COURSE DESCRIPTION:

Wednesdays, August 7th- December 4th 2024

14 in-person course meeting plus video, reading and project-based student work.

These instruction, discussion, and training meetings will be available virtually over Zoom in the case that a student is sick or otherwise cannot make the session.

Wednesdays with no scheduled meeting are 4 September,18 September, 30 October, and 27 November.

From the Syllabus:

The Safer-Sooner Option 3 course combines theory with practice to make the student a safer and more confident human being.

The student learns and practices personal security by way of detecting and avoiding potential problems early, responsibly de-escalating existing problems, and when necessary navigating non-consensual violence while minimizing liability, minimizing injury to all parties, and moving to safety as quickly as possible.

This course focuses on the acquisition of knowledge, self-knowledge, self-empowerment, and the development of skills and attitudes enabling students to take control of their lives now and in the future, in academic, work, and personal settings.

The principles to which the students are exposed allows them to be flexible, adaptable, and confidently aware rather than painfully alert or anxious in the face of modern-day personal security challenges.

This course’s brain-based learning, practice, and application approach, rather than linear block-based “if this - then that” training, allows the student to apply these principles for the rest of their life without needing to remember a specific sequence of thoughts, movements, or techniques to match specific circumstances.

In-person meetings are once weekly on Wednesday morning at the Socialight Club on Congaree Road. These instruction, discussion, and training meetings will be available virutally over Zoom in the case that a student is sick or otherwise cannot make the session.

IN LAYMAN'S TERMS:

This is Self-Protection as a Life Skill, Self-Awareness for Situational Awareness, and Self-Defense taught like First Aid. Students use a proven process to build and use their own personal self-protection system. Your instructor, Joe, uses the proven S.P.E.A.R. System of Self-Defense as the backbone of everything we do in the course.

So what will we learn in this course, exactly?

In short we'll answer these 3 questions and make you and yours safer as a result:

1) How can you detect and avoid trouble before it happens, and what is the hidden reason people don't do this?

2) What's the best way to de-escalate confrontations, and what's the most important part nearly everyone forgets?

3) How can you easily use your natural reaction to danger to make you safer INSTEAD OF a liability to yourself and others?