I trust everybody noticed the lovely school of fish that adorns this blog. It is as neptunian an effort as we could muster, truly multi-media, and thanks to Will for it. Now if only some of the other people around here would contribute. Perhaps some photos of frozen soil, icy cliffs, or chubby squirrels swinging from a bird feeder. Or comments.
My Monday routine has developed: go to bed early, get up early, read some books, prep for the week, set up my thoughts for a-blogging. Then sit meditation for a half-hour or so. I only have a few minutes before the window narrows (and everyone else here gets up).
But two things: first, Resiliency, or developmental assets. The idea that there are certain characteristics of an individual and her social world that can (to a limited degree) predict emotional health. Here is one list, concerning teenagers. These are very much the ideas our school evolved around; most striking to me is the idea that a young person needs at least three non-parent adults in their lives. Builds a bit of redundancy into the safety net. At TAS, the students really do have that. Over the course of three or four years, this makes a profound difference.
A second item is the strange, sad case that provoked the beginnings of the children's welfare movement. Mary Ellen Wilson was a scarred and frighten little tenement kid in the 1870's. After a couple of moves and disruptions- and thankfully, some former neighbors who continued to look in after here- her case came to the attention of the head of the ASPCA.
It is true: there was an animal rights movement before there was a children's rights movement. This oddity (which reflects the awkward role of the early modern/urban American state viz. the family) has fueled an academic urban legend that little Mary was protected under some sort of amibiguous status as an "animal".
There is a quote attributed to Helen Wheeler who pressed Henry Bergh of the ASPCA, by saying "she is a little animal, surely...". But it was rather Bergh's prestige that both got Mary's case in front of a judge and protected her over the short term.
More on this later- if I can get to it today. But read the story here. It has a happy ending.
Resiliency. Yep, that's the ticket.
My Monday routine has developed: go to bed early, get up early, read some books, prep for the week, set up my thoughts for a-blogging. Then sit meditation for a half-hour or so. I only have a few minutes before the window narrows (and everyone else here gets up).
But two things: first, Resiliency, or developmental assets. The idea that there are certain characteristics of an individual and her social world that can (to a limited degree) predict emotional health. Here is one list, concerning teenagers. These are very much the ideas our school evolved around; most striking to me is the idea that a young person needs at least three non-parent adults in their lives. Builds a bit of redundancy into the safety net. At TAS, the students really do have that. Over the course of three or four years, this makes a profound difference.
A second item is the strange, sad case that provoked the beginnings of the children's welfare movement. Mary Ellen Wilson was a scarred and frighten little tenement kid in the 1870's. After a couple of moves and disruptions- and thankfully, some former neighbors who continued to look in after here- her case came to the attention of the head of the ASPCA.
It is true: there was an animal rights movement before there was a children's rights movement. This oddity (which reflects the awkward role of the early modern/urban American state viz. the family) has fueled an academic urban legend that little Mary was protected under some sort of amibiguous status as an "animal".
There is a quote attributed to Helen Wheeler who pressed Henry Bergh of the ASPCA, by saying "she is a little animal, surely...". But it was rather Bergh's prestige that both got Mary's case in front of a judge and protected her over the short term.
More on this later- if I can get to it today. But read the story here. It has a happy ending.
Resiliency. Yep, that's the ticket.
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