are raising generations of people whose thinking skills are inadequate for dealing with the challenges they face. We have created a society in which schools, the media and elders are guilty of promoting acceptance of “what others have interpreted to be the truth”, a society in which individuals expect that others have better answers than they. In North America, statistics show increasing numbers of high school dropouts, averaging nearly 3,000 per day. We believe this trend is directly related to the emphasis in schools on rote content knowledge rather than developing thinking skills. Further, we believe this error-focus has resulted in multiple generations who are afraid to think for themselves and not able to trust their ”experience-based knowledge”. And, finally, we believe this has contributed to social, economic and environmental problems that have far-reaching effects on our planet.

In the US, the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) reports, "dropping out of high school is related to a number of negative outcomes”, including poverty, poor health, unemployment, imprisonment and addiction.

Estimates from the most recent data available indicate that approximately 30 percent of federal inmates, 40 percent of state prison inmates, and 50 percent of persons on death row are high school dropouts (data from 1997 and 1998; U.S. Department of Justice 2000, 2002). Although not strictly comparable, estimates for the general population during the same years indicate that about 18 percent were dropouts (U.S. Census Bureau 1998a, 1988b).

Over 30 years, first as Director of the Network Program, then Director of Shock Incarceration for the State of New York Department of Correctional Services (NYSDOCS), Dr. Cheryl Clark, also President of DOING LIFE!® International Inc. (DLI), has been exploring the application of Fuller’s synergetics to social dynamic, within the very challenging social laboratory of prison.

By translating the generalized principles in Fuller's masterworks Synergetics I and II into easy-to-implement programs, Dr. Clark has taught the equivalent of two generations of young adults, people who have been categorized “high risk”, to respond to their “own most delicately insistent intuitive awareness of what the truth seems to them to be as based on their own experiences…” thereby helping them to evolve into stable, responsible, conscious contributors to society. Dr. Clark’s PhD dissertation, 12° of Freedom: Synergetics and the 12 Steps to Recovery, (©2001), documents how Fuller’s generalized principles can be used successfully as a basis for recovery from addictions.

Through her work, Dr. Clark has also demonstrated how the generalized principles are applicable to solving any problem, encountered by anyone, anywhere, anytime. Outside a "captive audience", however, the challenge with helping the general public (who receive information in sound bites and summaries) to understand Fuller’s work is that his language is so complex as to make it indecipherable to the average reader. Our vision at DLI is to change that and make Fuller accessible to everyone. As such, our response to the challenge is to design a system of simple, easy-to-use educational tools to teach users the basics of what we call Social Synergetics™.

WHAT IS SOCIAL SYNERGETICS™?
Social Synergetics™ is the consideration of social issues within the context of Fuller’s synergetics. It provides a trimtab model for problem solving and critical thinking solidly anchored in Fuller's concepts of freedom and stability in Universe.

Fuller considered the “four-cornered tetrahedron … the minimum structural system in Universe.” and later said, “I intuited that the combined sciences of navigation and ballistics might embrace all the variables governing Universe-event prognostication. It could be that: (1) navy yard industrialization, (2) fleet operation and individual ship design, (3) astronavigation, and (4) ballistics constituted the four ‘special case’ corner complexes of a generalized tetrahedral complex of variable design factors governing all human mind-controllable participation in all cosmic, alternative-intertransforming potentials.” (Critical Path, ©1981)

The Social Synergetics™ model redefines Fuller’s four "'special case' corner complexes" with definitions which encompass the fundamental aspects of human existence:
Astronavigation = Vision = Spiritual
Operation & Design = Plan = Mental
Industrialization = Tools = Physical
Ballistics = Feedback = Emotional

In A Fuller Explanation, Amy Edmonson says: "Experience with synergetics encourages a new way of approaching and solving problems. (It) fosters the kind of lateral thinking which so often leads to creative breakthroughs.” And, Fuller said, "You never change things by fighting the existing reality. To change something, build a new model that makes the existing model obsolete."

With the Social Synergetics™ model, we have done just this. We have designed a ground-breaking system for critical thinking based on the tetrahedron and the six motions in universe identified by Fuller (spin, orbit, expansion/contraction, torque, inside/outness, precession).

THE ‘BORN GENIUS’ SOLUTION
In 1969, Fuller was quoted in People Magazine as saying: "I am convinced all of humanity is born with more gifts than we know. Most are born geniuses and just get de-geniused rapidly."

The Born Genius educational tools will offer a model for rediscovering our innate genius, teaching people HOW to think rather than WHAT to think. The tools will be a trimtab for teaching a structure for proactive and responsive thinking about any any issue, event or idea, in any context in life, providing access to Fuller’s generalized principles to a mass audience – from children, to teenagers through adults – in an easy-to-use, whole-brain format which maximizes learning with minimal resources.

COMPREHENSIVE, ACHIEVABLE, REPLICABLE
The core content of the Born Genius educational tools will offer a comprehensive process of developing critical thinking skills based in synergetics. The core material will be adapted to a variety of audiences, with the initial product, an interactive workbook, written for general self-help and subsequent texts focusing on teenagers, business and women. An illustrated children's book will follow.

The workbooks will be supported with comprehensive facilitators guides, similar to those created for the curricula previously developed by DLI (see below). The material will evolve to a variety of additional media, such as interactive CDs, audio and web-based programs.

VERIFIED, UNPRECENDENTED SUCCESS WITH SIMILAR PROGRAMS
Dr. Clark has achieved unprecedented, verifiable success with programs applying Fuller’s generalized principles in correctional facilities. Published statistics support the viability of the work proposed here.

The nationally recognized success of the Shock Incarceration Program is testimony to the accessibility of Dr. Clark’s methodology for learners and staff of all levels of education. Research on the success rates of Shock (1987-2007) has shown that offenders in this program are twice as likely to get a GED than people in the general public, in less than one-fourth of the time. Inmates who participate in Shock pass the GED at an average rate of 88% as compared with 41% to 56% rates of individuals in general public or other prison academic programs. (Annual Reports to the Legislature, 1988-2007) Offenders who successfully complete Shock are more likely to be successful in society post-release than similarly situated inmates who refuse to participate or are removed from the program.

DLI publishes two curricula (used in and out of prison) based in the Social Synergetics™ model. DOING LIFE!™ A Program For Recovery from Addictions (1996) is specifically geared to people in recovery. S.M.A.R.T. CHOICES! An Accelerated Lifeskills Program, (1998) teaches young adults to make responsible choices.

DEVELOPMENT, FINANCING & DISTRIBUTION
Development of the core content for the Born Genius products will be through the existing DLI infrastructure. Consultants and/or strategic partners will be engaged to assist with financing and development of the educational tools.

The DLI team belongs to an international organization of leaders in education and personal transformation who are committed to making this work become available to the widest possible audience, such as:

• Jack Canfield (Author, Chicken Soup for the Soul)
• Bobbi Deporter (President, Quantum Learning Network)
• Martin Rutte (Consultant, Spirituality in the Workplace)

Together we will address today’s “greatest challenge”.