Self-Empowerment and Awareness (SEA) Curriculum

Educating children for self-awareness, personal strength and a solid emotional foundation

Our society is experiencing an increase of uncontrolled anger, bullying and violence.  We are not yet able to identify people who have no appropriate ways to express and resolve feelings, which, if ignored, can escalate into violence against themselves or others.  People, who would gladly help, feel lost as to how to help.

The vocational choice of one man has influenced how we in the Western world look at ourselves.  If Freud had been a teacher, not a physician, there would be no such thing as “mental illness.”  His curiosity and introspection would most likely have resulted in classes to explore human emotions.  Emotional ignorance vs. emotional self-knowledge would have been a course of study, rather than today's "problem" of mental "illness” and mental “health." 

I have created a curriculum designed to address emotional ignorance by integrating psychological self-awareness into education.  It was successfully piloted in high school health and English classes.  It fosters self-reflection, self-esteem, the ability to identify and express feelings and to find understanding and acceptance of both self and others.  Exercises and discussions teach concepts that are immediately applicable as well as helpful and liberating to children for the rest of their lives.  

The SEA curriculum helps children identify emotional struggles and gives them direction on what to do about those struggles.  It enables children to learn where their true power lies - in the expression and then understanding and acceptance of their feelings.  This clarity of self-awareness leads to positive action, as opposed to impulsive acting out.  The curriculum, based on a solid philosophical paradigm, helps children feel empowered as they make order out of the chaos of their emotions. 

The structure of the SEA curriculum provides a guide for adults on how to respond to children, and enables adults to identify children who are unable to resolve their feelings.  The curriculum is simple, clear and accompanied by a book, Love Now ~ Untangling Relationships, that makes the core concepts easily understood by the teacher, who does not need to be trained in psychology.  Teachers can use the concepts to constructively address behavioral issues as they arise.

Emotional education is a viable, long-term approach to equip our children to face life in an increasingly challenging world.  It provides a way of reaching children, while they are still young, to: 

1.  educate them about their feelings and appropriate tools to manage and express those feelings

2.  identify children’s emotional blocks to success 

3.  identify children who have deeper struggles so they can be referred for more intensive help.  

Emotional intelligence determines the quality of a person's life, and yet is rarely addressed.  While we teach children about external reality, the emotional inner reality that drives their behavior and determines their well being is ignored, other than to be met with punishment when they "act out" the feelings they cannot understand, incorporate or express appropriately.

The SEA curriculum can help to address and remedy emotional ignorance, raising the consciousness of our children and therefore of the world.

The concept that people are emotionally ignorant, not mentally ill, is a revolutionary paradigm with which to understand human behavior.  With this paradigm shift comes the need for a new approach – education.   (Eg.  I do not have a Chinese "disorder.”  I have simply never studied Chinese.)

Emotional "alarms," as anger, sadness or anxiety, alert people to take action to understand underlying internal causality, just as smoke alarms call us to explore for the external cause of the alarm going off.  This concept allows people to explore issues and emotions with curiosity rather than with shame, judgment or fear.  

Teachers only need the book and curriculum.

The SEA curriculum can easily be disseminated.  I am exploring leads in the Netherlands, Germany and Switzerland, as well.

Already piloted in 2 high schools and being used in local elementary, middle and high schools, I have evaluation letters from the Dean of Students and health and English teachers that can help introduce this curriculum into as many schools as possible in the US.   

I am also exploring bringing this curriculum into the U.S. prison system.

My goal is to disseminate the SEA curriculum into schools, prisons and eventually into corporate environments as a workshop.

As this information becomes more accessible to children, school environments will also be affected, with everyone's ability to communicate and solve problems enhanced by self-understanding and a common philosophical paradigm and language of emotions. 

The pilot classes experienced a new integration of disparate sub-groups, as the students were drawn together by their common humanness, exploring and revealing struggles previously hidden.  The curriculum created openness and vulnerability - the vehicle for intimacy and the growth of self-awareness.

I intend to reach out to school systems and the prison system.  I hope for help from Solve in how best to do this.

The SEA curriculum will be used by Behavioral Intervention Specialists, Medford School District in Oregon, at the elementary, middle school and high school levels.  It will be used in small group instruction in behavioral and social skills training as well as in small group therapy. 

Teachers are able to effectively meet goals compatible with Solve's Challenge.   Basic concepts are experienced through exercises and discussions that can then be personalized to each individual's situation and needs, allowing teachers to address the common human issues with which everyone struggles.  There is no deeper creation than that of ones true self.

I hope to have a wide range of schools using the SEA curriculum.  It was extremely well received by the pilot classes with both students and teachers being very enthusiastic and responsive.  The Behavioral Intervention Specialists in Medford, Oregon are extremely excited with the program.  These responses will encourage other schools to integrate it into their programs.

I hope to have a broad outreach, with the support of Solve!

I am working with a man who is currently expanding his workshop in the U.S. prison system.  The response to this workshop is very positive and people are interested in having another workshop to follow.  That will be mine.  He is extremely good at marketing and teaching.  I am very good at creating and teaching.  Together, we can educate people about the value and potential of our work.

I am also in the process of exploring the potential for this curriculum with three people in the Netherlands, Germany and Switzerland.

This is an extremely low cost program.  If each teacher were equipped with a book and a copy of the curriculum, they would be positioned to teach this curriculum for the entirety of their career.  My interest is not to create an income source for myself, but rather to disseminate this knowledge.

So far, this program has not needed a source of funding, as I support it.  If a school or individual teacher is interested, they need only buy the book and the curriculum will accompany it.  The books will be printed as ordered.

If I were to be able to network effectively and had support to do so, I would need to employ someone to help me.  So far, everyone is volunteering as they can.

I am applying to Solve because I believe my work can advance human consciousness, inner peace and personal empowerment of both children and adults.  I am hoping that with the support and endorsement of Solve, the SEA curriculum will be able to be presented widely and more schools will want to offer this curriculum to their students.

I also would appreciate guidance in how to network and market effectively, as well as how to utilize the media to advance this program.

I am creative and a good teacher.  I do not, however, have experience or expertise in networking or marketing.  Recognition and legitimization from Solve, combined with guidance on marketing and networking, can help me  effectively reach out to schools and prisons to present the SEA curriculum.