From what I have gathered, most of the educators here are in K-12. The others are tech people or consultants who work with K-12 schools. I am neither.
I started my career in youth development, leading after-school and summer programs. Now, I am a family life educator who specializes in digital and social media. What is family life education? What does a family life educator do? I didn’t know myself until I took a course on the subject in completing my second bachelor’s in Child and Family Studies.
Family life education is an informative, educational approach to assisting individuals in living authentic and productive lives. Utilizing a family systems perspective, most family life educational programming takes place in a classroom-style kind of setting and can even be provided through educational materials, such as books, DVD’s, CD’s, social networking, Podcasts, and blogs. The goal of family life education is to teach (research-based content) skills that aid individuals in making the best informed decisions about their lives. Topics can include: goal-setting, parenting, career development, dating and sexuality, health and wellness, and/or debt-management.
As a Family Life Educator, I don’t worry about state standards or standardized testing. What I do is about the transfer of learning. That is to say whatever is learned (content/skills) can be applied to the daily lives of the participants. The issue for me is whether or not people leave a course or a workshop knowing how to actually use what they have learned.
I hope this posting explains who I am and what I do, as well as the focus of my previous posts. In the future, I am going to write about an array of issues covering the human experience. Please feel free to ask questions or leave a comment.
