Essential Guide Support EMAP 10 Steps 1 and 2

1. The Essential Guide
and Workbook
Support
Passion Oriented Education™ presents
Answering the Call to Brilliance
Essential Guide and Workbook
By Resa Steindel Brown
With Wendy C. Travers and Matthew Brown
A Step-by-Step Program for Finding Your Child's
Interests, Passions and Brilliance
MONITOR BRILLIANCE
EMAP #10
Steps 1 and2
Page 221
Copyright 2016 Resa Steindel Brown

2. What does brilliance look like?

3. We have been conditioned to think that
brilliance largely involves facts, figures,
analytical and memory skills

4. Sometimes we appreciate
brilliance in the arts

5. Somehow…we are missing everything
else in between

6. To do justice to our own humanity
and all our children, we need to shift our
paradigm and look at brilliance more thoroughly

7. Brilliance can actually
be seen in:
• The positive impact it creates
• The connection to deeper and shared truths
• Skill and craftsmanship
• New ways of looking at things
• In the ways we are highly conscious
• In creativity and problem-solving
• In our interactions with each other

8. Brilliance can be seen in
the positive impact it creates
• The outcome of brilliance in any area is
transformational, creating new forms and
positive change

9. Brilliance helps connect
us to deeper insights
and shared truths
• Brilliance speaks to us all, resonating with our
own humanity and helping us learn something
about who we are, why we might be here on
this planet and what our relationship to each
other could be

10. • In that way, the great
classical poets,
writers,
philosophers,
psychologists,
anthropologists,
mythologists and so
many more
profound thinkers
and doers…
• …add to what we
perceive as ‘being
human’

11. Brilliance can be seen in
skill and craftsmanship
• The level of thought,
creativity and
craftsmanship that goes
into a project
• The execution of
perspective and fine
detail from architectural
ornaments and design to
such diverse and precise
skills as neurosurgery
and rocketry

12. Brilliance can be seen
in new ways of seeing things
• That includes identifying a problem, or a better
way of doing something…not just solving a
problem, but identifying new challenges that
have not yet occurred to most of us

13. Goal of this Exercise
• To help our children become all that
they are in this world

14. Instructions
Step 1
• Beginning on page 221 you see a list of questions
designed to help you monitor your child and
discern if they are ready to take their unique form
of brilliance out into the world
• Use these questions as a way to think about how
to observe and evaluate your child’s activities and
relationships in the community

15. 1. What is your child's behavior when he or she
is actively creating a professional presentation
or resume?

16. Look for positive behaviors:
• Joy
• Exuberance
• Excitement
• Energetic Activity
• Focused
• Engaged
• Happy
• Involved

17. Also watch for behavioral signs your
child may not be ready for this yet:
• Procrastinating
• Distracted
• Fidgeting
• Squirming
• Flat affect
• Low energy
• Generally unenthusiastic

18. 2. Does your child demonstrate passion when
discussing moving forward and taking his or
her brilliance into the world?

19. • Does your child discuss moving
forward at all?
• Do you hear your child
discussing their plans with
others in an excited manner?
• Does your child bring up their
plans at all?
• Is your child initiating this
project, or are you the driving
force?
• Is there something else your
child would secretly rather be
doing?
• How do you know? How do
you find out?

20. 3. Will your child let you gently guide the
process to a professional level?

21. • Will your child discuss ways to improve with
you?
• Will your child discuss ways to improve with
someone else…(get a mentor)
• If left alone, is your child’s passion strong
enough to keep improving his skill and
project?

22. • What do you think about your answers to
questions 1-3 in this step? Do you need to take
action? What action would you take?

23. Instructions
Step 2
• Beginning on page 224 you see a list of questions
designed to help you monitor your child’s
relationships and interactions within the
community organizations your child participates
• Use these questions as a way to think about how
to observe and evaluate your child’s activities and
relationships in the community

24. 1. How strong are your child’s relationships
within the community group?

25. • Sometimes the activity within the group is great, but
your child has no real connection to any individual
within the group.
• Some children do not need that personal connection
because they are focused on the topic
• Other children need that connection (interpersonal
intelligence) along with that information
• If your child needs connection and is not getting it in
this group, do not let that need for connection run over
your child’s enthusiasm for the topic…pick another
group or get a mentor

26. 2. Do the activities in the group encourage a
high level of creativity and individuality?

27. • Sometimes what looks like creative activity is really
only following the lead or direction of the person in
charge of the group
• While this might be good to get some children started,
other children might feel more connected to
themselves if they are the ones who personally decide
what the activity is going to look like
• This is a situation where you really need to know your
child well and monitor the situation
• Dropping a child off in a group and not paying
attention to what is going on within that group is rarely
a good idea

28. 3. Does participation in this organization fuel
your child’s passion?

29. • By monitoring your child’s behavior AFTER the
session, you can tell if your child is just wrapped
up in the event, or genuinely impassioned
• Do they continue to express their passion
throughout the week…actively working on that
passion?
• That is how you know if that passion is genuinely
internally motivated or just part of the group
activity

30. 4. Does participation in this organization
facilitate your child’s brilliance?

31. • Passion must be internally-motivated to drive
brilliance…brilliance does not drive passion
• Watch for opportunities for your child to take
that passion and really explore their own
brilliance…not just accomplish an activity
• Following directions, although that can be
important, rarely reaches the depth of true
brilliance

32. 5. Is participation in the organization’s activities
joyful and exuberant?

33. • Don’t confuse engaged with happy
• Some children become engaged in whatever is before
them, but that does not mean the activity provides
them with deep satisfaction or happiness
• Likewise, while some children express their joy, others
may feel strong inner satisfaction without the outward
signs of joy and exuberance
• This is a situation where you really need to monitor
your child’s behavior and know your child well enough
to be able to answer this question

34. 6. Does participation in the organization’s
activities help add to your child's portfolio or
resume?

35. • While experience is good for experience’s sake, in this
section we are also looking at bringing your child’s
brilliance out into the world
• If you have a choice, look for a situation that will also
build a resume
• That does NOT mean avoid a great experience, it only
means be cognizant of how you might be able to
include what your child is doing in a portfolio or
resume
• Sometimes, just a photo, along with a description of
what your child did, is sufficient to record that
experience

36. • What do you think about your answers to
questions 1-6 in this step? Do you need to take
action? What action should you take?

37. Summary:
• If we move away from academia and expand our
definition of brilliance, we can better identify the many
different ways our children can actually express and
create through their own particular form of passion
and brilliance
• Passion must be internally-motivated to drive
brilliance…brilliance does not drive passion
• Watch for opportunities for your child to take that
passion and really explore their own brilliance…not just
accomplish an activity

38. Good Job!
• Congratulations on exploring and completing
EMAP 10, Steps 1 and 2 as you monitored your
child’s eagerness to move into the world
• We look forward to working with you on EMAP
10, Steps 3, 4 and the Summary Activity as
your child blossoms into their own particular
form of brilliance