Learnings about the Circle of Courage (Part II Intro) of Reclaiming Youth

The authors, Larry Brendtro, Martin Brokenleg, and Steve Van Bockern, introduce Part II by introducing the history and rationale for the Circle of Courage. They start by speaking about how Native Americans have passed down from generation to generation in a verbal tradition some basic values that provide the underpinnings of developing a positive culture for youth. Often, we do not know how to do that. What does a positive peer culture mean among a culture geared toward individualism? They refer back to 15,000 years of civilization of oral tradition from Native Americans. Since the time of conquering the Native Americans through military and technological superiority, many of us believe that the native civilization has nothing to offer us. Yet it does.

To help us see how Native values are "ready made" for positive cultural changes for schools and programs (and, I believe, our general culture), the authors discuss Stanley Coopersmith's work on self-esteem. He felt that the four basic components of self-esteem are:

1. "Significance is found in the acceptance, attention, and affection of others. To lack significance is to be rejected, ignored, and not to belong." The native practice of belongingness within a clulrual milieu nurtures significance.
2. "Competence develops as one masters the environment. Success brings innate satisfaction and a sense of efficacy, while chronic failure stifles motivation." The native focus on mastery ensures the sense of competence.
3. "Power is shown in the ability to control one's behavior and gain the respect of others. Those lacking power feel helpless and without influence." Expressing independence can result in a sense of power.
4. "Virtue is worthiness judged by the values of one's culture and significant others. Without feelings of worthiness, life is not spiritually fulfilling." Generosity is a value that reflects virtue. In other words, to feel worthy, to have a sense of a spirtually fulfilling life, one can be generous.

The authors point out how the number four has a sacred meaning to Native people because it sees a person standing in a circle surrounded by the four directions.

Learnings from Reclaiming Youth Part 1, Chapter: Loss of Purpose

This chapter starts with a quote that indicates that the millions of children are not safe physically, educationally, economically, or spiritually, stating that it is the same for those who grow up in the ghetto as for those who grow up in mansions. It states that young people cannot develop a sense of value unless they can be of value to others. Instead of being able to give to others, the focus of our culture is upon selfishness, on competition instead of coperation and caring.

The first section of this chapter discusses how children no longer work to contribute to their family but to feed their desire for material goods. Because youth have more disposable income, they are vulnerable. They can buy cars to escape the influence of parents. They can buy substances to increase their excitement or decrease their stress.

The next section is about The Misery of Unimportance. In the past, all family members were necessary for each other's survival. Now, only about 25% of youth spend 3 or more hours per month giving to another person. Because they are more focused on consumption than on geniune contribution, children can feel unimportant. The authors, contrast how we value our use of time over relationships.

The last section of this chapter is about The Depersonalization of Education, in which schools have become less personal, following the trends of business because people believe that these organizations will work better if they are driven by data and cost efficiency. Fortunately, some organizations are attempting to create positive organizational cultures based on shared values.

Learnings from Reclaiming Youth at Risk: Part I, Chapter 3: Learned Irresponsibility

In this chapter, I learned about the myth of how obedience training producing responsible adults. In contrast, they paraphrase WEB Dubois, indicating that only responsibility teaches responsibility. The authors refer to Ruth Benedict, an anthropologist, who criticized our culture for excluding youth from responsibility only to blame them for being irresponsible (e.g., youth who exhibit learned helplessnes, the defiant teen, the narcissitism of an affluent generation, the negative peer subcultures of gangs). By punishing children for rebellion, they learn how to manipulate and deceive to escape authority.

This chapter provides a Profile of Discouragement: A Youth Counterculture that speaks about those who studied gang members in Bogota, Columbia. To summarize this section, these children demonstrate remarkable talents and resourcefulness in order to survive because, "given their choice between enslavement in a pseudo-home and misery with liberty in the streets," they embrace freedom. Interestingly, as William Glasser has written, one of our needs is to have freedom (as well as fun, freedom, power, and belonging). No wonder these young people choose freedom over obedience.

Another section in this chapter indicates discusses the Tyranny of Indulgence. Many children seem to get everything they want. There are a good number of adults who are permissive with their children. They get the child whatever he wants. The authors list three problems with permissiveness, indicating:

1. Self-esteem may decrease because a child does not know what is of value and what behaviors are acceptable.
2. "Delinquency may be reinforced as adults keep giving 'another chance.'"
3. Aggresion increases if permissiveness is assoiciated with adult hostility.

