Education Program

A key to preventing violence in the lives of children and adolescents lies in building their internal resources to protect them against VIOLENCE. When completing a school presentation our staff’s greatest satisfaction is knowing that they were successful in providing students in the elementary, middle and high schools with concrete information to use — if and when necessary.

Violence Prevention Education Program

The Education Department has updated its non-violence curricula by adding the topics of Relational Aggression, and Cyber Bullying. We are offering a 3-session program geared towards 6th and 7th graders called “Words are Deeds”. The program defines relational aggression, giving examples of how it manifests particularly in the school setting.

We discuss the cost to victims, perpetrators and the learning environment, and finish with strategies on how to deal with it on personal, classroom, school-wide levels.

Cyber bullying is a new high-tech way to continue relational aggression, and /or emotional bullying outside the classroom. We cover the different ways children cyber bully and the very important legal issues raised by cyber bullying (since the internet is international, abuse over it is a federal offense) and also the moral implications of anonymous abuse.

We have added a new component to our existing program — the power of the bystander. The role of the bystander is currently generating a lot of interest and is felt to have great potential to effect change in many bullying situations.

For more insight into “Relational Aggression” click on this link to the Ophelia Project website.

Elementary School

3rd Grade – “Hands Are Not For Hitting”

4th Grade – “Assertively Confident”

The project originally targeting the third grade has expanded to also include the fourth grade. In both grades, ensuring students’ safety is our priority. The third grade is a six-session program and the fourth grade is four-sessions. Both are delivered once a week in 40-minute sessions.

Program topics include: feelings, bullying, conflict, and safety. The program opens and closes with our hand pledge, “I promise not to use my hand to hit or hurt another person or animal.”

Throughout the program age appropriate tools and methods are used to facilitate the learning experience to include: readings, animal and character puppets, videotapes, handout materials and student role-play.

Middle School

“Respect You, Respect Me”

The middle school program is a course exploring with middle school students their new sense of self as an adolescent, and its affect on their relationships with parents, peers, teachers and other significant people in their lives.

Program topics include bullying sexual harassment, dating violence, the dynamics of respect in “healthy” relationships and the effects when it is missing in “unhealthy” relationships.

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