Last fall students from our school attended a convention in Albany. Along the way they had a great time producing this video, which was then edited back here at school and shared with community. Each showing produced the resounding laughter that it intended. As the creators made clear when they posted their video on you tube, this piece is a comedy. It captures the playful spirit they enjoyed throughout their journey.

A recent re-framing of this piece by some critics has been somewhat, but not entirely, surprising. None the less, we will continue to encourage this type of playful interaction between our staff and students. The road to healthy mindedness is hard enough. Taking away any latitude for the spirit of humor that emerged in this piece would indeed be a sad state of affairs.

Lon Woodbury has posted an interesting piece titled “Best Practices vs. Innovation” As Woodbury observes:

In my view, small owner-operated independent private programs are the laboratory of innovation.  Not hampered by a multitude of state or corporation imposed guidelines, the operator is free to draw upon professional knowledge and mix this with his/her own creativity and experience.  The results will speak for themselves whether the operator is on to something or not.  As a result, some of these “experiments” will become the “Best Practices” of the future.

Woodbury’s full perspective on our industry can be read in his successful publication Woodbury Reports.

The Annual Online Auction to benefit the Family Foundation, Inc., a 501c3 non-profit organization committed to the needs of at-risk youth who would benefit from a therapeutic environment to achieve educational goals, will run from Sept. 7th to the 18th.  Visit the auction site and make a bid on a handcrafted wood sculpture or a variety of travel options.

One of the challenges we face as a leadership team is to resist the ever present option of seeking easy answers to complex problems.  This is especially true in instances where we run up against criticism or outright defamation.

The open-mindedness that a program of recovery espouses makes it important to sift through each separate situation without being hasty to attach a label or to prejudge.  While we recognize that no organization can control the discussions that take place concerning it, it none the less remains important to partake in those discussions where and when they are approached with a level of mutual respect, even when recognizing the disagreements.

Often when working with our students that are facing a difficult stretch, we advise some of the slogans: “keep it simple” and “do the next right thing.”  It’s not a surprise that following our own directives is having a positive effect.

As always, the leadership team of the Family Foundation School is open to meet with past alumni or individuals who would like to discuss any issues they may have with their experiences while attending the school.

Some more interesting content has emerged across the Stepping Stone Partner Blogs:

Mike Argiros reported on a fire in Hancock New York.

In the Living Skills category at the Family Foundation School blog, a post on brain science and healthy mindedness.

An engaging story about learning to work with a dog at Eagle Valley Dogs.

…and on the lighter side, the joys of picking wild blueberries in the Catskills.

Shrink Wrap blog shares an interesting post concerning a study that links teen drinking to behavioral problems.

“Forty-three per cent of students who reported behavioral or other problems also reported having been drunk more than 10 times in their lives, while only 27 per cent of students who reported few or no conduct problems had been drunk more than 10 times. But boys were only slightly more likely than girls to report drinking heavily.”

The difficulty parents have assessing the level of problem that substance abuse is causing for their troubled teen is well known.  Knowledge that such a link between behavioral problems and drinking exists can help parents to disentangle the complexity of the riddle they are facing.  The post notes:

“it may be particularly important to focus on teens with attention and conduct problems and girls with anxiety and depression.”

It speaks to our experience that the specific indicators of difficulty for troubled teen girls surrounding depression include a vulnerability to expressive drinking and substance abuse.

Sexual addiction, compulsive sexuality, cyber-sex addiction are all out of the closet now.  At our school, we have been using the 12-steps for more than 20 years to help students with this problem.  Not caring if the issue is best classified as an “addiction” or as another aspect of obsessive compulsive disorder, it just made sense to us, that anything that feels as good as sex does has the potential to make your life unmanageable.

Turns out this hunch supported by the latest in neuroscience and psychology.

Orgasms,cocaine and amphetamines, impact that same receptors and neurotransmitters.  And, research shows that the younger you are when you first try drugs and alcohol, the more likely you are to develop dependency.

