12 Principles of Re-Education
Click here to read "Stories from the Front Line," stories written by former and current Wright School staff about Wright School kids and the Re-Education Principles.
l. Life is to be lived now, not in the past, and lived in the future only as a present challenge.
We really don't look backward, we don't retreat, we don't try to repair something so that life can be caught up again .... We start with the assumption that each day is of great importance to young people; when an hour is neglected, allowed to pass without reason and intent, teaching and learning go on nevertheless, and the child or adolescent may be the loser. In Re-ED, no one waits for a special therapeutic hour. We try, as best we can, to make all hours special.
2. Trust between child and adult is essential...
Trust is the glue that holds teaching and learning together .... The first step in the reeducation process is to help the young person make a new and very important distinction that adults can be counted on as predictable sources of support, understanding and affection. The teacher-counselor, to nurture trust, must be a whole person, not a therapist .... No amount of professional training can make an adult worthy of the trust of a child or capable of generating it.
3. Competence makes a difference, and children and adolescents should be helped to be good at something, and especially at schoolwork.
School is near the center of a child's life and that is the natural fulcrum for efforts to help children in trouble .... We regard it as sound strategy to attack directly the problem of adequacy in school, for its intrinsic value as well as for its indirect effect on the young person's perception of his worth, and his acceptance by people who are important in his world.
4. Time is an ally, working on the side of growth in a period of development when life has a tremendous forward thrust.
A broken bone knits more rapidly at six and sixteen than at...