In order to meet the New York State mandate for the Dignity Act (DASA) we created a collaborative approach to designing your school’s program that can meet the challenges of harassment, as well as deliver our holistic program aimed at developing emotional intelligence which will, (1) change the school environment conducive to bullying and harassment, (2) enhance respect, appreciation, and cooperation at school and in the home, (3) alleviate many of the underlying causes of mental health problems such as substance abuse, eating disorders, and risk of suicide, and (4) facilitate better grades and test scores.
Social Emotional Learning has been continually evolving since the 1970s, developing better methods of delivering important information to students and teachers. Major studies like the Casel meta-analysis of 250 programs verified this. As such our program is the next generation of SEL, contributing to the knowledge base vital new information about love (Deutsch ’95, Fredrickson, 2013) as well as the need for teaching self-sufficiency when it comes to unconditional behavior (Deutsch ’95).
Our theory has been successfully integrated into therapeutic intervention and used for more than 15 years. Presented at major national and international psychotherapy conferences it was extremely well received by the academic and professional establishment. It has established itself as a tool for growth and prevention.
This program is designed to embrace the whole student body and offers understanding, compassion, and help for the victims, as well as the bullies. We need to understand bullying in order to get to the root causes and motivations behind these actions. The behavior hurts both the perpetrator and the victim. Our aim is to turn both into leaders. Furthermore, victims of bullying need more than just protection-they need greater self-esteem, a benefit of strengthening their emotional intelligence skills. As a result they can stand up for themselves, seek the help they need, and mentor other victims.
The type of global program we propose focuses on the development of the whole child. We integrate the concepts of Multiple Intelligence (Howard Gardner), Differentiated Instruction, Emotional Intelligence, Social and Emotional Learning and Self Science.