School District Case Study:
No Child is Lost - Expelled and Adjudicated Program
Middle and High School - Rural
- "Of all the programs I've seen for these students, Living Consciously is a perfect fit for 'social learning.' It provides both skills and action, including the thought and feeling understanding behind action. My students are also using the language to help each other, putting constructive thoughts, feelings and actions into proper sequence."
- E. J. Paas, Director, Alternative to Expulsion Program
(15 years experience with emotionally impaired;
1997 Michigan EI Teacher of the Year) Middle and high school age youth who had been expelled from school and could not legally put foot on school property in the state, were placed by the courts, school administrators and parents into an ongoing alternative to expulsion program at a separate facility. Returning to school was not considered an option for these youth. It was decided to try Living Consciously.
Initially the program was taken by the students, their teacher and school director, together, with additional training provided for the teacher/school director. More youth were added to the program. Every day, the students took out their Living Consciously notebooks and did at least one lesson, discussing its application in real life. Living Consciously became a part of the every day curriculum.
The school director said the program helped these troubled youth to take responsibility for their own actions and to stop blaming others. He noted that the concepts in Living Consciously had not been part of these children's daily lives up to this point.
Even though these troubled youth had been completely removed from the school system, after taking Living Consciously, each individually wrote letters to the superintendent and principals at their various schools about what they were learning and how they felt they could succeed if allowed back. More than half of the class went back to school successfully -- one chose alternative education as the best route for himself -- and the others are working towards a brighter future.
When we sit quietly and consider the type of life -- low paying jobs, troubled relationships, often criminal activity, and substance abuse -- that is often the result for an expelled student, Living Consciously becomes a miracle for them and everyone concerned with them.
Living Consciously is now used on an ongoing basis in this adjudicated-expelled program facility. A seminar is now being planned that will include principals and counselors from the mainstream schools from which these different youth came, with the hope that Living Consciously will be adopted into the regular education system there.
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