Kindness is Big

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I've got a guest post up on kindness.

Just click the pic to find me today and every Tuesday ...

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Therapeutic Day School

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Those three words have turned my world upside down. They bring to mind images of those kids - the ones so out of control that therapeutic day school is just one step away from a stint in a juvenile detention center. They bring to mind images of those parents - the ones who have not loved and nurtured their kids the way they should have, resulting in broken kids.

Cam will be attending a private, therapeutic day school at his school district's expense in the fall. His high school education will look very different from the one I had imagined. Although he will still be enrolled in the local high school - in theory able to participate in high school sports and extra-curricular activities associated with that high school - he will attend classes in what is called an interim alternative educational setting.

There will be no band camp this summer. No marching band in the fall. We'll be absent from freshman orientation and that automotive engines elective class that Cam had such interest in will be replaced by group therapy.

Cam will attend classes from 8:30am to 2:30pm, but will be away from home from 7:00am until 4:00pm due to a lengthy commute to the school. He will receive a High School Curriculum that parallels the basic offerings of his local high school. In addition to "regular" school, he will also receive related services, including Occupational Therapy, Art Therapy, Extended Day, Psychiatric and Psychological Consultation and School Health Services.

This is a school that uses a cognitive-behavioral/problem-solving approach and narrative principles to help students overcome problems at hand, practice more successful behavioral alternatives and explore ways to “re-write” their frequently negative life stories. They work with students to build on their strengths and gifts, and fight with them against their weaknesses and obstacles. The environment is based in a positive nurturing model where “natural consequences” for behaviors are frequently utilized. They avoid using restrictive and punitive methods of behavioral management and they do not have a time-out room.

This isn't a permanent placement, but rather a placement until Cam is ready and able to return to a less restrictive learning environment.

I should be thrilled. There are parents who have been fighting for years to get their children in a placement like this. There are parents who have taken out second mortgages on their homes to pay for this type of placement for their kids when their school districts have refused. There are kids who never get this opportunity because their parents don't care.

Yes, I should be thrilled, and on many levels I am, but once again I struggle between the conflict of what I know (that this placement is an amazing opportunity for Cam) and what I feel (that this placement magnifies everything I've done wrong as a parent and I am responsible for Cam "losing out" on traditional high school), and what I feel is winning ... and beating me down ...

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Sunday Secret

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