Rationale
We Operate Under the
Premise that:
Nearly all of our SOCIAL problems, school dropouts, school violence, school bullying
(and work bullying), drunk driving, street muggings, abuses of power and
other criminal activities are failures in SOCIAL/EMOTIONAL development. (A
tiny percentage are the result of mental illness.)
All of the above
and other abuses of power are misguided, emotionally immature attempts to
fill a need or the warped result of a lifetime of unfilled needs. (Please
see box: Human Needs.)
The profile of
the students who fail to live responsibly (See box: At-Risk Student) is the
opposite of the profile of the student who lives responsibly, graduates,
gets job training or college, votes, pays taxes etc..
Any elementary
school can teach students constructive ways to fill their needs if they have
the right information, the whole picture, the right tools and they start
young enough that the students have not developed deeply seated destructive
thinking—that means kindergarten, first grade, second grade, etc..
We Must Do the Whole School at Once to Create a Culture of
Consideration and Respect that Is Reinforcing to Each Student, Anywhere in
the School.
We must begin no later than K-1-2-3-4-5
| We teach or help develop |
Which helps the student develop these |
| Social skills |
Confidence, friendships |
| Assertiveness skills |
Power over her/his own life |
| Multiple talents—every student has many
talents |
Sense of self worth, new skills, self
confidence |
| Connect their talents to real possibilities |
Hope, the expectation that there are places
in the world where they can do well |
| Recognize and express emotions appropriately |
Ways to interact with others in a respectful
manner and develop self-control |
| Identify the feelings of others by their body
language and facial expressions |
A realistic and accurate appraisal of
non-hostility when there is none there |
| Empathy and acceptance of differences |
Tolerance |
Many of these characteristics connected to life
success can be supported--even created in the school setting. Parents, if they have the
depth of understanding, the skills and the emotional balance themselves, can have the
greatest impact on our young. But many parents don't know how, are working
two jobs or are too dysfunctional themselves. Schools must pick up the slack.
If staff is properly
trained, they can work wonders with those who have started down the wrong path or who are
hearing negative messages away from school.
*Scientists believe there may be a percentage of
persons whose brains are "wired" such that they cannot see the wrongness of
certain acts, and others who, though they can see society punishes certain acts and
intellectually know a given act is "wrong," have no ability to feel remorse
(even if they had grown up in the ideal environment). Fetal alcohol syndrome may be one
such example of "mis-wiring." It is believed that students suffering from
"mis-wirings" are a very small minority of misbehaving students.
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Better Grades, Best Behaviors