1. Life Strategies Program
Appleby College
Ray Pidzamecky M.S.W. RSW
raypidzamecky@gmail.com
Director of Youth Support Programs
Appleby College
March 2002

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Life Strategies Program:
Building on Academic Excellence
INTRODUCTION
A liberal arts education by definition is intended to facilitate the optimal
development of the unique potential of each and every student. In this context
development is understood to entail its broadest interpretation and thereby
include the actualization of personality, knowledge and skills capacities. Appleby
College from its inception has subscribed to this basic principle. As a dynamic
and responsive educator at this time in our evolution we have chosen to develop
the Life Strategies Program.
Our Life Strategies Program initiative incorporates two separate but related
conceptual frameworks and concomitant interventions. They are considered to
be of equal importance. The one initiative pertains to the development of our
students’ emotional quotient. The other initiative pertains to the development of
our students’ cognitive developmental perspective.
EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE
Research over the past two decades has revealed with convincing consistency
that there is a marked difference between cognitive intelligence (IQ) and
emotional intelligence (EQ). Research in this same time period has also
revealed that the two attributes are differently acquired and are correlated with
different outcomes.
For all intents and purposes cognitive intelligence is accepted to entail the nature
component of an individual’s personality. While it is a prerequisite for learning,
this aspect of personality is considered difficult if not impossible to improve.
Moreover, cognitive intelligence has been found to predict only one percent of a

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person’s success. Success defined as adaptive socially responsible functioning.
Interestingly, twenty-five percent of what predicts success is unknown. The rest
according to empirical evidence is a function of emotional intelligence.
Emotional intelligence is accepted to entail the nurture component of individual
development. As such it is not a biologically predetermined stable life enduring
aspect of personality. It is subject to environmental influence first in the family
and later in the expanding environment of the individual. Insofar as emotional
intelligence is such a crucial factor in success, Appleby College is committed to
providing facilitation to developing this aspect of our students’ capabilities.
Our view of what constitutes emotional intelligence is a synthesis of current
thinking by research experts in this field. In brief, we have adopted the view that
emotional intelligence is the ability to identify and label emotions in one’s self and
others and to apply the information to guide thought and action. These are the
basic requirements to understanding and responding appropriately to one’s
environment and mitigating negative/dysfunctional reactions to the various
demands encountered in life.
We recognize that experts view the importance of emotional intelligence
differently, some assigning more weight to it than others. In spite of these
differences among experts, it is noteworthy that no one dismisses the importance
of environmentally acquired competencies that fall in the domain of emotional
intelligence.
We have therefore incorporated, into our Life Strategies Program, learning
modules, which constitute knowledge, and skills training associated with the
various components of emotional intelligence. Each learning module is designed
to impart specific knowledge and skills relevant to the current life of our students.
As such the learning modules can stand on their own and are evaluated in the
same manner as an academic subject. Of equal importance the learning

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modules also are believed to relate to the key components of emotional
intelligence. The following represents some of the relationships:
Emotional Intelligence
Emotional self-awareness
Assertiveness
Self-regard
Self-actualization
Independence
Problem solving
Reality testing
Flexibility
Happiness
Optimism
Empathy
Social responsibility
Interpersonal relationships
Stress tolerance
Impulse control
Learning Modules
Anger management / hate crimes
homophobia
Bullying
Smoking / drug awareness
Peer pressure
Money management
Off to college / the party game
Being away from home
Eating and control issues
Mental health
Living in a new cultural context
Love
Sexual assault
Living together / Being away from
home
Gambling
Coping with stress
Each grade band will receive 15 programme modules per year. The modules
consist of simulations, plays, guest speakers and case studies. Each module
ends with a debriefing of participants designed to facilitate reflection on the
experience. The debriefing is also designed to identify students who may require
individual attention due to personal issues triggered by a particular module.
In addition to the day program, boarding students will receive a Residential Life
Strategies component. The delivery format will include facilitators provided by
the Youth Net Halton staff, staff from the Halton Regional Health Department and

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the Director Of Youth Support Programmes. Approximately 7 modules will be
delivered over the course of the school year on evenings.
COGNITIVE MORAL PERSPECTIVE:
A STRUCTURAL DEVELOPMENTAL APPROACH
The moral perspective of individuals is a function of environmental conditions,
which are progressively expanding, stimulating and challenging. Most
importantly it is a function of experience. It cannot be taught, and it is not the
values of a particular individual, culture or group. The development of moral
perspective is an invariant hierarchical sequence that is cross-cultural and
unavoidable. Tragically, however, the development of moral reasoning can and
does become curtailed because of impoverished environmental conditions.
While this is more pronounced in non-industrialized third world countries, it is
also pervasive in western technologically advanced cultures. It is manifested in
numerous ways not the least of which entails pervasive greed, elitism, racism,
hostility between ethnic or cultural groups and the fraudulent assultive
behaviours of multinational conglomerate executives. Appleby College is
committed to addressing this aspect of our student’s development and thereby
truly prepare our young people to be socially responsible leaders vigilant of the
forces of corruption that they will inevitably encounter in life.
We subscribe to the empirically validated notion that moral reasoning is a
structural cognitive process whereby at each of six stages, emphases on the
various elements change. For example, at the first two stages, which entail the
preconventional forms of reasoning, emphasis is placed on avoiding negative
consequences and later on pursuing in an unbridled way the gratification of
immediate needs. At the conventional level of reasoning the next two stages
focus on gaining group acceptance/approval and then fitting into ones immediate
culture which encompasses a variety of reference groups. The post-
conventional level of reasoning begins with emphasis on the greatest good for

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the greatest number culminating at the sixth stage in universal principles that
govern all of life.
Development of this kind is essentially a function of two interacting variables.
First, it is a function of an expanding world in the life of the individual and second
a myriad of experiences that create cognitive conflict. The natural/instinctive
resolution of which occurs through the active construction of new, better more
comprehensive meaning. When the environment is restrictive void of critical
experiences, there is insufficient cognitive conflict and development becomes
fixed at a very immature immediate need gratification perspective. In
academically and professionally accomplished adults this translates into self-
serving, socially irresponsible and unpredictable behaviours.
At Appleby College we therefore, place as much emphases on the community
that exists at our school as we do on our academic programs. We believe that it
is imperative that our students experience a community in which their common
experiences lift them from their sense of isolation to participate and interact with
each other in a manner that benefits them individually and collectively.
We conceptualize our environment as a Participatory Just Community. .
The prescribed program modules are facilitative of cognitive moral development
since they expose students and staff to other points of view, leading them to
question and rethink their own positions. This is the essence of the cognitive
conflict which precipitates the active construction of meaning through which
development to the next more comprehensive and adaptive stage of moral
reasoning occurs.
Our objective in enacting this feature of the Participatory Just Community at
Appleby College is two fold. They are of equal importance. Our aim is to instil in
all our students that the individual is responsible for the welfare of the group. As

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well, our aim is to instil in all our students that the group is also responsible to
and for the welfare of the individual. In this way we intend to foster a climate of
trust whereby all matters are brought to the community or group avoiding
concealment of acute issues, which unless identified and addressed could
become a chronic debilitating problem for the individual and as such also the
community.
Ray Pidzamecky M.S.W. RSW
Director of Youth Support Programs
Appleby College
March 2002