Safety education stresses involvement

The ultimate mission of education programs is to obtain students’ total commitment to relevant information. The student must first pay attention to the presentation and the student’s behavior reflects his or her understanding of the material and the ability and desire to apply the information.

Thus, the basic ABCs of effective education are Attention, Behavior and Commitment. In terms of safety, education that relies on lectures or videotapes won’t get past the attention state of learning unless it builds exercises into the process. Only through exercises that motivate relevant behavior can we hope for commitment. This is summarized eloquently by the well-known Commitment Principle:

* Tell them and they’ll forget, demonstrate and they’ll remember, involve them and they’ll understand.