The R.L.S. (Real Life Skills) Program teaches our students the skills they need for a more productive, happier life full of success and enjoyment.
At Riverbend Academy, we are committed to increasing our students’ happiness and reducing their anxiety.
In our current system and curriculum, students graduate after 14 years of elementary and secondary school with a body of knowledge but lack the knowledge of, and the skills to manage, our emotions.
Emotional Intelligence is your ability to recognize and understand emotions in yourself and others and use awareness to manage your behaviour and relationships.
- Self-awareness – to know yourself as you are
- Self-management – to control your emotions and behaviour based on your self-awareness
- Social awareness – to recognize emotions and behaviours in others and have empathy
- Relationship management – to manage relationships based on your own self-awareness, self-management and social awareness
In our society, the prevailing attitude is to ignore or deny emotions. Acknowledging emotions, particularly among males, is considered a failing, a sign of weakness. Better to deny the emotion than to admit its existence, understand it, and control it.
Now imagine that same attitude extended to any professional sport such as baseball, hockey, or golf. Imagine a player failing because of errors in gripping a bat, stick, or club. What coach or fan would expect that player to ignore that lack of skill and not attempt to correct it? Denying or ignoring that lack of skill would be seen as madness, counterproductive, and would eventually lead to a lack of advancement or total failure on the part of the player.
Why do we see emotional skill as any different?
The ability to recognize and understand emotions in ourselves and others and use this awareness to manage our behaviour and relationships is at the heart of EQ.
And what does a strong EQ mean for our students?
Studies have shown that as a predictor of success in business, EQ outweighs IQ. And EQ, unlike IQ, is an ability that can be learned and developed.
At Riverbend Academy, we work with our students to ensure they have an ever-increasing EQ. Our students are not weaker for acknowledging and mastering their emotions but stronger and more capable. With the mastery of EQ, our students will excel in both personal and business relationships, have less stress and anxiety, and lead happier lives.