A bit of History- Working with Troubled and Troubling Kids

Learning about others who have worked with difficult and troubled children and youth over the years has been very

helpful....  many older ideas ... are excellent!!!  Hobbs and

many others are well worth checking out!!!

It was the vision of Nicholas Hobbs that Re-Education

remain ever fluid, never dogmatic. Indeed, Hobbs

said he wanted us to re-invent Re-ED every day.

Hobbs’ visionary thinking foresaw bright people—

both young and older—working together to address

the needs of kids and families in trouble. He saw this

being done not in isolation but through an ecological

approach that reaches into all areas of the child’s life.

The guiding lights for us along that path are the

12 Principles.They are the bedrock of what Re-ED

has been about since its inception in 1962.

Life is to be lived now, not in the past, and lived in the future only as a present challenge.

  

 Trust between a child and adult is essential, the foundation on which all other principles rest, the glue that holds teaching and learning together, the beginning point for reeducation.

Competence makes a difference, and children and adolescents should be helped to be good at something, especially schoolwork.

 Time is an ally, working on the side of growth in a period of development when life has a tremendous forward thrust.

Self control can be taught and children and adolescents helped to manage their behavior without the development of psychodynamic insight; and symptoms can and should be controlled by direct address, not necessarily by an uncovering therapy.

 The cognitive competence of children and adolescents can be considerably enhanced; they can be taught generic skills in the management of their lives as well as strategies for coping with the complex array of demands placed upon them by family, school, community, or job; in other words, intelligence can be taught.

 Feelings should be nurtured, shared spontaneously, controlled when necessary, expressed when too long repressed, and explored with trusted others.

 The group is very important to young people, and it can be a major source of instruction in growing up.

Ceremony and ritual give order, stability, and confidence to troubled children and adolescents, whose lives are often in considerable disarray.

The body is the armature of the self, the physical self around which the psychological self is constructed.

 Communities are important for children and youth, but the uses and benefits of community must be experienced to be learned.

In growing up, a child should know some joy in each day and look forward to some joyous event for the morrow.

“We believe that a joyous experience is immensely important, that it is immediately therapeutic…”

Nicholas Hobbs, 1915-1983

More about the principles and practices of Re-ED can be found in The Troubled and Troubling Child,  by Dr. Nicholas Hobbs