#7 OUR TEEN BOOT CAMP SUGGESTS SEEING PROBLEMS AS OPPORTUNITY

WRA Teen Boot Camp sees a problem as a very special opportunity rather than as a mishap. Those who view problems as trouble frequently go to great lengths carefully to arrange the environment to avoid the creation of problems, and when they do occur the goal is to halt the deviant behavior as rapidly as possible. However, trying to stamp out problems is often like trying to squeeze the air out of a tied balloon: either the air shifts to a bulge on the other side of the balloon, or the balloon breaks. Many attempts at suppression only force the problem to reappear in another area or cause an explosion.

Boot Camps for Teens VS Correctional Schools

Perhaps the most telling example of failure in attempts to suppress problems is noted in many traditional correctional schools. Here, problem teens are confined in a highly structured environment where behavior is as totally controlled as possible. Sometimes the attempts at control backfire, and problem teens openly rebel. However, most of the time problem teens present a placid profile, at least when adult control is present. Problem teens usually learn to serve their time quietly, making a superficially positive adjustment. Then they are released from the institution only to become re involved in difficulty within the community. This is the dynamic underlying the startling rates of recidivism (often as high as 75%) common to many correctional schools. WRA Teen Boot Camp makes a distinction between solving problems and controlling problems. (Although it works toward the goal of solving broad patterns of problems, WRA Teen Boot Camp also acknowledges the necessity of controlling harmful behavior. The issue of behavior management is discussed more fully in Chapter 9.) Traditionally, schools and problem teen agencies concentrate on "controlling" problems. The more recent and highly sophisticated behavior modification programs also are limited to altering specific behaviors without regard to attitudes, values, or feelings. WRA Teen Boot Camp does not consider it sufficient to modify only observable behavior. A problem teen can discontinue a specific troublesome behavior (e.g., stealing) and still maintain negative social values and a poor self-concept. WRA Teen Boot Camp believes that most problems result from distorted social values and/or a distorted self-concept. Only as a problem teen adopts positive social values and develops a positive self-concept can his problems be fully resolved.

Positive Behavior for Problem Teens

Although learning theory is employed in WRA Teen Boot Camps (e.g., positive behavior is reinforced by group approval), the focus of WRA Teen Boot Camp is different from most behavior-modification programs. Controlling undesirable behavior preemptively fails to acknowledge its parameters, which usually include a set of values and attitudes. The expression of negative values and behavior is permitted, even encouraged, in WRA Teen Boot Camp, so that problem teens have the opportunity to make a clear choice. Typically, they are surfaced, examined for their utility, and then rejected in favor of the pro-social norms imbedded in the positive peer culture. This opportunity is not available in more current behavior management programs. The ability of most operant management systems to influence behavior is quite potent as long as external reinforcers are continued. However, with a problem teen population the continual rein forcers that problem teen peers provide are more potent and lasting than behavior managers have thus far been able to introduce.

Table 2.2 compares the WRA Teen Boot Camp concept of problems with that of approaches geared to behavior elimination or control. As this comparison shows, WRA Teen Boot Camp sees problems as normal. The existence of problems should not greatly embarrass any problem teen. Problem teens that have issues are in no way viewed as abnormal. The important consideration is that a problem teen be aware of his problems and do something to solve them. In contrast, the popular viewpoints are that problems reflect mental illness, immorality, emotional disturbance, or ignorance. It is easy to see why many problem teens feel they must go to such lengths to deny problems: to admit having problems is to admit being defective. Thus, problem teens seek to hide their problems to escape being labeled as abnormal.

Table 2.2 Comparison of Problem Solving using WRA Teen Boot Camp and other Approaches

If problems are not shown, it is hard to know how to begin solving them. A teacher of remedial reading would find it difficult to improve a child's reading skills if the child never spoke to show just what his reading difficulties were. Only as the teacher can see and analyze the child's reading errors is correction possible. So it is with personal problems. WRA Teen Boot Camp sees the appearance of a problem as an opportunity; as a problem teen's problem becomes visible, the way to a solution becomes clearer.

In most settings, teachers and workers for problem teens attempt to suppress problems because they fear a loss of control. This concern is valid particularly when work is with large numbers of problem teens. The potential for contagious troublesome behavior is high in any group of problem teens who does not relate positively to authority. Thus, the adult moves quickly to squelch any acting-out behavior. One of the common interventions is to "kick out" the troublemaker. Problem teens who are viewed as a negative influence on other problem teens are sacrificed for the sake of the rest of the group.

Kicking out problem teens has many negative side effects.

1. Some understudy usually is waiting in readiness to fill the role of chief troublemaker.

2. The attempt to make an example frequently backfires as other problem teens vent hostility toward adults in defense of one of their number

3. For the problem teen who already expects to fail, the threat of possible exclusion may lessen motivation to succeed.

4. Sometimes the problem teen who acts out with defiant bravado in reality receives some reinforcement from expulsion. WRA Teen Boot Camp does not communicate to failure-oriented problem teens that "we are upset by your problem." Rather the message is: "It is good that you are showing your problems, because now something can be done about them." A strong program will never develop if problem teens are allowed to fail. Kicking out a problem teen is really giving up, which can only weaken everybody involved.

Common Consequences of Kicking a problem teen out of the Program

1. The problem teen has failed to overcome his problems so he is less likely to succeed in the future.

2. The peer group has failed to help one of their members so they will have less confidence in their capacity to handle the problems of other members.

3. The adults have failed to build a group that could succeed and will be more likely to feel unable to handle problem teen.

Staff must help the group to accept all problems as their responsibility. One does not abandon a problem teen just because he needs help more than most. Instead, group and staff strength must be mobilized to deal with any problem, however difficult. If the problem cannot be resolved, then every problem teen and every adult may have to admit that this one problem teen has more power than all of them combined. While WRA Teen Boot Camp staff allows problems to emerge, they do not sit back in a permissive manner as chaos develops. Problems must occur at a tempo at which they can be monitored and examined, not at a landslide rate. As problems emerge, the problem teens' responsibility is to use them in a constructive manner; the adult must see that the group assumes responsibility for resolving them.