TEACHING ILLUSTRATION

Number 37 Main Road
and the house next door

Imagine your agency is having to admit a youngster from number 37 Main Road, in a disadvantaged area of town. Statistically, it is likely that the house will stand in a less well-off area, that it will be a fairly crowded home, that the family will be characterised by lower economic, educational and occupational status, that perhaps there will be unemployment, probably some misuse of alcohol, some history of instability, inappropriate problem-solving skills, violence, etc. In fact, the sort of home from which so-called ‘dependent and neglected’ or troubled children are often admitted.

We are tempted to look at all of these factors as problems to be solved, to want to 'rescue' a youngster from the less than adequate circumstances at Number 37. We forget that the youth will probably be coming back to Number 37, hopefully with better skills, more resilient, less at risk, but nevertheless having to manage in this home and this neighbourhood.

So, (and here comes the hard part) before you leave house number 37 with the youth you are admitting to your program, have a good look at house number 39 next door. The chances are very high indeed that this house, being in the same neighbourhood, will also be a fairly crowded home, that the family will be characterised by lower economic, educational and occupational status, that perhaps there will be unemployment, probably some misuse of alcohol, some history of instability, inappropriate problem-solving skills, violence ...

Your task is to identify carefully what it is that makes it necessary for you to admit to your program the youth from number 37, while you leave the next-door kid to continue living in number 39.  When you discover the difference, that, and that alone, is really the problem you are being asked to address in the residential placement.