Peer-Community and Educational Reform

Imagine a fully integrated approach to inspiring and challenging our youth of today... aware of our problems and quickly focusing on creative solutions. The human race has entered a new era, a revolution in educational methodologies.

We are unveiling the embryo of an integrated master plan that could solve our educational and behavioral difficulties- unifying youth and adults while building individual and community respect.

We need solutions to bridge concepts and creators, chaotic experiences with order and structure. Chaos is only the beginning of the process of establishing natural order. Conflict, used wisely, evolves into harmony. Can we acknowledge that we have been going in the wrong direction?

Better yet, can we accept that we have done the best we could with limited information and resources and now have better information and greater resources to affect positive change? Spectrum Academy offers solutions today that will change the patterns of problems of today by offering habilitating healthy habits for tomorrow. Please join us in this endeavor to empower our youth, now and for future generations.

In our world today, children suffer. Across America and the world, the suffering continues and the complexity of the issues rise exponentially as the global village expands. Educational systems, family environments and welfare agencies, no longer nurture the creative spark in our children; the love and care every child deserves and needs. Children who overcame the myriad of abusive scenarios are teaching others, both young and old, of the necessity to love and be loved.

Many youth are caught in a frustrating correctional system that is challenged to reduce recidivism. Repairing emotional rips and tears in the family unit, if there is one, challenges yet another overburdened system. The survivors are doing a fantastic job in nurturing those they can, sharing volumes of experience, harvesting their past and showing the rest of us the path to a new approach, which shares accountability and responsibility. A nurturing environment that provides emotional and intellectual freedom to respond and grow personally and socially demonstrates a caregiver community's love.

Anyone who works with at-risk youth understands that much more can be done toward addressing his or her needs. In the U.S. alone, many are warehoused in group homes with little or no opportunity to develop the necessary life skills to survive and thrive in today's world. Job markets are shifting faster than academic programs can keep up.

Rather than create environments that nurture multiple and emotional intelligences, we drug our youth into submission and wonder why they choose to self-medicate and defy the 'system' that holds them captive. Adaptive systems and 'wrap-around' models in social services still only address the problems and symptoms of this decay in moral servitude. Peer-community facilitators, as change agents, are few and far between in the development of alternative solutions to this growing problem. Developing a model community that demonstrates integrated solutions seems to be in order.

Peer-community facilitators, as change agents, are rare in the development of alternative solutions to this growing problem: disenfranchised youth. Spectrum Academy is a potent answer to the current crisis facing our educational and juvenile systems today. It is a combination of a youth residential treatment center (RTC), charter school, and community technology center (CTC).

This concept encompasses the value of education as emotional rips repair, because an emotionally unavailable youth cannot learn effectively. The community technology center promotes positive social interaction while facilitating the delivery of inexpensive e-curriculum to its patrons and to the vast array of charter schools that are struggling with the high costs of state-of-the-art education.

It seems our very survival, according to the analysis of socio-economic systems, depends on consumerism, cultural genocide, and environmental destruction for the sake of fossil fuels, fast foods, and corporate profits. This behavior affects our children immensely as they see no 'common sense' in our survival living styles. The old formulas simply do not work anymore; students are dull and listless in the classrooms, yet need healthy rites of passage.

Emotionally and intellectually disenfranchised youth internalize their anger and act out in unprecedented violence toward self and others. Traditional education has not addressed the growing emotional and intellectual needs of our children; the connectedness of mind, body, and spirit. Currently, the situation regarding at-risk youth is cumbersome and oblique in regards to understanding the 'big picture' and the solutions necessary to empower our youth. A new myth is in process of creation and you can participate right now, today. Are you ready?

Opportunity Summary

Ted and Nancy Faust Sizer wrote in their book, The Students are Watching, "A student's hope and sense of agency is often dependent on her sense that there is something that she can do which is valued by others". Spectrum Academy's unique program offers students structure to find success in new experiences and provide valuable work opportunities, reflecting increased personal value and self-esteem. Nurturing the individual is an important part of this plan. The disciplined structure provided some latitude and offered students the guidance to learn how to make positive choices in their lives.

Vision: Spectrum Academy, a proactive and progressive holistic educational environment, identifies and addresses the changing developmental and personal needs of challenged youths, empowering transformational change toward self-awareness and community participation.

Holistic education is concerned with the growth of every person's intellectual, emotional, social, physical, artistic, creative and spiritual potentials. We are unique as a leader in the research, design, and implementation of holistic education using state-of-the-art technologies. Our collaborative alliances and partnerships with industry leaders bridge 21st Century learners with 21st Century technology and our emerging global culture.

