Educators Gather to Study 'The Forgotten Subject': Decision Skills.

PALO ALTO, Calif. -- This summer, educators, counselors and mentors from across the country and as far away as Bolivia are gathering in four cities to explore the teaching of decision skills to their students. The week-long workshops are sponsored by the Decision Education Foundation (DEF), a Palo Alto-based non-profit that supports the development of good decision skills by today's youth.

The first session was held on the Stanford campus in mid-July, and a second was completed last week in Omaha, Nebraska. Additional programs are planned for educators in Oregon and Pennsylvania. During the workshops, case studies and real-life examples of kids facing important decisions help teachers to create specific courses for developing decision skills, or to incorporate the decision process into current subjects such as language arts or math.

Annie Duke, well-known professional poker player and author, spoke at the Stanford workshop, where she used her personal experience to explain decision concepts such as "sunk cost" and "all-in." Steve Tani, a decision consultant and DEF volunteer, illustrated decisions involving high stakes and low probability using the example of challenges faced by his astronaut brother, Dan Tani.

In additional Stanford sessions, Dan Slack, English instructor and academic dean from the Haverford School in Haverford, Pennsylvania, demonstrated an English curriculum he has written based on decision making - with lessons that go far beyond Hamlet's classic dilemma, "To be or not to be." Dr. Eric Bickel, an assistant professor at Texas A&M, showed how baseball - a popular topic among young people - could be used as a platform for teaching decision strategy.

A number of attendees expressed eagerness to begin applying the lessons in their own environments. "I'm very excited about bringing this to our staff and students so they will be able to make better decisions," said John Guglielmetti, a guidance counselor from Sigourney, Iowa. "I'm confident that the DEF model is the one for us to use."

In certain settings, the challenge will be huge. For example, counselors and teachers working in alternative schools and juvenile facilities with at-risk youth, who have already made a number of harmful decisions, need to break through a frame of reference that has been flawed by personal experience, in order to bring the message that every one of them has new choices every day.

"We're teaching our kids the fundamentals they need to succeed -- language arts, sciences, math, social studies -- but we're neglecting one very basic skill: the ability to make quality decisions," said Dr. Carl Spetzler, DEF executive director. "Yet they're continually facing important choices in their academic, extra-curricular and personal lives, often without the tools needed to sort out their options."

As it continues to reach out to educators and curriculum planners, DEF will use the collective experience and input of participating institutions to expand its repertoire of available teaching materials. Already, DEF is working with partner schools in Pennsylvania, Nebraska, Iowa, Oregon and several institutions in the Bay Area.

About DEF:

The Decision Education Foundation (DEF) was founded in 2001 to promote, enable and support the development of good decision skills by today's youth. The foundation develops classroom-ready materials and works with select schools and youth organizations, training teachers interested in making decision education a part of their curricula. For more information on DEF and its programs, visit the foundation's Web site at www.decisioneducation.org.