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Perspective Newsletters
Winter 2002
PRESIDENT'S MESSAGE
Page 1
Dear Friends of the Foundation:
Dear Friends of Leary School: I just learned yesterday that yet another former student
was killed as a result of a shooting incident. As devastating as this is, I do not
want to even try to recollect how many students I have come to know and some I did
not get to know but went to one of the Leary School programs, who have died as a
result of violence. In my 25 years here, I imagine that number is well over 25.
I do not know entirely what it will take to turn this trend around but I certainly
have some ideas about what can and will make a difference.
Coincidentally, I was also told yesterday that a former student, now a young man
almost middle-aged, came around to visit and asked about me. This former student
and I have maintained sporadic contact with each other for well over ten years, maybe
fifteen. However, I do not worry as much about him as I do about the ones that I
do not see as much anymore or did not get as close to.
Considering how both of these students’ lives unfolded, how I understood them, what
they were faced with, and what I learned from them, offered me some insight that
might make a difference in the lives of other young people who face tough life situations
and personal crises while growing up.
Many of the students who come to the Leary School programs have very special and
unique life circumstances. While many have special educational problems and are in
need of specialized academic help, many also have situations and problems that extend
into their entire personal lives. Quite a few wrestle with feeling hopeless, incompetent,
and destined to be unsuccessful in all aspects of their lives. Some have very problematic
relationships with others. Some make some very poor decisions, maybe due to haste,
maybe due to feeling like nothing will make a difference, maybe just for the wrong
reasons. They may feel like someone or life has done them wrong and they therefore
are justified in treating others poorly. Quite often a negative cycle gets started
in which school problems, negative and/or low feelings and emotional distress combine
to generate serious emotional and behavior problems. At this level, low feelings,
feeling inadequate, alone, unusual, highly anxious can escalate to very high levels
of emotionality where one questions their hold on reality, where serious depressions
develop and where one’s personality is shaped by problematically so. Not able to
make the important social and psychological steps during childhood and adolescence,
a hard core adult personality can evolve. “I don’t care”, “Why should I try too
hard, life is so short?”, “I will attack others as a way of beating them to the punch.
I will get them first as I know they are trying to get me”, “I may as well get high;
the straight life for me is just a fantasy”. While there is so much more to these
patterns and so many other patterns – actually one for each person, it is not hard
to see how negative cycles develop.
Not every young person who has died a violent death necessarily experienced things
in this way, but I believe quite a few have. I hate to say it, but for some of the
students who have been lost to violence, I was not as surprised as I would have liked
to have been. In a way, I have come to recognize some of the patterns and, of course,
the ultimate cost. Luckily, for me, I have also come to realize some of the patterns
and ingredients that lead to successful as opposed to unsuccessful conclusions.
There are three very important characteristics among almost all of the students I
have come into contact with at the Leary School programs that I have come to greatly
appreciate: courage, willingness to try something different, and openness.
The Leary School programs, unlike many others, address personal problems directly
and with enthusiasm. Students at their first contact with us must identify areas
that have been problematic for them. The staff who interview students at intake have
read their files – everything they can get their hands on and talked to others about
them. They have heard all the details from their parents. They have heard from those
folks who referred them to one of the Leary Schools. And they have made some impressions
before even meeting the student.
Upon admission, the student must convince these staff members that he or she sincerely
and honestly understands what the presenting problems are, quite often the root causes
and then agrees to work with the program to address these problems. How many adults
do you think out of a thousand are willing to do this with others? Could you imagine
yourself doing this with strangers in a school when you were 13 or 16? It takes a
very special strength and openness and courage. I am constantly amazed at how honest
and willing to change some students are. I honestly believe that students who have
attended one of the Leary School programs are far more open, courageous and available
for change than the general public. Which brings me to my point about what we can
understand and do to help in some small way to avert the trend towards violence that
ends up affecting some of our students.
We encounter students, maybe our own children, at a time when they are open. The
toughness that we see sometimes in a negative light can be seen and used in a positive
way. Understand why they may have toughened up some but also appreciate that this
same toughness allows them to expose themselves, question their life choices and
allows them access to change. Tough people can and do take on tough issues. In teaching,
there is an expression: “those teachable moments”, which is meant to include those
times when teachers have students eating out of their hands, ready for new insight
and really open to learning, magic moments. In the lives of quite a few students
who have experienced some very challenging problems, there too are times when they
are available very much so to our involvement. Being able to just attend Leary School
is one of those opportunities. They have, in effect, agreed to be open to change.
These can be magical moments as well but last far longer than moments in a classroom.
For this reason, we must do all we can to meet them at this point. We must carefully
understand what life is like for them and then how to assist them in making positive
life choices. When I think of both of these students as young teenagers and it is
not hard to remember them at all, I know they were both available to me. They came
to school, we had good relationships and, therefore, both were open to my influence.
Given what life had in store for these two, these magical moments, the time that
they were so available to all of us can never be taken for granted. I respect greatly
what is so special about our students: courage, openness, strength. We all must respect
greatly these strengths and the opportunities we are given to help others, our fellow
man. We all must respect and take careful advantage of these opportunities. We must
appreciate the student’s openness and willingness to let us in. it may seem a bit
corny but we definitely can and do make a difference.
I also want to be careful that I make a further and important point here. I often
worry that when I wrote about some of the more serious problems that affect some
of our students that I may be giving the impression that all or at least most of
our students are so included or at least are great risk. This is really not the case.
We have students who realizing fantastic gains and who are extremely well equipped
for their adult lives. Quite a few students fortunately are with us in an effort
to avert problems from getting worse of who are simply well matched to the programming
offered. Just like the two experiences that hit me yesterday, learning of the death
of a former student and hearing from an adult student who is doing so well, no two
are alike. There is no typical Leary School student, maybe just some common experiences
and hopefully some common lessons learned.
Ed Schultze, Ed.D.
President/Executive Director
eschultze@learyschool.org
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