Purpose In 1991, the Boy Scouts of America created Learning for Life as a wholly owned subsidiary, totally separate from traditional Cub Scouting, Boy Scouting, and Exploring. Learning for Life is designed to support schools in their efforts to prepare students to successfully handle the complexities of contemporary society and to enhance student’s self-confidence, motivation, and self-esteem. Learning for Life also helps develop social and life skills, assists in character development, and helps students formulate positive personal values. It prepares students to make ethical decisions that will help them achieve their full potential.
Rationale At a time when drugs and gangs are ravaging our schools and communities, Learning for Life is a catalyst to help stop this trend. Learning for Life uses age-appropriate, grade-specific lesson plans to give students from kindergarten through twelfth grade, skills and information to cope with the complexities of today’s society.
Learning for Life makes academic learning fun and relevant to real-life situations. As a result, the values and skills learned by participating in Learning for Life not only makes students more confident and capable, but also give students an invaluable understanding of how things work in the real world.
School demand for character education programs has greatly influenced the dramatic growth of Learning for Life. Since its incorporation as a subsidiary of the Boy Scouts of America in 1990, Learning for Life has now become a partner in education with more than 6,000 schools nationwide, serving more than 837,000 students.
Program Learning for Life has five program components:
Seekers, Discoverers, and Challengers
Elementary SchoolThis program is designed for kindergarten through sixth grade. The curriculum for each grade level consists of sixty lesson plans designed to reinforce social, ethical, and academic skills in such areas as critical and creative thinking, ethical decision making, conflict resolution, interpersonal relationships, practical living skills, building self-esteem, writing and other language arts, and participating citizenship.
Lesson plans focus on themes such as :"Accepting Consequences," "Conservation," "Gangs." "Ethnic Heritage," "Meeting Deadlines," "Violence Prevention," "Money Management," "Never Give Up," "What is Freedom?" "Respecting Differences," and "Sticking to What’s Right." The lessons are designed to instill in young people the importance of respecting the rights of all people, and to prepare young people to participate in and provide leadership in American society. The elementary school program has grown at a phenomenal rate since its introduction in 1991. It is the fastest growing component under the Leaning for Life umbrella.
Champions
Special Needs. This Learning for Life program teaches students with disabilities the life skills they need in order to achieve self-sufficiency. The lessons also focus on and enhance student self-development. Areas covered include the following:
Because of the varying forms and levels of disabilities that schools encounter, the Learning for Life special needs curriculum is sometimes supplemented with the elementary school, junior high/middle school, and even senior high school Learning for Life program materials. In this way, Learning for Life is tailored to fit the needs of each individual class and student and is certain to be age appropriate.
Junior High/ Middle School This Learning for Life program (for grades seven and eight) is designed to enable community role models and mentors to motivate and interact with students. Role models and mentors with backgrounds similar to those of students share their personal paths to success, including the obstacles and successes.
The Learning for Life junior high /middle school program is a series of fifty work-shops on CD-ROM that help students assess and develop the personal skills and values needed to make future career choices. Students learn to ascertain the need for having a job and being employed, to recognize obstacles, to make nature and ethical decisions, and to deal responsibly with their decisions.
Senior High School The senior high school program continues Learning for Life’s school-to-work emphasis and is for ninth-through twelfth-grade students. This program consists of two parts. The first, for ninth graders, is a series of thirty-five workshops that teach the practical skills necessary to acquire a job and stay employed. Topics include "Job Applications," "Writing Resumes," "Job Interviews," "Employer and Labor Relations," "Money Management," and "Where to Find a Job."
The second part of the high school program is a series of career seminars for ninth through twelfth graders presented by community representatives. The seminars cover careers that the students have chosen to learn more about. Students get in-depth understanding and first-hand knowledge of their career area, including entry-level requirements, special training needed, important academic disciplines that must be mastered, typical working conditions promotion opportunities, and other relevant information to help them prepare for the real world of work.
Exploring Click for a link to the GWRC Exploring page
Volunteer Leadership Each School participating in Learning for Life is called a group. Each group is led by a minimum of four adults, at least 21 years of age: the lead teacher/counselor, the school principal/executive officer, and two school coordinators. Other volunteer leaders, both men and women, are also involved in the program and may serve in a variety of positions, from chairman our council’s Learning for Life committee to classroom instructors.
Training Learning for Life offers a two-hour training seminar designed to prepare volunteers and teachers to use Learning for Life materials in the classroom. The training can also be conducted to orient school administrators, prospective financial supporters, and other interested parties on the value of the program and how it is used to supplement and enrich core classroom curriculum. Training is conducted by a BSA local council staff member or volunteer who has been assigned as a resource for the school. The best time for this training is during regularly scheduled in-service training time before the start of the school year.
Recognition Learning for Life offers a recognition plan for elementary and special needs students to encourage positive behavior, to foster a sense of belonging in the group, to assist in building self-esteem, and to reward a positive work ethic.
For kindergartens through sixth graders the recognition plan is an Honor Wall Chart with spaces for student names. There are fifteen brightly colored peel-off stickers that relate to the fifty-seven lesson plan themes that are in each book. Then the class completes a designated set of themes, the teacher places the appropriate stickers on the honor wall chart by the name of each student who participated.
Kindergartners through second graders are called "Seekers"; third and fourth graders are called "Discoverers"; and fifth and sixth graders are called "Challengers." The special needs curriculum also has a recognition program with its own Honor Wall Chart and incentive stickers. Special needs students are called "Champions."
Mission Statement It is the mission of Learning for Life to serve others by helping to instill values of good character, participating citizenship, and personal fitness in young people, and in other ways prepare them to make ethical choices throughout their lives so they can achieve their full potential.
For more information about a Learning for Life program in your neighborhood contact: