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WHAT IS WHY TRY?

For more than 20 years, Why Try? has led the way in social and emotional resilience life skills education to benefit, so far, over 3 million students. Our practical resources and effective tools have helped educators in over 30,000 schools in all 50 US states, Canada and Australia. Why Try? can help you address mental health issues, following evidence-based practices and using a trauma-informed approach. Let’s partner to build resilience in every student.
Hans Magleby, Founder of the Why Try program
Presents a Brief Overview of Why Try? materials and toolkit resources.

Why Try’s Ten Learning Units

Why Try’s curriculum of ten visual analogies are reinforced through the creative use of music, videos, hands-on activities, stories, and multi-media. Why Try’s curriculum engages all major learning styles (visual, auditory, and body-kinesthetic.)

Why Try’s ten visual analogies teach these essential resilience life skills:

  • Decision-making
  • Positive self-esteem
  • Emotional regulation
  • Having a resilient mindset
  • Peer influence & relationships
  • Problem-solving
  • Hard work & Determination
  • Responsibility and expectations
  • Relationship building
  • Self-efficacy


Why Try is a flexible toolkit and curriculum for K-12 teachers and counsellors. It provides simple, hands-on strategies and resources to help motivate the unmotivated student, support students with trauma, improve engagement, and increase academic success. The idea is straightforward: teach life skills and resilience to youth in a way they can understand and remember The Why Try Program can be used as a flexible toolkit for teachers and counsellors or as a classroom curriculum taught for a school term or over a school year. Delivered on a one-to-many and/or one-to-one counselling context.

For more details join our FREE Zoom Introduction to Why Try?, go to “Training”

The Why Try program:

** is an Evidence-Based Program
** its Curriculum is Research-Informed
** fosters 3 Rs: Relationships, Relevance and Resilience

Why Try: An Evidence-Based Program

Why Try is an evidence-based social and emotional learning (SEL) program. We use the CASEL definition of social and emotional learning:
“…the process through which children and adults acquire and effectively apply the knowledge, attitudes and skills necessary to understand and manage emotions, set and achieve positive goals, feel and show empathy for others, establish and maintain positive relationships and make responsible decisions.”
-The Collaborative for Academic, Social and Emotional Learning (CASEL)

Researchers have independently verified that Why Try effectively accomplishes all the objectives of social and emotional learning as outlined by CASEL. Students who participate in a full-fidelity implementation of the Why Try Program demonstrate improved:

  • Locus of control
  • Ability to set and achieve goals
  • Relationships with teachers and fellow students
  • Classroom engagement
  • Attendance records
  • Academic performance
  • Behavioural and Emotional Screening System (BASC) scores

Defining the Why Try Evidence

The National Centre on Response to Intervention (NCRI, USA) outlines the following standards for research-based interventions:

“…(an) evidence-based intervention (is) as an intervention for which data from scientific, rigorous research designs have demonstrated (or empirically validated) the efficacy of the intervention. That is, within the context of a group or single-subject experiment or a quasi-experimental study, the intervention is shown to improve the results for students who receive the intervention.”

The WhyTry Curriculum is Research-Informed

The Why Try program also delivers a research-informed curriculum, defined by US-based NCRI, as:

“…incorporating design features that have been researched generally…”

Educators implement Why Try using the ten visual metaphors that form the cornerstone of the program. These ten metaphors teach life skills critical to the future success of every student or adult. The ten visual metaphors use a variety of strengths-based therapeutic approaches. These include:​

  • Cognitive Behaviour Therapy (CBT)
  • Reality Therapy
  • Client-centred Therapy
  • Solution-Focused Brief Therapy (SFBT)


While these are well-established therapeutic practices, educators don’t need to be trained in these modalities to use the program.

A full-fidelity implementation of Why Try includes three distinct elements, our 3 R’s:

1. RELATIONSHIP

Teachers or counsellors who implement the Why Try program establish a strong relationship of mutual respect and trust

2. RELEVANCE

Why Try motivates students to take a greater interest in their academic success and long-term personal development.

3. RESILIENCE

Why Try helps students to develop greater resilience. When students are more resilient, they are better prepare