Awareness High School

SXSW was a blast! What a privilege to present and attend. March 8 was the launch date for Awareness High School on YouTube.

We had a wonderful time at SXSW creating a vision for the future of education. March 8 was the launch date for Awareness High School on YouTube!

Teaching our young people to have compassion demands that we teach them an understanding of what it means to be human. That means looking at the good, the bad, and the ugly. If we deny them this we provide only a biased view of reality, and a biased view perpetuates racism.

It’s a Friday afternoon at Beach Channel High School in Queens, New York. There are eleven sections of the course Interpersonal Communication in session and each one of these classes has a sign on the door “Do Not Enter Guided Fantasy in Session.” The students in these classes are taking time to explore their own inner worlds; taking time to discover their inner most dreams and aspirations; and taking time to relax into the power of their own personal potential. The ideas and experiences of this book will give you an opportunity to do the same.

“These are the best years of your life.” Do you find that hard to believe? I know when I was a teenager I thought anyone who said that to me was crazy. Yet, these are some of the most dynamic years of your life. You are developing at a greater and faster pace than at any other time in your life other than when you were an infant. You have the ability to process and retain more information now than you ever will, and you are in the throes of establishing yourself as an individual who is creating a future of your own design.

The role of any educational system is to provide you with the information and experiences you will need to enable you make the choices that give you a sense of self and purpose in your life. Despite the focus on academic achievement (as measured by standardized testing), there is still work to be done to help you make a connection with what you are learning. Are you equipped to explore what is truly important to you? Do you know how to find what will make you feel fulfilled? Are you learning the skills that you need to succeed in your mission? If you have asked yourself these questions once, twice or maybe even daily, then you will enjoy the ideas, stories, examples, demonstrations and exercises outlined in this book.

If you are a teenager on a quest you might have found this book on your own; or, maybe, you are a parent who had an “ah-ha” moment and seized this book as a tool to assist you in finding “the missing link” in your child’s education. Perhaps you are a teacher looking for an opportunity to try some new techniques in the classroom.

Anyone can use the exercises and techniques outlined in this book independently or as part of a group to unlock inner knowing, intuition and capacity to connect with what is important to succeed in life. The skills presented in Awareness High School provide support that you can use throughout your entire life.

Many of the techniques have been adapted from some of the great teachers of the human potential movement, mind dynamics, health and well being, and communications. Some of these techniques were originally developed for adults, to help them discover their innate power and potential. Well, it’s about time that they were made available to young people, like yourself. Awareness High School makes these techniques available to teenagers at the point in life when it is natural to explore identity and what can be done to impact the world. Each chapter contains a lesson about a different strategy you can use for your best advantage. Many of the techniques can be used to assist you in any course of study you are now pursuing, or in the development of a future vision. The techniques can be used to achieve greater results in many domains.

Give students an opportunity to become more aware of their own power and potential in determining their destiny and the contribution they can make to the planet. Share Awareness High School with students as Betsy DeVos tries to make our students more compliant and complacent and is more interested in arming teachers rather than empowering them to do their jobs of opening young minds to discovery.

Stayed tuned. Developing a new song and video for Awareness High School!

The 'Grandma Effect' is used by Cloud University to encourage young street kids in India to go beyond their limits to achieve skills and know-how they didn't even imagine possible. A 'grandma' stands in back of a child at a computer and encourages them by saying, "Wow, look what you are doing. I could never do that. You are amazing." With such encouragements students progress at a greater capacity, surpassing typical norms.

Students need encouragement to go beyond their accepted capabilities to excel in areas of interest that are suitable for them. They learn from within by reaching for awareness in sources that may just lie beyond the text book, encouraged by those who play the 'grandma role'.

Call me babaabba. I encourage the grandma effect in our schools.

You can use your intuitive powers to tap into information that is all around you. Just relax and allow your own inner wisdom to guide you to what is appropriate for you.

How are we educating our children in the face of rising bigotry and hatred among American adults? How can we teach compassion? It is compassion that should be the fashion not Ivanka's shoes.

What's the purpose of life? "To be the eyes and ears and conscience of the creator of the universe." - Kilgore Trout in Kurt Vonnegut's Breakfast of Champions