This section as indicates that some adults are not really permissive. They are indifferent, "care-less." In other words, this person is not interested in his role as parent, teacher, or counselor. Other indifferent adults are distracted by their own problems. Other adults gain some satisfaction from a child's out-of-control behavior.

The next section, about the Tyranny of Obedience, starts by stating that "The saga of discipline of Western civilization is a litany of futile attempts to compel the young person to obedient behavior." The authors cite how the educational system has replaced relationships with an elaborate system of rules, with formal codes of conduct, which outline what is allowable and what will be punished. The authors begin to introduce another viewpoint, that of the Native American, who do not value obedience. The authors states how this group believe that men are the same,, that no one is superior to another. In contrast, they encourage an abundant freedom that is designed to give the child sufficient opportunity to learn from experience and natural consequences. This chapter ends with the thought-provoking idea that rules are important but that why someone follows the rules is equally important. If children are forced to follow rules, the will only do so if they are policed. This implies that if children internalize responsibility, they will not require "policing."

Learnings from Part 1: Seeds of Discouragement, Chapter 2: Climates of Futility

This section opens with a quote of how troubled children are "throw-away" children. Having worked with teens and adults, I can see where this concept comes from. It seems that some people are just in the way, that it would be easier just to throw them away.

The theme of this section involves comparing the prevalent pessimism with the optimism of the pioneers in working with children.

Profile in Discouragement: An Unfriendly School

This part of this chapter, identifies four concepts, negative expectations, punitiveness, boredom, and irresponsibility. The book warns how our negative expectations can become true in how we look at children and how children respond. It talks about how Horace Mann suggested that teachers respond to difficult students like physicians who are looking to solve the challenge of a difficult case. He apparently stated that punishing these children is like the physician attacking a body part he was attempting to treat. I find it interesting that, when we discuss not punishing, people assume that the child will get out of control. Youth have little adventure so they have boredom. Children thrive in an environment of challenge and adventure. This chapter also encourages youth to be useful, to be responsible instead of irresponsible.

The chapter continues by discussing professional pessimism. They compare Floyed Starr's 1913 Creed for The Star Commonwealth for Boys: "We believe there is no such thing as a bad boy, that badness is not a normal condition but the result of misdirected energy. We believe that every boy will be good if given an opportunity in an environment of love and activity." In contrast,, the book charts the 10 Ds of Deviance in Approaches to Difficult Youth:

Theory; Problem; Typical Response
Primitive; Deviant; Blame, attack, ostracize
Folk Religion; Demonic; Chastise, exorcise, banish
Biophysical; Diseased; Diagnose, drug, hospitalize
Psyhoanalytic; Disturbed; Analyze, treat, seclude
Behavioral; Disordered; Assess, condition, time out
Correctional; Delinquent; Adjudicate, punish, incarcerate
Sociological; Deprived; Study, resocialize, assimilate
Social Work; Dysfunctional; Intake, case-manage, discharge
Educational; Disobedient; Reprimand, correct, expel
Spec Educ; Disabled; Label, remediate, segregate

The chapter continues discussing futility in the section heading Naive Personal Theories of Behavior. For example, some people take a child's behavior personally. It provides two tables illustrating attribution theory, one outlining the impact of negative personal theories and the other outlining the impact positive personal theories. Both assume that cognition leads to affect which leads to action.

The negative cognitions include demeaning labels (about child's traits), such as the child being inferior, incapable, or impotent, and blaming labels (about the child's deviance), such as disrespectful, disturbing, and indifferent. The affective result for the demeaning labels include repulsion and apathy while the affective result for the blaming labels are distress and anger. The action or resultant behavior include avoidance and neglect as a result of the demeaning labels and punishment and coercion for the blaming labels.

The impact of positive personal theories of behavior include the cognitions of esteeming labels (traits of the child), including worthy, competent, and strong, result in the affect of atraction and affection, which result in actions or behaviors of nurturing or empowering. Empathizing labels, which are about the challenges youth experience, include seeing the child in light of experiencing rejection, frustration, and discouragement. The resulting affect is sympathy and concern. This results in actions of befriending and encouragement.

While the context of the following quote is important, the quote itself is a good one. Goethe observed, "everything important has been thought before--the difficulty is to think of it again."

The writers used this quote because they were observing how we can go back to "important thoughts" of the past to help children. Instead of focusing on making the predators accountable, one can see "wayward youth" as seeking to satisfy unmet needs for love in inappropriate or ineffective ways. Instead of seeing punishment as a good thing, one can see that modern youth are discouraged and that punishment fuels that discouragement. We know that punishment tends to lead to hiding behavior.