Mission: Provide an alternative state-of-the-art holistic educational and living environment for youth 14 - 21 using peer-community development protocols and transformative processes, supportive of the community socio-economic structure, resulting in habilitated and productive young adults who contribute to society.

We believe our first responsibility is to prepare the students to meet the challenges of the rapidly changing world around them. A holistic strategy in a peer-based community atmosphere facilitates students to perceive and understand the various contexts that shape and give meaning to life. Introducing students to a holistic view of the planet, life on Earth, the emerging world community, and the students' interdependence demonstrates best practices of systems thinking.

The environment and staff will nurture the development of emotional and multiple intelligences empowering each student's personal growth. Engaging systems thinking requires student involvement in the research and design of their educational process, which creates ownership of learning. A collaborative approach toward problem solving develops critical interpersonal skills. Emerging technologies and their integration into our curriculum provide the students with real-time real-world experiences that prepare them for entering post-secondary life.

Visionary perspectives lead to paradigm changes in society. Our world faces critical situations in developing our future society. Humanity is ripe for change. Primary areas of concern are commerce, education, administration of resources, and intense exploration into the depths of what keeps us afraid, angry, ignorant and immobile.

Key Recommendations

Spectrum Academy is a potential answer to the current crisis. It is a combination of a youth residential treatment center (RTC), charter school, and community technology center (CTC). Experience and research have shown that these three areas can indeed work as one, which is what we intend to demonstrate through the creation of such an environment. We call this environment Spectrum Academy. The charter school is our first order of business.

A healthy life includes several areas of mastery, which most adults still have difficulty achieving in their daily living and working experience. Youth today have an even more demanding scenario as the world around them is changing rapidly. These basic areas of focus include Work; Intellect; Life Planning; Fulfillment; Recreation; Motivations; Health; and Relationships.

Spectrum Academy, an educational corporation, has determined that the synergy of the residential treatment center, charter school, and community technology center is what will determine a successful endeavor as the process develops through best practices of pedagogy and management philosophy.

Sustainability is achieved through the integration of a community technology center including an e-commerce feature offering on-site e-curriculum, web hosting, e-storage, distance learning, and more as subscription-based services. The students, under direct supervision, will play a major role in the development and maintenance of this data center.

In turn, as the public awareness of Spectrum Academy grows, the subscription and e-commerce features will supplement the financial needs initially. Projections indicate that this feature will capitalize on developing technology and could indeed provide for all the financial requirements of Spectrum Academy within three years. This 'sustainability' piece is what has been lacking in previous attempts to service this population.

Repairing emotional rips and tears in the family unit, if there is one, challenges yet another overburdened system. The survivors are doing a fantastic job in nurturing those they can, sharing volumes of experience, harvesting their past and showing the rest of us the path to a new approach, which shares accountability and responsibility. A nurturing environment that provides emotional and intellectual freedom to respond and grow personally and socially demonstrates a caregiver community's love.

Innovative Community and Student Support

Spectrum Academy involves recurring themes throughout successful educational and youth programs, which are intensive family involvement; peer mentorship; intensive psychological treatment that includes all aspects of their lives; the use of animals as metaphor and therapy; a return to nature; stringent structure; individualized programs; and the instruction of new coping and living strategies. Habilitation of our youth is a priority at Spectrum Academy. Developing a peer-based community that reduces recidivism through effective education of conflict resolution applied to individual and group environments is one of our primary goals.

Keys to Success

Function

The function of holistic education within the community exemplifies the systems approach in business, education, and community. The cohesive and comprehensive approach integrates the current and future needs of our developing local and global communities. It is the total immersion of the student in their environment, utilizing best practices of educational processes, and connecting real-world exploration that prepares students with critical thinking, problem-solving, and entrepreneurial skills to meet life's callings. Ultimately we all seek some joy of living; enjoyment of life.

Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi's research identifies some interesting details that not only acknowledge the obvious; they reveal potential structure for creating environments that illicit personal and professional growth, which is so necessary for the future of students and their success in life.

