Stan El, Chairperson
Bob Riccio, Cumberland County Tech Ed Center

Chuck Mancini, 

Emergency Services Advisor Association Chair
Diane Cole-Metivier —Advisor



www.learning-for-life.org

Learning for life is designed to support classroom teaching and help prepare the students to handle the complexities of contemporary society. Lessons are age-appropriate and develop social and life skills, assist in character development, and formulate positive personal values.


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Exploring Division News

SUPPLEMENTAL PROGRAMS FOR EXPLORER POSTS AND SENIOR HIGH SCHOOL GROUPS

CAREER ACHIEVEMENT AWARD PROGRAM

Background - Learning for Life programs involve active learning and include lots of fun-filled, hands-on activities.  Learning for Life promotes the conditions necessary for the growth and development of adolescents. The following are the key components of the Learning for Life Career Achievement Award programs, which allow young people to acquire and be recognized for career proficiency achievement and community serv-ice.

Purpose - The purpose of the Learning for Life Career Achievement Award program is to Provide direction to Explorers and student participants in individual career proficiency.
Requirements -Explorers or Learning for Life participants can earn a Career Achievement Award in one or all of the 12 career clusters. To earn a Career Achievement Award, the candidate must provide 50 hours of community service and complete any nine career achievements. The Explorer post Advisor or adult high school Learning for Life group leader certifies that each Explorer or Learning for Life participant has satisfacto-rily performed 50 hours of community service and verifies that each candidate has completed at least nine achievements within the career cluster.

Recognition - The Learning for Life Career Achievement Award Certificate (No. 32194) has space for both the signa-tures of both the adult leader and organization head. Certificates are available through the local Learning for Life
office as well as through the Supply Division (toll-free phone, 800-323-0732). Adult leaders may purchase a quantity of the certificates and present them as merited.

Qualifying Achievements – Because of the flexible nature of the program, Advisors and adult leaders are permitted a reasonable degree of latitude in substituting appropriate achievements that serve to meet the requirements for the Learning for Life Career Achievement Award.

Character Education in Exploring
In the Learning for Life program, you will hear the belief in experiential learning and the values and ethical principles that this kind of learning seeks to promote being referred to as character education. The following are the key components of character education in Exploring.

Learning Through Experiences – Exploring is experiential learning with lots of fun filled, hands-on activities. It promotes the conditions necessary for the growth and development of adolescent youth. (This is illustrated in the Explorer Leader Handbook, No. 34637A.)

Young people need experiences that allow them to -
1. Interact with peers and acquire a sense of belonging
2. Gain experiences in decision making
3. Discuss conflicting values and formulate their own value systems
4. Reflect on self in relation to others and discover more about themselves by interaction
5. Experiment with their own identity
6. Participate as a responsible member of a group
7. Cultivate a capacity to enjoy life
     Exploring can provide these experiences in wholesome, well-planned programs run by post members.

Problem-Solving Skills – The way young people
learn to reason about and solve problems and make choices will stay with them the rest of their lives. Explorer Advisors can do a great deal to help the youth in posts learn a simple decision-making process that can help them make choices and resolve problems. (See the Explorer Leader Handbook, No. 34637A, and Character Education Activities; No.99-223.)
Explorers can use this practical three-step process to solve problems:
1. Empathy.  Put yourself in the other person's place.
2. Invent.  Invent as many solutions to the problem as you can, without trying to decide which is best.
3. Selection.  List the advantages and disadvantages of each option and then select the one that comes closest to meeting the needs of everyone involved.

Initiative Games - Initiative games are fun, cooperative, challenging games in which the group is confronted with a specific problem to solve.  In Exploring we use initiative games for two reasons.  First, initiative games demonstrate and teach leadership skills, which help to promote the growth of Explorers.  Second, initiative games demonstrate a process of thinking about experiences that helps Explorers learn and become responsible citizens.

Here are a few suggestions for conducting the games:
1. Begin by clearly explaining the game.
2. Don't offer ideas for solving the problem.
3.   Reflect on the activity. Spend a few minutes after-ward talking with the Explorers about what they learned.
     Below is a list of games you can get from the Explorer Leader Handbook, No. 34637A. The handbook also lists sources of more games.

Character Education Activity
A character education activity is a particular type of problem-solving situation. It often is complex in nature and usually involves ethical issues. Because a character education activity is a problem-solving situation, it is important that post members employ empathy, inven-tion, and selection when they think through their positions on the issues and work toward a solution. The following character education activities are available in Character Education Activities, No.99-223:
         Instructions for Character Education Activity; The Adversary System; Armtech Vendor; Can Food and Water Be Denied?; Censorship; Competition; Entrapment; Equipment Donation; Fast-Buck Freddy; Interracial Friendship; Marginal Chemical; Moonlighting; Paternalism; A Perfect Bust; Who Owns Your Knowledge?; Jobs Versus Birds; Capital Punishment; Not in My Backyard; E-Mail Etiquette; Loyalty to What?; Jury Duty; Animal Research; Quotas; Self-Defense; Sharon Overheard; Tainted Money; and The Morality of Wealth.

The character education activity encourages the development of the following personal skills:
1. Promoting productive conflict
2. Polite disagreement
3. Listening to new ideas
4. Understanding other people's perspectives
5. Working toward a solution that the group involved will support and implement

     Why are character education activities so important? They're important because whether we know it or not, they're all around us, all the time. We have an ongoing potential for making decisions that affect the quality and value of our lives, the lives of others, and the world we live in

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Revised:  10/20/2007 03:30 PM