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Perspective Newsletters
Fall 2004
PRESIDENT'S MESSAGE
Page 1
Dear Friends of the Foundation:
The last issue of the Perspective noted the Foundation's ten year and the Leary Schools'
fortieth year anniversaries.
We are all very proud of what has occurred over the years at the Leary School programs.
A review of the School's history reveals much. Guided by a central mission to provide
needed special education and treatment to a unique group of students, the staff and
programming continue to deliver much needed support in a very real and effective
manner.
Looking to the future, the plan is to more or less stay the course while adjusting
and adapting as expectations, public policy, circumstances and economics bring with
them forces to change.
At the same time and perhaps even more importantly, we do hope to adjust and adapt
as the programs continue to evolve, as we learn and grow. The programming will continue
to evolve in a purposeful manner.
The mission remains central: providing students special education and treatment with
a commitment to overall personal development, for short.
In addition to providing highly individualized special education, the programs seek
to assist students and their families in making important personal change, predominantly
emotional, psychological, behavioral and, let's go so far as to say, personality
change - fundamental changes in thinking and being.
Let us start with Why. Why should a program attempt to change behavior and, if possible,
go even deeper and attempt to change personality?
There are at least two important and beginning avenues to consider.
One, many students referred to one of the programs may be experiencing quite significant
behavior problems. Some avoid school and/or all contact with academic work. Some
act out conflicting or problematic feelings. Some may engage in various levels of
self-effacing behaviors consequent to faulty thinking. For whatever reason, quite
a few have developed behavior patterns that really should not even be referred to
as purely behavior problems. Quite a few of these problems have reached habitual
proportion. There are patterns of behavior supported by faulty thinking, reinforced
externally and internally and, just like cigarette smoking, held onto despite the
inescapable inevitability of which everyone around them is aware. We witness the
progression of a behavioral reaction, behavior problem, patterns of behavior and
then the shaping of personality. A seventeen-year old responds defensively and negatively
to all authority figures to the point that she cannot hold a part time job, is alienated
from her parents and other adult family members and will barely communicate with
most adults. We see the roots of this pattern when this young lady in the classroom
vacillated between acting out conflicts with most adults and withdrawing from even
familiar adults. It got worse and hardened.
A 16 year old relayed that he felt he will never be employable. From the look of
things, he is working on making sure that does not happen. He has a great aversion
to accepting responsibility for his actions - good and bad, is very impulsive and
has a poor view of himself as a worker.
Looking through the filters of a behaviorist and scientist, visceral reactions are
evident each time the teacher places paper on Jenny's desk. A long history of school
failure, learning problems and poor self image have combined to such proportion that
Jenny reacts behaviorally and poorly to all paper and pen work. This reaction has
generalized to any print medium, meaning use of a computer program for output or
reading for input produces a similar response. Jenny has more than a behavior problem,
at least a passing behavioral reaction to a stress-inducing stimuli. Jenny is working
on personality.
Back to the issue of: "Why should a program attempt to change the behavior and even
attempt change at a deep and fundamental level". One reason is because this is simply
responding to the depth of the problem. It is fair. The problems sometimes are deeper
than simple single issue behaviors. The treatment, likewise, must be provided and
matched with depth and be multifaceted.
Deep-rooted behavioral problems should not be viewed as transient or simple one-dimensional
aspects of an individual. Problems that have evolved over a number of years have
to be respected for their resiliency. Appreciation of the reinforcers that feed the
pattern of behavior has to occur.
Simply stated, long standing and serious behavior problems warrant an extensive examination
that goes beyond tallying and describing events in time like a football game or a
movie plot. Behaviors, feelings, ideas, interaction with others, all combine to define
us as human in the most basic of ways. Appreciating humans as the linear collection
of their behaviors is superficial and short sighted. We are so much more.