"As our studies have suggested, the phenomenology of enjoyment has eight major components. When people reflect on how it feels when their experience is most positive, they mention at least one, and often all of the following. First, the experience usually occurs when we confront tasks we have a chance of completing. Second, we must be able to concentrate on what we are doing. Third and fourth, the concentration is usually possible because the task undertaken has clear goals and provides immediate feedback. Fifth, one acts with a deep but effortless involvement that removes from awareness the worries and frustrations of everyday life. Sixth, enjoyable experiences allow people to exercise a sense of control over their actions. Seventh, concern for the self disappears, yet paradoxically the sense of self emerges stronger after the flow experience is over. Finally, the sense of the duration of time is altered; hours pass by in minutes, and minutes can stretch out to seem like hours. The combination of all these elements causes a sense of deep enjoyment that is so rewarding people feel that expending a great deal of energy is worthwhile simply to be able to feel it." (Flow, 1990)

Given these factors and the capacity to meet them in an educational environment, we feel that not only will the students have the opportunity to experience success academically; the community, of which the school is a part, will experience success in real-world models as they develop their future vision, engage their peers, and extend their influence into society. The inclusion of a percentage of disenfranchised youth in the school population effectively cleans the fish tank instead of just wiping off the fish. The results are empowered youth who can make positive choices and provide leadership for their peers.

Holistic education means that the organization itself has to be aware and functional within the realms of mind, body, and spirit. On a pragmatic level, this means that we consider the 'total system' of a human being in process of development. Gardner found that there are multiple intelligences at work in the learning system of a student.

Goleman brought emotional intelligences to our awareness. Others, like Steiner and Montessori, have attempted to address these intelligences in their own ways, whether acknowledging them outright or just by knowing there is a 'better' way to prepare youth for the journey of life.

Csikszentmihalyi, Covey, Drucker, DeBono, Peters, and Senge are all pointing toward personal and organizational transformation through understanding the connectedness of people and process. Systems-thinking is a core competency of that kind of organization. The 'systems' approach here is to identify and nurture the natural skill sets of the individual in order for them to find their natural order and place within the collective, evidencing and exampling a holistic lifestyle that affects positive change.

Traditional structure found in both business and education is hedging the idea of initiative and innovation through understanding the need for collaborative alliances - cooperation instead of competition. Edward DeBono clearly addresses this concept below:

"At any moment our thinking is shaped by a number of factors. Sometimes we are aware of these factors and sometimes they are so much in the background that they exert their powerful influence in a hidden way. We can challenge these shaping factors just as we challenge existing methods, concepts, or ideas. But in this case we are not challenging something that already exists. We are challenging the factors and pressures that lead us to think in a certain way." (Serious Creativity, 1992)

Leading innovative peer-community student programs and services:

Problem-solving and reasoning skills: Children who think that there are only two ways to solve problems--fight or give-up--are more likely to become either perpetrators or victims of violence. Children's ability to reason well can give them a wider variety of options than just fighting or running. Children who are more proficient at generating and evaluating options in academic and social settings are less likely to choose violent ways of solving conflicts and promote the same behavior tendencies in others.

Social capacities: These skills, attitudes, and dispositions include development of empathy, effective communication, humor, and attachment to positive, non-violent individuals or groups. Understanding another person's point of view and having concern for other persons can help students generate a wider variety of options--some of which may be mutually acceptable. Students must be able both to listen with understanding and to be understood. The ability to laugh and create moments where others, too, feel more light-hearted can often become one of the most successful options to reducing violent responses. Humor can also enable someone not to immediately take things too personally. The ability to be a friend and have friends can create a stronger desire to find non-violent ways of solving conflicts.

A productive sense of purpose, independence, and power: Children who are more likely to turn to violence have no hope in the future. Conversely, children who believe they can control their lives and want to direct their lives in positive and productive ways are more likely to seek non-violent means to resolve conflict.

Peer mediation programs:

• Teach students to view conflict as a natural part of life
• Teach students to solve their own problems
• Improve communication, critical thinking and negotiation skills
• Reduce the time teachers and administrators spend on discipline
• Reduce the number of detentions and suspensions
• Promote intercultural understanding
• Foster a climate within the school that is conducive to learning

Initial assessments of students/clients in:

• Aptitude and Ability
• Multiple Intelligences
• Emotional Intelligences
• Learning Styles
• Holistic Understanding
• Special Needs
• Systems Thinking Awareness

Key Products and Services

Description

Qualities and Dimensions of Effective Youth Education

Effective youth education responds to the real lives, needs and interests of youth.

• Youth feel like they matter.
• Holistic education is innovative and dynamic.
• There is not one model - in this environment there is a relational pattern of knowing youth; innovating and changing in order to be responsive.

Hospitality and relationship building are foundational to effective youth education.

• Young people are welcomed and accepted.
• Extending personal invitations, providing warm groups is intentional and ongoing.
• Web of relationships: youth with youth, youth with adults, business community with youth, youth in their families.

Effective youth education has a variety of ways for youth to be involved.

