Core Competencies and Integrated Learning in Action
The Community School is one of the only schools in the country that has explicitly embraced Stanley Greenspan’s DIR model as the foundation of its approach. We believe that healthy social-emotional development is the key to success in the social realm, the academic realm, and in the so-called “real world.” It’s important to realize that the DIR model is a broad framework for understanding how development occurs, how emotions relate to learning, and how one can best interact with a child to foster growth in social-emotional and cognitive areas. In addition to using the principles of the DIR model to guide us, we also use a variety of broad teaching approaches and specific strategies to address the individual needs of each student.
A student working on this competency will be making progress towards personal academic goals, including earning credits towards an accredited high school diploma and/or preparing to pass the GED. The Community School helps students to strengthen their core academic skills, including reading, writing, and math, by focusing on subjects of particular interest and relevance to individual students. Through the Affinities Program, we also help students to develop their passions by giving them the opportunity to explore subjects that they care about.
Roger is eighteen years old, having worked with the staff of The Community School for over three years. At the outset, he was a frustrated, depressed student who had rarely gotten the opportunity to work towards any academic goals given his strong mood and behavior swings, the severe negative responses of other schools to his behavior, and over-medication. Over the past three years, Roger has gradually developed trust with the staff and has stabilized his mood, become an empathetic and humor-filled individual, developed wonderful skills as a mentor and coach to younger students, and has formulated and carried out a specific academic plan for himself. Roger will complete his high school education this spring, and he is currently working with the staff on a post-high school transition plan.
As part of an ongoing health science class, Andy has been exploring the topic of nutrition. The first week was spent reviewing general nutrition information, including calorie, sodium, and fat intake for his age and completing computer-based nutrition activities. Our initial approach was to let Andy know that we weren't trying to convince him what he should and should not eat, only to educate him about his choices. This reduced his initial anxiety, and he had a great week developing a wish list of meals and food plans, looking at ways to make fun meals healthier (e.g., how to make a meat and cheese sub that still tastes great but has half the calories/fat). Andy decided to complete a taste test activity with fruits, since he believed that he did not like very many of them. At the local farmer's market, he selected kiwi fruit, mango, blueberries, and Asian pear. This trip was an eye opener, as Andy was amazed by all the fruits and vegetables he didn't even know existed. Andy prepared an all-school taste test, and he was intrigued by how many of the guys actually liked the fruits. In a final experiment, Andy set out to make baked french fries that taste as good as the fried, unhealthy kind. After observing the process at a nearby McDonald's, Andy made his own, completing all the peeling and cutting. The test was a success, demonstrating to Andy that we can continue to enjoy our favorite foods, even with a healthier preparation.
A student working on this competency will handle frustration, anxiety, excitement, sadness, anticipation, anger, and other strong feelings in successful ways, staying connected to the community and advocating for oneself effectively, not creating unmanageable conflict or damaging relationships with extreme reactions. This is a competency that all people work on throughout their lives, but is often especially challenging for our students given their developmental profiles and their histories of negative (or missing) interactions in school settings, and often at home as well.
Stan has recently begun attending The Community School, having been working successfully on a rigorous home school academic program in isolation. However, his experiences at other schools have always ended unsuccessfully, as his rage and frustration have led to angry words and volatile situations leading to punishment, which have then led to feelings of sadness, guilt, and even despair. At The Community School, our emphasis on creating lots of opportunities for supported, emotion-based interactions has enabled Stan to use his wit and intelligence to create a range of friendships. He has begun to get much more effective at expressing his anger and frustration with words and actions that are not extreme. This better regulation allows peers and adults to empathize more quickly with him, which in turn allows Stan to feel comforted and to stay connected to others in the midst of strong feelings.
A student working on this competency will understand and use nonverbal communication, gestures, and spoken and written language to express thoughts and feelings, to participate in sustained conversations, to negotiate with others, and to formulate logical arguments. These efforts will improve a student's ability to make and keep friends with peers and adults, to learn how to work with others and respect others' point of view, and to use relationships as a support in maintaining one's own emotional regulation. These are all critical skills in any kind of learning activity, but especially in higher learning (i.e., abstract, comparative thinking).
