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.