EATON — Eaton Community Schools students received special wearable reminders to help with their decision making and other skills on Tuesday, Nov. 22.
Thanks to local sponsors, students in grades kindergarten through 12th will receive bracelets based on the “R Factor.”
The R Factor is a critical performance resource, according to its creators. It equips people with the mindset and skillset to be intentional about the way they think, make decisions, and take action. The R Factor is built on a simple, powerful equation: E+R=O (Event plus Response equals Outcome.)
“The key to producing outcomes is not the events or circumstances that people encounter, but how they choose to respond. Better outcomes require better responses from people. Performance is determined by how people manage the ‘R,’” according to the company who created the R Factor, Focus 3, owned by former Ohio State Buckeye football player Tim Kight.
“The company, 35 years ago started doing this with Fortune 500 companies, started getting into the schools really about 25 years ago, and it became a thing in Ohio about eight years ago,” Eaton Community Schools Superintendent Jeff Parker said.
Everybody gets a bracelet, a wearable reminder that they matter.
Heather Suerdieck, owner of Inside/Out Coaching in Darke County, works with the program in the schools in Greenville. She was on hand at Eaton Schools on Tuesday, Nov. 22 to help deliver bracelets which will be distributed to Eaton students at a later date.
“I work with seniors and freshmen and eighth graders. Basically what I do is help create a mindset around emotion,” Suerdieck said.
“If you can see it, wear it, you remember it. So that’s it just a wearable reminder,” she added.
According to Suerdieck, since May, Inside/Out has sold and given back over 7,000 bracelets to students. “When you buy a bracelet, part of the money is given back to the schools. Eaton’s project to give back is going to National Trail, so grades five-12 will also get bracelets.”
“I think it’s great principles, great reminders, for all of us every day. But for me as superintendent, if a student their entire career at Eaton can get help with decision-making, discipline responses, undisciplined responses, and learn those traits – learn those — skills, I think it’s a lifelong thing for them to take with them,” Parker said.
Local sponsors for bringing the bracelets to Eaton Community Schools included Eaton Ace Hardware.
“Travis (Earley, owner of Ace Hardware in Eaton) really, really got this going in motion,” Parker said. “And we are extremely thankful for Travis. He is a huge supporter of Eaton Schools and kids and just does a lot for us.”