Recently, two students became involved in an hour-long negotiation about a movie that the group was going to watch at the end of the week. Both had picked out possible movies, and both were anxious about how to get their preferences. Each showed the stress in his particular way-one student by becoming more bossy and stubborn, and the other by getting almost obsessive in his thinking and extremely restless and physically active. All of the kids are learning how to recognize the signs of stress in themselves and in each other, and to be helpful to each other in calming, organizing, and communicating effectively. Many of the kids are able to help others with their stress, but the movie negotiation presents the ultimate challenge, because everyone has a powerful preference and everyone gets stressed out over their ability to get what they want and to communicate their needs. In this negotiation, with help, the kids were able to express their preferences and ideas, to hear the preferences of others, and to work out a compromise. Both students got overloaded at different times during the discussion. One student had to retreat for awhile to calm himself down, and he became fatigued with the effort of expressing his wants and compromising. The other was upset and disorganized during part of the discussion. But each made a few steps of progress in learning how to modulate himself, to "want but not get" right away, to have feelings that he understood and could express, to hear the point of view of another.
A student working on this competency will be helping the school community to run successfully by participating in the justice system and other parts of the school social framework, and by learning about one's own place in other communities, including family, city, and world.
Through our community service program, two of our students have integrated themselves into the work of Crossroads Community Center, a local organization serving the homeless community. Over the course of the school year, they have become capable of running the mailroom on their own. They take the work there seriously and are extremely kind and patient with the guests of Crossroads, many of whom are in the throes of serious poverty, stress, mental illness or drug addiction. Homelessness, they are learning, is not just about "those people"; it is about people who are human beings just like them. Both students are getting to see themselves for who they really are-competent, caring people whom others want to be around and appreciate. As we have watched both of them interacting with clients and solving problems, it seems that at some point in their lives they believed those voices that sought to push them out or told them that they were not wanted. In this setting, giving their time and energy to help a group of people that society often rejects, they were showing "those people" that somebody cared. And in return, they are seen as two kind, intelligent young men who are giving their time to help.
All of the students struggle at times to get along, and these struggles often provide excellent learning opportunities. At times, the students don't manage their actions well when they get frustrated or threatened by each other. They avoid certain kinds of learning because it seems hard. They have a tendency to act as if their needs are the only needs, or as if everyone else should automatically understand them without explanation. Many of the students are actually willing to terminate relationships rather than work out differences and conflicts-not because they don't want friends, but because they experience the challenge of emotional negotiation to be too great.
The students are almost always reluctant to tackle learning tasks that don't seem relevant or interesting to them. Even tasks of interest will be abandoned if the challenge seems too great. At times, it seems as if no amount of encouragement will help them overcome their avoidance; in fact, many will accept negative consequences rather than try things that make them uncomfortable. This has been the story of their life at school-feeling misunderstood and being made to do things without meaning.
The Community School has an internal justice system, and at times a student may bring a charge against another student or a teacher. The system provides a way for the involved party to resolve their conflict, while at the same time strengthening the overall community. In one case, Kenny was bothered by something and began throwing pebbles towards Ian, who was sitting on the ground during a hiking break. Ian responded indirectly by making threatening statements towards Kenny. Neither responded well because they didn't know how to understand and express their feelings while also maintaining their inner concept of relationship and community.
By providing the justice system as a way to explore these issues, we are, in effect, slowing down the process of resolution. We are coaxing everyone to look at how they were feeling and how their feelings led to specific actions. We are coaxing everyone to look at how their actions, motivated by their feelings, led to feelings and actions in other people. By the time this hearing occurred, everyone in school had walked through the events of the case a number of times. Bill had drawn detailed pictures of the scene, exploring the specific events. Ned (representing Kenny) had asked Kenny over and over again why he did certain things, what he was thinking at different moments, and how he was feeling. Bill and Ian worked together to understand at what point Ian was simply asserting himself and at what point he was truly threatened and threatening. Ian and Kenny both had to work hard to figure out how the other guy was interpreting his actions.
As the process drew towards its end, all of the guys got a chance to anticipate outcomes. What happens if I "lose"? Will people hate me? Will I lose my friends? Though hard, this is an essential part of their growth. They need to recognize that disagreements are a basic part of human experience, and that it is possible to be angry, annoyed, or frustrated without catastrophic results. By the time the judges' decisions were presented, everyone had already anticipated the worst outcomes.
There were a thousand other lessons learned in this case. As a judge, Andy got the chance to experience what it means to be "impartial." He was able to reflect on his feelings towards the individuals in the case, then put those aside to consider the central questions. The student judges reviewed the video of the hearing and discussed the concepts of fairness, compensation, rule-breaking, and punishment. Stan had a range of ideas about improving the justice system overall, and he was able to consider both the needs of the school and the potential needs of the individuals who might bring complaints. Ned and Bill, as advocates, also got the chance to experience the feeling of disagreeing with their client but trying to represent him fairly. Each had to provide supportive counsel, using their own perspectives as tools; they could not simply dictate the actions of their clients.
In the end, this case provided an integrated learning experience for every student, enabling them to strengthen their core competencies in a dynamic, interactive, and meaningful context.