earn for mentoring, families earn for acts at home, the school earns when it excels at creating good people.

Explore the full Goodness Matrix →

“Picking up a fight is very easy. Preventing is very difficult.”

Mohanji, on why peace comes first

When a child causes harm

Goodness earns, harm costs, and everyone is redeemable

Deductions exist, and they are small and proportionate. They are entered with the counselor, never alone, and every one of them has a way back: an apology, a repair, a week of helping the person who was harmed. The restoration returns exactly what the deduction took.

  • Restoration, not punishment

    A deduction stays private, is shown in a neutral color, and is never a label. When the child makes it right, the record says so, and the points come back.

  • Counseling first

    Mohanji's design asks that half of teachers be trained as counselors. The counselor's note stays with the counselor; the class teacher sees only that it happened and that it was restored.

Who does what

Three roles, one record

  • Teachers

    Record acts for their own classes and confirm Harmony week. Thirty seconds, on a phone, in the hallway if needed.

  • Counselors

    Handle deductions and restorations, and see every child's record so nothing is missed.

  • Admins

    Set up the school, create classes, invite staff with a code, and see the school at a glance: who was recognized, who was not, which class trees are growing.

See it in your own school

A pilot runs a full semester: every class, counseling first, teachers trained in half a day. Free for the pilot school.

For schoolsCreate your school