Boston 24/7

Teaching Troubled Kids...

One of the greatest benefits

 in working with troubled children

 is that you get to live

 at the edges of your competence

and discover that they are not fixed.

     -- ( F. A. Fecser )

Teaching...

As I teach,

I project the condition of my soul

onto my students,

my subject,

and our way of being together. 

 --( Parker Palmer )

Connect-Clarify-Restore...

How do I know if I have connected
with a student in crisis?

 You know you have connected

with this student

when you look into his face

 and see your own. 

    --( N. Long )

Children and Youth- Meeting Universal Growth Needs

A pilot has hundreds of instruments but, in times of crisis,

 is trained to focus on a few critical indicators of a plane's

condition.

A physician has available thousands of tests

 to diagnose disease but begins

with any patient by taking the "vital signs."

 In like manner, the Circle of Courage

marks the critical indicators,

the vital signs for positive youth development.

However complex our curriculum or counseling systems,

we must never lose sight of basics:

All children need opportunities to experience

 Belonging, Mastery, Independence, and Generosity.

  We call these "universal growth needs."

--Brendtro, Brokenleg, & VanBockern, 2002

Purpose....

“Education either functions as an instrument

 which is used to facilitate integration

 of the younger generation into the logic

 of the present system and bring about conformity

 or it becomes the practice of freedom,

 the means by which men and women

deal critically and creatively

 with reality and discover how to participate

in the transformation of their world.” 
― Paulo Freire, Pedagogy of the Oppressed

Fire...

“Education is not the filling of a pail, but the lighting of a fire.” 
― W.B. Yeats