The beauty of SELF, say Evans, is that with repetition in every grade, students develop habits to defuse difficult situations. Rather than reacting immediately and emotionally, the students pause to analyze what is happening, evaluate what effect various responses will have and consider alternatives that might resolve the situation in a way that satisfies everyone. This process of handling problems is expressed graphically as a traffic light that, like the Chester Code hands, is found on posters throughout the school. The signs remind students to pause and calm down before acting in any situation, to weigh various responses and then to act. Once the SELF program began, Klein saw a marked falling off of these problems among her sixth graders.
Students verbalize The verbalizing is noticeable even in the younger grades.
Each student had a chance to roll the cube and then to describe a situation in which she felt the emotion that came up. Another said she was afraid when she slept with her sister in a room with all the lights out. Lavezzoli took the opportunity to reveal some of her own feelings and reassure the girl that adults, too, are sometimes afraid of the dark. Several of the second graders reacted with surprise at that revelation. Lavezzoli's lesson was full of similar reassurances.