Six Seconds Education Team Goes to the Bahamas!
On August 30 and 31, Six Seconds teamed up with our partner, We the People, a community organization in Nassau, the Bahamas, to offer a two day EQ Educator training to teachers and administrators of grades 5, 8, and 11. The EQ Educator certification was taught as the first part of a year-long pilot program. More than 50 teachers, school counselors, and administrators will participate in the yearlong program, bringing Self Science and the Six Seconds’ social emotional learning process to 10 schools on the island. Over 1000 students’ EQ will be measured using the SEI-YV – Six Seconds’ internationally normed EQ assessment for youth, ages 8-18, comprising eight EQ competencies that are both measurable and learnable. Over the course of the year, students will be assessed several times, while they learn the skills of social emotional learning in their classrooms and school community.
Dr. Susan Stillman, Six Seconds’ Global Director of Education; Alex Russell, Six Seconds Program Manager; and Dr. Barbara Fatum, Director of Assessment for Six Seconds’ lab school, Synapse, all experienced educators and consultants, taught the two day EQ Educator course.
In the Six Seconds’ EQ Educator course, participants begin to understand their own EQ competencies, and learn how to create an emotional climate for learning, and how to teach lessons using the Self Science process. This intensive and interactive certification course enables teachers to deliver the crucial skills of EQ to schoolchildren around the world. Six Seconds has taught this course in many countries, and it has proven to be an effective mechanism for delivering EQ skills to youth in primary and secondary schools. Researchers have shown that within schools that teach EQ and social emotional learning in an organized fashion, students are less likely to engage in risky behaviors; they are more motivated and engaged; they have higher grades, better self esteem, and they do better in their future careers.
Self Science, the process used by Six Seconds to help students develop their emotional intelligence and learn about their social and emotional needs, was developed by Karen McCown and Anabel Jensen in the 70′s. In Daniel Goleman’s best-selling 1995 book on emotional intelligence, Self-Science is described as “a model program.” Self-Science, now in its 3rd edition, presents teachers with a powerful set of tools to help students to know themselves, choose themselves, and give themselves, which are the EQ pursuits in the Six Seconds’ EQ model. These skills help students to improve the quality of their relationships, make intentional choices, increase empathy, solve problems, overcome conflict, communicate with peers and adults, and build pro-social skills necessary for school and life success. Self Science equips youth with the competencies they need to become confident, caring, resourceful young people and adults who are able to advocate for themselves and make their way through an ever-increasingly complicated world.
While the goal is student success, the Six Seconds EQ Educator certification course also focuses on developing educators themselves. Researchers have shown that adults with high EQ are, almost without exception, the top performers in their workplaces. Similarly, teachers who learn to develop their own EQ competencies are better able to connect with students and their parents, overcome challenging situations, work well with their peers, and create a classroom and school climate for learning and success. 
All of us at Six Seconds wish to thank Yvette Bethel, our Six Seconds’ Network member and Bahamian Emotional Intelligence consultant and author, and Phil Simon of We the People, for their incredible efforts in helping this program get off the ground.
We also wish to thank the administrators at the Ministry of Education and Government of the Bahamas School System, and the 50 wonderful teachers who gave us such a terrific Bahamian welcome. We all look forward to our next visit to the island in October!
Dr. Susan Stillman
Director of Education, Six Seconds' Global Office: With years of experience as an educational leader, scholar-practitioner, K-12 school counselor, and higher ed faculty, Susan brings a diverse background and set of skills to bear on her mission to build and sustain the Six Seconds' educational programs and to support Six Seconds' team members around the world, working to develop EQ in children, educators, families, schools, and communities.See 31 more posts by Dr. Susan Stillman
Dear Susan
If only EQ was given the same focus and attention within the learning environment our children spend so much time in, the world would be a much better place.
Terrific work, much admiration.
Hi Suzy: Thanks for your comment. I certainly agree! It’s interesting how much interest has sprung up around the world though related to EQ in education. We’ve been getting inquiries for EQ Educator courses in India, China, South Africa, Mexico, Australia…..In recent years, much research has been done that shows the value of social emotional learning, not just for developing EQ competent kids, which is great, but also for improved outcomes—-academic progress, increase in motivation and engagement, decrease in bullying and other social problems, future planning and success.
At Six Seconds, we also emphasize the value of EQ for educators themselves, as we know that teaching and learning emotional intelligence must start within.
We have to keep getting the word out–EQ works in education, and, optimistically, it could make the world a better place!
Hotep Dr. Stillman,
Thanks a million for sharing the historicity, concepts, progress and values of the social emotional sixseconds programme for schools. Thanks also for your generosity of time and spirit as you seek to find ways to include the administrators, teachers and students of Akhepran International Academy into your schedule. I sincerly look forward to meeting you and your team when next you visit The Bahamas and I am divinely grateful that I am able to hear, connect with and embrace my life’s work with your life’s work. Your appointment as Director, Six Seconds’ Global Office is truly “not a coincidence” as the world has been waiting a long long time for Six Seconds and a representative like you to merge your resources and universal wisdom. The world is at a crossroad that demands real solutions to real problems. Governments, politicians, educators, universities and employers are struggling to find real answers to real life problems. Decay, destruction and decadence abounds and now our children are calling for a curriculum that will protect, prepare and perpetuate clear goals, ideas, values, pathways that will help them preserve and care for themselves, their families, their communities and the planet. I embrace, endorse and will educate others about the successes of your endeavors to HELP HUMANKIND PURSUE AND ACHIEVE NOBLE GOALS. Most Grateful in The Bahamas…..Jacinta