Learnings from Part 1: Seeds of Discouragement, Section 1: Destructive Relationships

This section provides a profile in discouragement where a child who is not connected to others expressed the magnitude of his loneliness. While we could consider this youth someone who would not help himself, he, in fact was moved from foster home to foster home, who started feeling disconnected from others. This boy states that he did not want to love anymore because he had been hurt "too many times." At 17 years of age, this boy hang himself.

This section, which started by talking about Karl Menninger's post-retirement work with youth, talks about Children without Belongings. It states that many parenting skills and resources are insufficient to meet a child's needs. It adds that modern communities (formerly tribes) have group resources, including relgious, social, business, and educational ones. However, the one best poised to help is often an impersonal bureaucracy where there are highly structured 50-minute activity that is controlled by the teacher. I remember the lost feeling I had in junior high and high school.

Instead of partnering, parents can blame schools, and schools can blame parents.

Learnings from Part I Intro for "Reclaiming Youth at Risk"

At the center of the issue is a family under pressure stating that parents are too stressed, schools are too impersonal, and a community which is too disorganized.

Shortly later, this section of the book attempts to move away from negative traits or labels for troubled children to transactions within their environment. They describe four ecological hazards:

1. Destructive Relationships
2. Climates of Futility
3. Learned Irresponsibility
4. Loss of Purpose

Review of Introduction of the Book "Reclaiming Youth at Risk"

Key "Learnings" from the Introduction: The Century of the Child.

• While the Swedish sociologist Ellen Key predicted, in the early 1900s, the twenitieth century as the "Century of the Child" because of confidence in the progress of science.
• Instead, Fritz Redl used the phrase "Love of Kids, Neglect of Children, Hatred of Youth" to describe the twentieth century.
• It is lamentable that the behavioral sciences have not experienced any "step jump in technology." A step jump can refer to an original invention but, more commonly, refers to a recombination of previously existing knowlege. The book is an attempt to look at the experience of youth workers (versus just theory) and Native American philosophies of child rearing.
• Personally, I enjoy the contrast of courage versus discouragement. While I understand the definitions of both words, I frequently do not consider them the antithesis of each other. In fact, when I think of discouragement, I do not consider it the state of being without courage.
• The concept of "Reclaiming" originated with Martin Woolins of the University of California, Berkeley.
• A reclaiming environment is one that creates changes the meet the needs of both the young person and the society. To reclaim means to recover, redeem, restore to value (of something that was devalued).
• Features of a powerful reclaiming environment include:

1. Experiencing the BELONGING in a supportive community, rather than being lost in a depersonalized bureaucracy.
2. Meeting one's needs for MASTERY, rather than enduring inflexible systems designed for the convenience of adults.
3. Involving youth in determining their own future while recognizing society's need to control harmful behavior.
4. Expecting youth to be caregivers rather than just helps recipients overly dependent on the care of adults.

• As a society, we can no longer afford the economic drain of disposable people. Having worked with adults who know one seemed to care about, who were placed into the criminal justice system or lived on the street where they are vulnerable. Children, even children from affluent homes, can become those disposable people if they do not fit with society.
• Of course, a woman told me, recently, that people are genetically endowed with the ability to achieve and move forward. I believe that "success" is more complex than that. However, we try to keep things simple to keep ourselves from struggling with complexities of these kind of problems.
• The goal of the book is to blend practice into theory.
• The authors quote Janusz Korczak, who wrote:

This book is designed to be as short as possible because it is addressed primarily to a young colleague, who, suddenly thrown into the whirlpool of the most difficult educational problems, the most involved conditions of life, and now stunned and resentful, has sent out a cry for help.

A fatigued (compare to "burned-out") person cannot study thick volumes on education at night. One who is unable to get enough sleep will be incapable of implementing the precious principles he has learned. This shall be brief so that your night's rest may not be spoiled.

Review the Foreward of the Book "Reclaiming Youth at Risk"

The Foreward is Titled "Our Hope for the Future" and is written by Archbishop Desmund Tutu.

Important Concepts or Ideas:

• "We seem to have forgotten that people matter more than things."
• "We have taught them (children) that success is everything, no matter how ruthless you might be in achieving your results.
• "We have based our whole society on power, portraying compassion, gentleness, and caring as 'sissy' qualities.
• "I fear that our wonderful expressions of concern for young people are just so much baloney." How does he know this? Deeds speak more than words.