A 12-hour pilot SPC program for WIN enrollees (WIN is a work incentive program aimed at getting people off welfare and back to work) produced the following results outlined in a letter from Chuck Oliver, the then acting supervisor of WIN orientation at the East Los Angeles office, extolling the virtues of SPC:
- A more verbally open class and free exchange of ideas.
- A higher score of two grade levels on the standard achievement test compared to
previous classes held without the benefit of Self-Programmed Control.
- Follow-up in the work incentive program has since shown that the demonstration
class of enrollees has had a significantly lower dropout rate and several have
already secured jobs. [To be more exact, 16 out of 18 secured jobs as compared
to an average of 5 out of 18 for previous similar groups.]
Another interesting report comes from an instructor who took part in my class for instructors at Cal State University Los Angeles: Maria-Luisa Lopez, at the time, chairman of the Multi-Clerical Department at the East Los Angeles Skill Center. This instructor of the difficult-to-employ in the CETA Manpower Training program stated that after much searching she had at last found a means of dealing with the all-important attitudes and fears of her students that had continued to plague her ability to really get through to them. One of the first indications that she now had something that could work was when she found that by having the students use the countdown prior to typing tests she was able to decrease the number of errors by an average of 6-7 per minute. Since then, she has found even more profound changes, especially with regard to self-image:
In the past (prior to my SPC exposure) many of our trainees who were sent out on interviews by the staff Job Developer would not even show up, or if they did, they projected a negative or insecure attitude and were rejected in many instances.
Since SPC exposure, all have acquired a more positive, self confident attitude which has helped them during the interviews and subsequently while learning their duties as new employees. Of the 18 trainees I had in my class when I started using SPC, all have found jobs, ten of them completely on their own --something unheard of before as in the past those who have found work found it as a result of the Job Developer's efforts.
Needless to say, I am completely sold on the SPC concept.
Such results tend to support a theory I have regarding welfare recipients. Many feel that people on welfare are just plain lazy malingerers and don't really want to work. I don't believe this. It's my theory that these people remain on welfare not because they want to but because their low self-image makes them feel incapable of anything else.
The essence of what the program can do for these people was captured very nicely in a letter written by Suzanne Bourg, CETA counselor, to Lloyd E. Thornhill, Career Services Administrator regarding a class I held for CETA (Comprehensive Employment and Training Act) trainees in Pasadena:
As educational counselor to Pasadena City College CETA students, I have been privileged to attend a series of 18 lectures by Dr. Alfred Barrios on "Motivation Through Self-Program Control". The ultimate purpose of the lectures is to increase the number of job placements of our CETA trainees. These students of economically and educationally disadvantaged backgrounds are taught simple but profound techniques which free an individual from his negative self-image, attitudes and emotions. His vitality and energy is then redirected towards a more positive and productive philosophy of life.
Dr. Barrios' course emphasizes relaxation techniques which the student learns to apply in anxiety-arousing situations such as job interviews and test-taking. These methods combined with auto-suggestion enable a person to 'program' himself to be happy, productive, get to work on time, not let life get him down, to picture success in one's mind and eventually achieve it. Most importantly, it teaches a person to rebound quickly from mistakes or failures and try harder the second or third time.
After seeing the response of the students and hearing examples of their applications of Dr. Barrios' concepts and techniques, I feel strongly that this is an important part of job training that has never been previously recognized. CETA can train a person to obtain job skills but if he has no self confidence, no sense of control over his own destiny, no previous pattern of success, he has great difficulty getting and holding down a job. It is this strategic area of Dr. Barrios' course which applies so directly to our CETA trainees." |
