Larry K. Brendtro

Making caring fashionable: Philosophy and procedures of service learning

Many traditional education and treatment programs have relegated troubled youth to the narrow role of recipient of care. Yet if such individuals are to develop self-esteem and social responsibility, they must have opportunities to become involved in helping and caring for others. Volunteer service-learning programs offer a powerful means of transforming youth who heretofore have been seen as a societal liability into a valuable asset. This article reviews the philosophy of service learning and outlines specific guidelines for incorporating these programs into the re-education of troubled youth.

Extreme interventions for extreme behavior: Peer-assisted behavior management in group treatment programs

Positive peer culture (PPC) programs in residential treatment settings seek to empower youth as partners with staff in the problem-solving process. This has created questions about the appropriateness of using youth to manage their peers. This issue is particularly crucial when dealing with the management of seriously disruptive behavior. This article examines the involvement of youth in discipline and behavior management of peers. Any treatment model uses some formal orsub rosa means of countering extremely disruptive behavior, such as physical or psychological punishment, drugs, isolation, exclusion, or physical restraint. Some of these interventions are clearly abusive, and all are by definition highly intrusive. Peer-assisted interventions are evaluated vis-à-vis the philosophical values underlying positive peer culture, and principles for quality control of peer-assisted behavior management in PPC programs are proposed.

Powerful pioneers in residential group care: A look at our roots and heritage

The roots of residential child and youth care are explored in this wide-ranging historical overview. The elements of relationship, competence, and service provide a framework for interweaving the words and ideas of numerous European and North American pioneers who have influenced developments and thinking in this field.

Media Review: Solving Child Behavior ProblemsSolving Child Behavior ProblemsBlechmanElaine A.Research Press, Champaign, IL, 1985

responsibil i ty on the youths for themselves and others. Staff members who should not beworking with troubled youths are made worse by selecting them into this program and giving them more power to abuse.their charges. In sum, you cannot expect good results if you bring in some consultants for a few days, train the whole staff, give them all groups assigned by the numbers, and generally undersupervise or use unskil led supervisors thereafter. The tailure to build in evaluation assures that when the problems become known, they wi l l be bombs. To sum i t uo. I th ink th is edi t ion is better than the f i rst . l t of fers a method I have seen to be effective for many years using different group leaders at a girls learning center with above average abil ity students. (The method works in several cottages while the majority of girls are involved in other approaches to counsel ing.) The method is easy enough for the g i r ls to learn. l t should not be too much harder tor col lege students to learn. They do have to become adept at assessing and interpret ing roup and indiv idual dynamics which is not necessarily required of the adolescents. Since college training programs cannot prepare their students for a l l of the methods they wi l l be required to use where they wi l l employ, i t seems reasonable to give them al l a sol id f oundat ion in pr inciples and ski l ls in at least a few methods. This book presents a method I would include in such training.