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“We are in an educational “disconnection epidemic” and the

students and teachers are paying the price for it,

physically, emotionally, socially, spiritually and mentally.”

Meg Hanshaw PhD

Why A New Paradigm?

Suicide is the 2nd leading cause of death for ages 10-24, in the U.S. (and in the world) accounting for 7,126 deaths. ¹

By 12th grade, 62% of U.S. teens have abused alcohol, and 50% of teenagers have misused a drug at least once.²^,³

Homicide is the 2nd leading cause of death for 15-19 year olds.⁴It is the 3rd leading cause of death for ages 1-4 and 10-24. ⁵

Although, the overall U.S. high school dropout rate for 16- to 24-year-olds fell from 7.0% in 2012 to 5.3% in 2022, there were still 2.1 million "status dropouts" in 2022.⁶

Although, the numbers of youth in the juvenile justice system has decreased drastically, as of 2023, there are still around 32,000 youth in confinement in the U.S.⁷^,⁸

Cancer is the 2nd leading cause of death for 5-9 year olds and the 3rd leading cause of death for 10-14 year olds.⁹

86% of public schools are struggling to hire educators and 41% reporting understaffing. In high-poverty districts, 57% of schools are understaffed. Teachers are burdened by large class sizes and lack necessary resources, with 94% spending their own money on supplies. ¹⁰^,¹¹^,¹²

60% of teachers report experiencing burnout, compared to 30% of other professions; 41% of teachers report experiencing anxiety, compared to 20% of the general population; 25% of teachers report experiencing depression, compared to 10% of the general population.¹³^,¹⁴^,¹⁵

Nearly 14 percent of U.S. children 18 and younger—just under 11 million—lived in poverty in 2023, up 1.2 percentage points from 2022. A higher percentage of Hispanic (38%), Black (37%), American Indian/Alaska Native (30%), and Pacific Islander students (23%) attended high-poverty schools compared to White (7%) and Asian (13%) students. ¹⁶^,¹⁷

Why Empowerment Education?

Empowerment Education® Answers the

Research Question...

"What is the process of a truly intrinsically-motivating, healthy teaching and learning system- one where students and their educators can’t wait to wake up and go to every day because they are excited to have another experience of how their gifts, innovations, ideas, and personal passions will come alive and contribute to the greater good NOW?"

The Challenge

Although the current universal education system is highly needed, and students can sometimes find enough connections, skills and resources to improve their lives….there is a huge cost.

This archaic, robotic, outcome-driven, competitive education system builds disempowering and unhealthy patterns of behaviors and habits which results in toxic stress leading to the epidemics mentioned above.

We Can Do This!

With 85 million teachers, and 600 million students globally, and mandatory education in most countries, schools are the perfect arenas to integrate a new story of learning from the inside-out, one that builds empowering patterns and habits, a new definition of success that allows ease and flow, healthy ways of well-being, innovation in motion, and an expanded idea of what it means to learn and be human, all without adding to the curriculum. Are you ready?

A New-Paradigm Pedagogy

The Goal of the the Empowerment Education® System of W.E.L.L.-Being (EESWB) is for educators to confidently provide trauma-informed, transformational learning environments that intentionally empower young people, enhance and inspire individual and collaborative learning, and promote healthy relationships, classrooms, and “schools”, no matter the children's backgrounds, levels of physical, emotional, mental and spiritual health, behavior, academic performance, or what the required curriculum is,

so everyone, together, experiences fulfillment and well-being.

The research-based EESWB Model to the left, is adopted from Bronfenbrenner’s social-ecological framework, Ken Wilber’s, Integral Model, and Dr. John Travis’s Wellness Wheel (among others). It includes "thriving/flourishing/well-being" research theories, dimensions, principles, and tools that pertain to five levels of connection. Empowerment Coaches use the 5 levels as a framework to guide their new pedagogical practices as life and learning coaches for themselves, their students/peers, and their learning environments.

What is Empowerment Coaching & Learning?

E-Coaching & Learning naturally builds skills in all 4 dimensions of W.E.L.L.-Being:

-High-level Wellness,

-Personal Empowerment,

-Heart-centered Leadership, and

-Individual & Collaborative Learning,

while alleviating stress and conflict and enhancing relationships, health, & contribution.

E-Coaching & Learning becomes the foundation of all the other forms of connection & communication that adults have with young people.

My Mission

Having access to every resource needed to grow up thriving, I was driven to find out why I had quit the things I loved so many times; why I had shifted from passion and joy to passionless and shame. This challenge catapulted me into a life-long quest to discover what makes young people (and myself) have the best chance of reaching their full potential and feeling fulfilled.

I spent the next thirty-five years researching, piloting and benchmarking positive youth developmental practices and programs. Fifteen of those years were spent coaching basketball where I learned how to create a system of change to turn-around losing teams and build mentally and physically intelligent athletes.

However, I really struggled being a health and physical education teacher and professor in the old paradigm of education having to focus on "making kids do work". I knew that the peak performance and thriving research from athletics was not being applied in the education setting as I began to see more and more disempowering and unhealthy patterns of student behaviors during their school years and beyond.

In 2019, my research culminated in developing a comprehensive system of healthy and empowering personal and environmental (systems) change for classrooms and schools. I named this system the Empowerment Education® System of W.E.L.L.-Being (EESWB). I founded the nonprofit, i.b.mee. (I Be Me) in 2011, to help support EESWB student and educator “thriving” research, with the vision that in the next decades a collaborative group would come together to co-create a movement to SHIFT education into what all humans really need to learn - TOTAL WELL-BEING.

"I am dedicated to the SHIFT of the education system by coaching and empowering the adults who work with young people, in a revolutionary, proven teaching pedagogy, Empowerment Coaching & Learning which is based in the Empowerment Education® System of W.E.L.L.-Being, so that all participants experience their highest and healthiest levels of social and emotional intelligence, mental and physical health, heart-centered leadership, and inspired learning and well-being."

18-Years Playing & Coaching Basketball

15 Years-Teaching P.E. & Health Education

16 Years-Life, Wellness & Health Coach

14 Years-Nonprofit Work, Founder i.b.mee.

Enjoy pictures from the last 30 years of my Empowerment Education® Research as you see the different environments I worked, played, taught, coached, and lived in!