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Life Space Crisis Intervention
Frank A. Fecser — Nicholas J. Long
Introduction
| Eastwood School, Monday, November 10,
8:10 a.m. * Bill enters his sixth-grade classroom with a look on his face that says, "Just try me." Miss Foster is busy at her desk preparing for the morning and does not notice that there is something different about Bill today. He hangs his jacket in the closet and goes to his seat. As the classroom fills, Miss Foster says, "Good morning, everyone. Please take our your journals, and write a paragraph about how you spent your weekend." This has been a typical Monday morning assignment since September. Bill isn’t particularly fond of journal writing, but he usually manages the task. Today, Bill puts his head on his desk and closes his eyes. Miss Foster approaches and says, "Bill, it’s time to get started." Without lifting his head or opening his eyes, Bill snarls, "I’m not doing no stupid journal." Miss Foster is surprised. She knows that Bill has his occasional moods and that he can be difficult all day when he’s like this. She decides to attempt to motivate him by reminding him of the consequences of his choice. "Bill, if you don’t complete your journal now, you know that you will have to do it during recess." Bill’s response is explosive. He jumps to his feet, squares off with the teacher and roars, "I told you I’m not doing this stupid stuff! Get out of my face, now!" Miss Foster is shocked. The class is riveted to the spectacle in silent anticipation. Bill remains standing, an angry scowl on his face, his fists clenched at his sides. It’s Miss Foster’s move. * Miss Foster’s situation is not an uncommon one in schools across the country. Today’s students come from a wider range of family structures, life styles, and cultural variety than ever before. They present the schools with social-emotional needs at a level unknown in education ever before, and they demand a quality of teacher understanding and skill that was, at one time, the province of the special education teacher, alone. * The standard social constructs that defined teacher-student interaction in the past have changed. A generation ago the authority of the teacher and the school was rarely questioned. Students and parents had little to say about how teachers conducted their classrooms, and student "rights" were determined largely by teacher discretion. When conduct violations occurred, there was no interest in discovering or attempting to understand the student’s point of view. The culprit was reprimanded, punished, and marked as a misfit and a troublemaker. Students who clashed with the culture of the school too often were "removed." Contemporary thinking, however, is inclusionary. Schools are presumed not to tolerate "diversity" but to welcome it, and to provide a stable learning environment amidst open expression of values and differences. Inclusion requires a shift in the way teachers think about their students. Rather than teaching a homogenous class, teachers are now working with a heterogeneous group of individuals both culturally and educationally. When a student is disruptive, teachers need to consider much more than what price the student will pay for his wrongdoing; teachers need to consider the motivating forces behind the behavior, whether this is an isolated event or part of a predictable pattern, and whether or not the student is motivated to change. As a result, teachers need to take an individualized approach to discipline, just as they do to academics, if they hope to accommodate all students successfully in the inclusionary environment. * Life Space Crisis Intervention (LSCI) is an effective strategy by which teachers and other professionals working with children and youth can use classroom conflict as a springboard to insight and responsible behavior. The skills of LSCI empower the teacher to convert a conflict into a meaningful learning experience for the student by discovering what drives his behavior and by defining clear outcome goals. To illustrate how the LSCI enhances the effectiveness of classroom teachers, let’s return to Miss Foster. She is now in a crisis situation with Bill. |
