On Friday, March 24th, 2006, the East-Syracuse Minoa School District in Central New York completed training in Level One of the Crandall System. Level One: Children’s Self-defense and Awareness teaches non-aggressive escape techniques and awareness information for children. This program was designed to meet New York State standards for child safety education. In January of 2006, the school district was certified to teach Level Two, geared for teenagers. The East-Syracuse Minoa School District is implementing the Crandall System K-12, teaching the proactive self-defense program at the high school, middle school, and four elementary schools to over 3,600 students.

Grand Master Crandall and staff from the American Martial Arts Institute taught the program at Pine Grove Middle School. The five-hour program covered escape techniques, stretching, punches, kicks, stances, circuit training, and teaching methods. Grand Master Crandall discussed the importance of not touching a student in order to teach and other principles that make the Crandall System both unique and effective. Level one of the Crandall System is documented on the educational DVD Children’s Self-Defense and Awareness, Volume 1. The first three hours of the program is based on the content documented on the DVD.

The physical education teachers worked with a partner, and the certified adult black belt instructors helped them to learn the techniques so that they could later be taught. The staff at East Syracuse-Minoa had a great time and were excited to learn a program that was educationally sound, effective, and well organized.

The teachers each demonstrated the techniques in front of the group and Grand Master Crandall. This session allowed the teachers to sharpen their physical skills and practice correcting techniques on others. The teachers also had the opportunity to ask a variety of questions about teaching the program and implementing it into their curriculum.

Grand Master Crandall presented the physical education department with two copies of the Children’s Self-Defense and Awareness DVD for future reference and information presentation in the classrooms. Each staff member was given an educational booklet on the Crandall System (Level 1) that detailed techniques and the educational philosophy of the system. This booklet compliments the content of the program found on the DVD and lists standards and objectives, as well. The teachers also received certificates for their permanent files signed by Grand Master Crandall certifying them to teach the program.

The following teachers were presented with certification:

It was an exciting day and the East Syracuse-Minoa physical education staff had a great time. The knowledge that they will pass on in the coming weeks and years in their instructional physical education curriculum will make their students and community safer.