Once I asked a well-known academic researcher, psychologist and also business consultant in the field of emotional intelligence, David Caruso, why someone would organize others to fly planes into an office building. This was shortly after 911. His answer was, "Because they are evil". I will put a link to a discussion of that below. But for now I just want to say that what Jane is doing with Aces is trying to get a little closer to cause and effect.
For example, thanks to Jane's work Jim Sporleder, a former principal, realized that when a student yells "F you" to him, it didn't mean he was a bad student or he was possessed by the devil or he was "evil" and it didn't mean he needed to be punished with kicking him out of school.
I am trying to peel the onion a bit further back.
I am going deeper than just "trauma" or the limited number of items on the list of Aces. I also don't accept the explanations that teen depression is caused by either A) brain chemicals or B) negative thoughts.
No, I am convinced there is another, very important, cause of teen depression, teen self-harm and teen suicide.
I will be using the image of the rat cage and the rat park from now on I think. And I will be writing about how we turn the rat cage for teens into a rat park -- where more of their human emotional/psychological, physical and intellectual needs are met.
I don't believe these needs are being met in the average compulsory school anywhere in the world. And I have visited many schools in many countries. I have also spoken helped hundreds of depressed teens around the world, some of whose stories are in the book "Letters from the Unloved". As a result I feel confident that I have a perspective that literally no one else on Aces has had the opportunity to have.
I have an "outsiders" perspective. I am outside the cage. I have left the traditional belief system which includes thinking some kids are just bad kids and need to be punished, locked up etc and the belief that kids won't learn unless we force them to go to school. These are just two examples of beliefs that are widely held, which I do not subscribe to.
So anyhow, I am very passionately interested in truth - in particular truth about cause and effect.
I will be writing more. I welcome questions, encouragement, and support.
Thanks
Steve
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References
Human Emotional Needs
Letters from the Unloved
3 minute rat park video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sbQFNe3pkss
5 minute rat park video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ao8L-0nSYzg
14 min TED talk video by Johanna Hari https://www.youtube.com/watch?...Ms&nohtml5=False
Educational comic set - very nicely done - on rat park http://www.stuartmcmillen.com/..._en/rat-park/#page-1
18 minuted video interview with Bruce Alexander who designed the rat park experiments in Vancouver, Canada
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XhK-6jSN3x8
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