Finding Peace with Curriculum for Anger Management

From children to adults, criminals to victims, people have a lot of issues with anger. Avoiding confrontation and calming nerves are abilities and talents not everyone possesses, even though the average individual will never admit he or she has a problem. Sometimes, however, the inability to manage anger becomes a social risk; these individuals become threats to the safety of others, and themselves. With a successful curriculum for anger management, however, anyone can learn how to monitor his or her emotions, and to regain control when those emotions spiral toward aggression.

While anger management is a simple concept, it is a hard technique. A curriculum for anger management aims to break the process down into simple steps, with various mediums and media used for learning and application. Depending on the environment and the students, curricula differs, but in the end, the goal is always the same: to help individuals understand themselves enough to stay within their comfort zones, and to prevent violent thoughts or actions.

Learning to Breathe

A curriculum for anger management usually centers on classroom sessions. These interventions are usually weekly, lasting between 45 minutes and an hour. Spread out over the course of twenty or so weeks, a curriculum for anger management provides the student with adequate time to learn, practice and understand the skills necessary to control their emotions. These sessions are not lecture-based, however; they include activities and group discussions, role-playing and modeling, examples and simulation games. Also, classroom experiences are supplemented by multi-media tools, including video tapes and computer programs. Students, especially adolescent students, do not have uniform learning styles; while some can listen and take notes, others must watch or actively participate in order to retain any anger management strategies. Therefore, a successful curriculum for anger management will have all of these possible learning modes built in, especially when aimed toward high school or middle school settings.

A typical curriculum for anger management aims to train basic problem-solving skills. These techniques include identifying a problem, brainstorming solutions, understanding consequences and selecting the correct response. However, while most curricula have uniform goals, they do not have uniform results. Depending on the age, environment and underlying problem of the student, the results from anger management treatment will vary. While some students will experience a decrease in delinquent behaviors, others will experience a decrease in drug abuse. Also, not every student will respond positively to a curriculum for anger management the first time around; especially when the sessions are taken to avoid jail time or expulsion, students may not enter the classroom with an open mind the first time around. However, these students should not be left behind; no one is incapable of learning correct anger management skills, and everyone is worth the extra effort of a second chance.