SUMMARY
OF THE SECOND STEP PROGRAM
PAC PRESENTATION FROM NANCY BROWN
Nancy has been working the last
few years in conflict resolution and violence prevention. Right now,
the Second Step program is being administered in grades K through 6.
Next year the Program may also be extended to the middle school grades.
David Wheeler, our chief of police, initiated the program last year, and
has been a major proponent, as part of his proactive approach to help prevent
violence in our community. So he assembled some capable folks to
examine program curricula and decide which program they liked best.
After deciding on Second Step, they decided to start at the youngest grades,
because it is often the youngest that are in most need of help in resolving
conflicts, and because the greatest benefits can be realized at this age.
What is Second Step? It is a violence prevention curriculum designed
to reduce impulsive and aggressive behavior. It aims to reduce these
behaviors by helping kids with empathy, impulse control, and anger management.
The program is being delivered to the students through:
1. direct instruction to students,
2. transfer of training to teachers,
3. working closely with identified high risk students (not yet implemented),
and
4. involving parents (written communication and hands-on training).
Participants & Program Implementers include:
1. Community Program Officer (Officer Bob Arsenault),
2. Teachers,
3. Guidance Counselors, and
4. Program Coordinator (Nancy).
Q1: Can you include parents in the communiqués to teachers
about what is happening?
A1: At least some of these things can be sent to parents, yes.
Q2: Does this program fall apart without parents in the loop?
A2: No, but it does help if these lessons are reinforced at home.
Empathy is a cornerstone of the program, and has many components, each
of which is examined and discussed in the program, starting at the kindergarten
level. Identifying feelings, examining them, expressing them, and
listening and caring are all important components of empathy. At the
first grade level, the kindergarten curriculum is reviewed, and predictive
abilities of feelings is added. Second grade reviews and adds preferences,
cause and effect, and intentions. Third grade adds conflicting feelings,
active listening, and expressing feelings.
Impulse control is another important components, beginning with slowing
down and thinking about impulses. For role playing, hand puppets are
used: the impulsive puppy gets into trouble, and slowdown snail helps
analyze his problems and find solutions. At the kindergarten level,
solutions to conflicts might be sharing, taking turns, or trading, and paying
attention and interacting politely are practiced. First grade add more
skills, and second grade adds solution brainstorming, examining causes and
effects until a good solution is found, and then deciding on the steps for
implementing the solution. Third grade adds even more skills such as
dealing with peer pressure, joining conversations, and resisting lying and
stealing impulses.
Anger management at the kindergarten level includes understanding when
they are angry and calming down by taking a deep breath and counting, then
practicing these skills. First grade adds anger cues, self talk,
and reflection, staying out of a fight, and dealing with being hurt or
name calling. Each successive grade adds more skills and practice.
[Nancy discusses the program in greater detail than is covered here,
and it is great to see the incremental approach it uses. Folks that
are interested can contact her for more information.]
At this point, Nancy shows meeting attendees a segment from the Second
Step Program video, which can be borrowed from the school.
The video can help us understand the program, and how to reinforce program
instruction at home. Questions?
Q3: How often do kids participate in the program?
A3: Once per week, and there are a total of 15 to 28 weeks of lessons.
Q4: How many kids & classes are getting this instruction?
A4: Every child, in every class (16 classes at Harold Martin, 12
at Maple Street).
Q5: What training are teachers getting?
A5: They are present and engaged during the instruction, and they
actively provide recent examples of problems relating to kids’ lives and
classes. So teacher training is primarily observational and active participation
with the program officer, but Nancy also conducts some grade-level meetings
with teachers to cover upcoming instruction.
Q6: How can parents get Second Step training?
A6: Nancy will offer weekday training for at-home parents, and
probably Saturday training for those parents unable to attend during the
week.
Q7: Why is a police officer the program instructor?
A7: Second step normally uses teachers as program instructors,
but our police chief (David Wheeler) actually initiated this program in
our town, and he found funding for an instructor through his department.
One benefit of this is that the Second Step message is coming from another
community source, in addition to teachers and parents, which helps to reinforce
these ideas as a method of conflict resolution.
Q8: How do the teachers feel about Officer Arsenault’s participation?
A8: There are some issues and he lacks some skills (for example
with classroom discipline), but he is working on these skills using teacher
modeling from each of 28 classes. He is certainly committed to the
program, and very much enjoys his time with the children.
Q9: Is there still a DARE (Drug Awareness Resistance Education)
program as well?
A9: Not this year, primarily due to the fact that DARE’s effectiveness
remains unproven.
Q10: Is there a precedent for police officer instruction of children
K-6 in NH, or even in the US?
A10: Not that we are aware of. DARE generally has been taught
from grade 6 up, and Second Step is usually instructed by teachers.
Q11: How can we reach you, Nancy?
A11: Email: Wcbnpb@aol.com
-written by Jeff Eitreim