Psychologists who study human sexuality note that, like Conrad Lorenz’s geese, humans have critical developmental periods where they develop life-long responses.  Some of this imprinting occurs in early childhood.  If you have a good relationship with your parents, you are likely to be attracted to similar looking people.

A lot of this imprinting takes place as we discover sexual pleasure.  Then, chance associations, traumatic experiences, objects, adolescent experimentation may set patterns we carry for life.   While many people get away with those experimental incursions into the worlds of porn, many of us end up in serious trouble.

Addicted or dependent on pornography, aroused by objects or rituals, we find it difficult if not impossible to form meaningful and fulfilling sexual relationships with other people.

Nobody is saying that every teen who experiments with pornography is going to have trouble.  But for certain populations of teens, already at risk, the risk of trouble is higher.  Sex addiction is associated with early childhood trauma, and with all the factors that predispose a person to OCD.   You often will find people who have sex addiction, have other addictions or may be classified with a personality disorder.

Our understanding of the relationship between the brain and sex addiction will continue to develop and as it does, I will continue to refine what I teach to my students but the basick outline will remain the same. Cyber-sex and pornography are nothing to fool around with and that the 12-step model can be used for this problem too.

Here’s some fresh content to explore from across the Stepping Stone Partner blogs.

• Alex discusses how business can find access to talent in the down economy: Employers may want to start looking now.
• Mike reflects on gratitude with I am not alone.
• Sid asks the interesting questions Who do you write for? Who do you read?
• Rita shares the story that started her on the path of canine search and rescue with A Mom and Me.
• Cindy captured the beauty of winter in the Catskills with Winter Morning.
• Richard discuss the experience of increasing consciousness with Kindle a light in the darkness.

We’re told that as teachers you have to connect; you need to start where the students are at.  This came home to me yesterday after the inauguration. My 16 year old students weren’t nearly as taken with events as I was.  Curious, I asked them why?

One student said, “Why do they make such a big deal about a Black president? He’s just like everyone else.”

Another said, “I understand Black people being proud and all that. But why is everyone else so excited?”

My wanabee Marine said, “You liberals, why are you always living in the past?”

And finally I heard “Look, I’m just not racist. I am glad and everything, but I was never raised to be a racist and this just doesn’t do anything for me.”

Instead of going off on a jag about the legacy of institutional racism and how shallow kids are, I asked myself—if they are telling me how they really feel, then how can I help them.  They saw the inauguration as one more heavy handed lesson from a bunch of adults about racism.

All I could think is that wasn’t it at all.  If anything President Obama said was moving us right where these kids are, it was when he said

“…the stale political arguments that have consumed us for so long no longer apply”

And

“This is the meaning of our liberty and our creed — why men and women and children of every race and every faith can join in celebration across this magnificent mall, and why a man whose father less than 60 years ago might not have been served at a local restaurant can now stand before you to take a most sacred oath. So let us mark this day with remembrance, of who we are and how far we have traveled.”

My students hadn’t framed the inauguration as a celebration—but as some civics lesson. Shame on us.

And so I asked them what would happen when they finished all their high school coursework?

They answered “that they would get a diploma.”

“Where?

“At graduation”

“Oh, there would be a celebration? Why?  You have all your credits. Why not just move on and go to college?”

“It’s a ceremony.” one of them said.  And another said, “But it’s for the recognition…” and then there was a pause and he said “Oh, I get it.  The inauguration is like a recognition that there isn’t racism.”

And now I could say.. Yes, sort of.  We are celebrating and commemorating all the progress that’s been made.  You were all telling me in the beginning of this discussion exactly that. It’s a really big deal for people who have lived through these changes, fought and hoped for these changes.  And just like you are going to college after high school, there is still work to be done. There is still racism but still, today is a day to celebrate what has been accomplished.

The atmosphere in my classroom lightened up. After all, today was a national party for the 44^th president of the United States.