• Boundaries between programs are permeable.
• Holistic education is multifaceted.
• There are variety of levels of participation among youth and their families.

In effective education, youth are active in making positive changes happen (youth are not passive receivers of learning.)

• Youth have ownership of their education efforts.
• Youth share leadership in programs and visioning.
• Youth relate and share their success with their peers.
• Leading programs help youth grow in their own empowerment and self-esteem.

SPECIFIC PROGRAMS / COMPONENTS

Holistic Education Formation

Education with adolescents most often begins with real life issues and connects learning to life. Learning formation is at the heart of youth education. To be effective and engaging with youth, learning formation has these qualities:

• Facilitated by open-minded, authentic, passion-filled adults
• Engages youths' energies toward inclusion rather than exclusion
• Includes community building, peer and social
• Includes peer sharing, empowerment and leadership
• Includes animal care and gardening/landscaping
• Teaches about personal identity and relation to the world
• Seizes teachable moments as the most precious commodity
• Is experiential, active and innovative in the rapid-change environments
• Doesn't feel like school - doesn't lecture or have too much focus on textbooks.

Community Service

The experience of service helps youth grow in compassion and understanding. An effective method of engaging youth in community service is educational reflection - connecting acts of service to learning, peer-community social teachings and everyday life. These experiences:

• Change their perspective
• Broaden their awareness
• Create empathy
• Help youth feel valuable
• Make life real - hands on and heart-centered
• Form community

Leadership

Youth have a different way of expressing understanding within daily living - it is more sensual. Youth's expression of connecting school-to-living in daily life needs incorporation into the celebration of success. Music and wholesome activities are important for youth to engage in their experience. The involvement of youth in community service brings tremendous value to the community - providing energy, skill and powerful presence. For the young people it builds confidence, self-esteem, and helps them develop life goals.

Extended Trips

Trips, camps, conferences and regional events are important because they:

• Help youth feel pride and enthusiasm in their transformation
• Build community among youth
• Build community between youth and adults
• Create opportunities for leadership
• Amaze young people by connecting them with large numbers of other youths in the community.

Retreats

Youth retreats have a unique ability to touch the hearts of young people, build communities of service, help youth to grow closer to their own inner fortitude and draw youth back into active involvement in life. Retreats change the lives of young people. Studies have shown:

• Youth mentioned the life changing impact.
• Adult leaders frequently mentioned some aspect of peer community/leadership.
• Staff recognize profound positive changes in youth.

Educational Assessments

Linking assessment to instruction - embedding it in the process of learning - is critical to full implementation of new science standards. To allow students to construct learning in the classroom through authentic experiences, assessment must be:

• Open-ended, allowing for discussion and revision of new understanding.
• Tolerant of divergent thinking and promote the notion of no "one right answer."
• Presented in alternative modes, not just written responses to limiting questions.
• Designed to foster analysis, comparison, generalization, prediction, and modification.
• Capable of promoting collaboration and team effort in demonstration of competence.
• Ongoing and cumulative, showing growth over time. (NCREL, 2003)

Design of the Assessment Process

• Student, faculty, and administrative goals and objectives to improve student academic achievement
• Statements about how much responsibility the faculty have for the design and implementation of the assessment plan
• Role of faculty development and training in assessment
• How to utilize faculty expertise in the assessment process
• Program reviews for academic departments
• How the school can use students, faculty, and administrators in its multiple measures
• Role of administrators in the areas of budgeting, resource allocation, and time management for the assessment plan

Competitive Comparison

"A spiritualized education would seek to open the mind, warm the heart and awaken the spirit of each student. It would provide opportunities for students to be creative, contemplative, and imaginative. It would allow time to tell old and new stories of heroes, ideals and transformation. It would encourage students to go deep, into themselves, into nature, and into human affairs. It would value service to others and the planet." (Spirituality, April 14, 2003)

Research has determined that there are few, if any, that apply the complete concept of Spectrum Academy. Several residential programs include elements of holistic education, peer-mediation/community, and/or community technology centers. Spectrum Academy is a Vision of Value for empowering disenfranchised youth caught in the throws of insolence and maturation. A full comparison on Spectrum Academy's competition would take substantially more research and recommended as part of further development.

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About the Author: 'Zen' Benefiel has served in a variety of capacities across multiple industries and organizational roles including aerospace manufacturing & production, event management & production, training & development and multi-media production. He is an author, facilitator and transformational coach; labeled a 'possibilities coagulator' by renown author and performance expert, Dudley Lynch. For more information, please visit Be The Dream or peruse his blog - Creating Harmony in the Chaos. Available by phone: 1-480-633-7179