There is some great research to support this. The Associated Press has just recently
reported on the National Institute of Health's 13 member Panel reviewing scientific
evidence looking at youth violence causes and prevention (October 17, 2004 'Get Tough'
Youth Programs Are Ineffective, Panel Says, -AP). Once again, scientists dispel the
notion that these quick fix, quasi-behavioral intervention programs such as the community
boot camps for youth prone to violence or the DARE drug prevention programs are effective.
Instead, the panel supports programs offering traditional counseling and therapy.
With scientific scrutiny, the more therapeutic programs have solid results.
At the same time, incredible advances in brain-mapping show with increased scientific
scrutiny the relationship between neurology, genetics, biology and behavior. The
August 2004 issue of Science offers an article: "Sweet Revenge" (305:1246-47) which
describes the brain area associated with reward and pleasure. The article gets into
the very specific behavioral components associated with costs and rewards of aggressive
behavior at a neurobiological level. Why is this relevant? It is yet another reason
to appreciate behavior as more than simple response to stimuli, or learned reaction
or product of socialization. It is all that and so much more.
Genetics, wiring, biology, learning, culture, life, interactions with others, and
thought all contribute to personality and in unique ways. Behavior is just one thing
we can see on the outside. It is one aspect of an individual that can be observed
on the surface. It is not the single source of a problem and cannot always be the
sole target of an effective treatment.
Another reason why the programs attempt to change behavior at a fundamental level
has to do with quality of life. Long standing behavior problems or the onset and
development of maladjusted personality do not correspond to a happy satisfying life
for most.
Students, their families and/or guardians choose to attend one of the Foundation's
programs knowing upfront that one of its aims is to assist students in changing ineffective
patterns of behavior. Even younger elementary-aged students enter into discussions
with staff concerning the development of problem behaviors. They are asked if they
want to change the behavior. Following this, a discussion of how that might occur
takes place. Entering this conversation, which for many might be the first time ever,
addresses a basic human need. Does the student want to change? Does the student see
that by doing so some relief, improvements or benefits might follow? Almost always
these conversations generalize into discussions of quality of life. How would life
be with less conflict? How satisfying might additional relationships be? Despite
the pain, exposure, risk and work, is it worth it to attempt change on a fundamental
level? It is all upfront and the payoff is improvements in functioning at a core,
basic human level.
Why help others change their behavior? Simple behavioral problems and reactions grow
up into personality problems. People have better lives when they are less conflicted
and more adaptable. Probably almost all would agree that certain serious behavior
problems interfere with schooling, social and emotional development. The point here
has more to do with depth and the issue of personality.
The Leary School programs examine and attempt to change the behavior of its students
in partnership with the students at a deeper level, closer to the source of the behavior
as opposed to working on the surface in an attempt to help students change.
In science and in popular society, it is quite controversial to suggest that personality
can be changed directly, if at all. It is probably quite controversial for a private
special education school to suggest so as well. Yet, is that not the whole purpose
of psychotherapy, to assist others in achieving fundamental change?
Watching a child grow up and take with them serious problematic behavior patterns
that, given the benefit of time, transform into personality traits and then to ignore
the impact, the range, the depth of the problem is arguably short-sighted.
I doubt many of the readers of this piece would appreciate being viewed as simply
a group of behaviors. Nor would most appreciate the simplistic one-dimensionality
of addressing a behavioral concern as an 'all or nothing' issue. For example, a conflict
with a peer, a period of feeling low accompanied with inactivity, or avoiding certain
friends is always more than what we all see on the surface. We are more than what
we do. We are more than what others see on the surface.
The Leary School programming attempts to delve into personality change with those
willing to address personal development openly and in depth. The programming views
behavior as a surface trait or simple action connected to an individual in many unique
ways. Behavior is not understood or treated in isolation.
This central feature of the Foundation's character and mission will not change much
in the years to come. We bring into the future a commitment to depth and quality
so that the programming truly serves a very special group of students as humanly
as possible.
Good luck in the upcoming year.
Ed Schultze, Ed.D.
President/Executive Director
Lincolnia Educational Foundation, Inc.
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