A focus of many of the Programs I bring aims to meet the needs of youth between the ages of nine and 16. During the early and middle school years, the human being is developing a relationship with her/his soul life. Both the intellect and the soul are nurtured through the imagination and the senses during this time. Learning takes place by experiences of pictures filled with beautiful, sensual qualities. Social and moral learning comes from the adult models around the children. During the time from about seven to the completion of adolescence at 21, the human being becomes conscious of her/his soul/feeling life and awakens to the self.

When I teach in the classroom, I bring conscious awareness to students of the gradual awakening of self. I give them skills to build healthy relationships to self and others. I educate them about the changes of their body, their emotions, and their relationships. I give them space to explore who they are and who they are becoming. I allow them space for all the big questions of life at the appropriate ages. We talk about love, family, boundaries, getting to know yourself, sensuality, intimacy, sexuality, cultural and peer influences. Exploring these issues in a classroom with both genders allows for empathy to be built in both boys and girls for the other’s journey.

I also bring adult/parent education as there is openness for it. The community and parents are enthusiastic for the “facts” to be brought to their children. I strive to awaken in the adults the need to examine their social/sexual experiences as well.

AS A RESULT OF MY WORK, I OFFER TWO CURRICULUM BOOKS SO THAT YOU TOO CAN BRING THESE VITAL ISSUES INTO YOUR CLASSROOM OR HOME SCHOOLING.

Linda Knodle, an experienced teacher and colleague, is available to guest teach and facilitate collaborative teaching in your community. All instruction includes presentation to faculty and parents of the highlights of the work to be accomplished in the classroom.

Teach the Human Fertility & Pubescent Issues Block of Study

The Human Fertility & Pubescent Issues Curriculum contains a three week detailed lesson plan with many creative and scientific resources serving as its foundation.

The study begins with a survey of puberty and adolescence in the past and in the present. It includes experiencing stereotyping, communications skills and interviews of adults regarding their adolescence.

• The students engage in a thorough presentation of the signs of puberty and the female and male reproductive anatomy and processes.

The curriculum briefly studies the first three months of embryology. It challenges students to reflect on when they think human life begins and their relationship to how and when they might make the choice to create new life.

• The block ends reviewing current trends in the medical and bioengineering fields of human reproduction and its consequences. For further information see curriculum overview in Publications.
  

Teach Lessons for Middle School Issues Block of Study

The Lessons for Middle School Issues Curriculum also uses a three week plan with 15 2-hour. It is adaptable for grades 7 through 9 and includes collaborative work with teacher and students parents and other caring adults involved with the education of teens.

• Students begin in the first week to survey their complex inner life of feeling and separate it from fact and opinion. They look into the definition and layers of culture with a specific look at the teen in American culture.
• We explore self image on several levels and how peer pressure plays into our choices.
• The core of the study is a journey into defining types of relationships, intimacy, gender, sensuality, sexuality, choices, limits, and boundaries.
• Finally, the students work with defining addiction, and understanding the chemical, social and physical elements of popular illegal drugs and alcohol. For further information see the curriculum overview in Publications.

Both blocks of study allow the students to inquire into the retrospective efforts of the parents and teachers in their community. It builds and draws upon shared experiences and draws upon the wisdom of adults seeking to foster their children's adolescent development.

The curriculum strives to foster an artful and social awareness of body, soul and spirit during this transition between child and adult. We survey opportunitites and challenges facing today's youth in American culture.

The key to the delivery of this material is to allow students to participate to the fullest of their capacities and to gently and warmly challenge them to take small steps beyond.

Facilitate Middle School Forums

Current issues and topics at the forefront in your community provide the content for Forums. These allow all the community to participate in the themes at the surface of the social realm. Each community has different and unique questions depending on many variables.

The following is one example:

Linda Knodle developed a questionnaire to survey the students concerning their self-esteem and the incidence of bullying. Home room teachers gave out the written survey. We asked them to tell us their grade, their name was optional. We collected the surveys and collated all the answers. We then called a large meeting with all the students. The responses were organized and tallied on large pieces of paper. Linda Knodle designed the forum only after the survey was tallied. Forums must be based on the social and emotional presence of the students.

This process had three parts: objective review, reflection, then small group work.The students experienced their fellow students through the survey responses, reflections and small group work. They heard from three different grades AND the faculty reported that they "gained much insight."

Forums could be developed that invited the students to participate in a collaboration to design a middle school coming of age ceremony, community service program or nature outing program. The possibilities are endless.

Teach Life Skills Classes

Students learn many life skills through the daily interaction of children with other children and adults. Adults striving to provide modeling of appropriate social behavior, relationships and interaction goes a long way toward a healthy community.

An important element is the development of acute awareness of students' interests by teachers and parents. continual, unobtrusive, objective observation of and listening to the teens around you will give immediate opportunities to work with THEIR issues.

Additionally, these learned social and life skills can also be supplemented
by providing experiences which address the immediate needs of the children at the different stages of maturity. Time and space given to the particular social issues in the present will give tools to the children that will serve them into the future.

A coming of age program would include identifying, at each grade level, what practical life skills are appropriate to bring into the conscious, practical level of instructional experience for the child.

EXAMPLES

• Beginning in kindergarten, all children could experience all of the parents of the class interact in social settings. This gives a context for community AND the classroom as well.
• From grade three, there are a set of skills which can address the inner awakening of the child to her/himself. For exmple, a girl may begin to verbalize that she belongs to the feminine. We could validate this experience with her.
• Very short talking circles can be started in fourth grade to address, in a light gentle way, any social issues that exist for the class.
• Fifth grade can step a bit closer to the inner life of the child by using talking circles. A topic might be- friendship or what is a personal boundary? What is bullying/teasing?
• Middle school issues- This is greatly dependent on the age and maturity of the class.Themes are worked with in a general way in sixth and progressively more detailed and personal as the students move through middle school and high school.
  Examples of Themes: Personal Boundaries to Forms of Intimacy, Exploring Kinds of Relationships, Dating, Gender Issues, Culture/Peer Pressure, Sexual Harassment, Drugs and Alcohol, Healthy Sexuality, Telephone and E-mail, Dress and Image, Working with a Budget, and other current issues.

Fees and schedule arranged on an individual basis.

For more information and to discuss your school's needs

E-mail:		info@lindaknodle.net
Write:		Linda Knodle 5146 26th Ave. NE Seattle, WA 98105
Voice/Fax:		206-366-8262