The staff at Echo Park is committed towards
providing a strong, unified program for handling conflict
resolution and solving behavior issues. This program, called
Restitution and Internal Control Theory,
is based upon creating an environment free of fear, anger,
and guilt to self-evaluate and fix problems. Internationally
recognized educator/author Diane Gossen developed the Restitution
Program (http://www.realrestitution.com)
by integrating the concepts of Reality Therapy by psychiatrist-educator
Dr.
William Glasser
with the Science of Perceptual Control Theory by engineer
William Powers.
Internal Control Theory
is based on the belief that all behavior is internally motivated;
our behavior in any situation is our best attempt to meet
one or more of our five basic needs:
Survival - The need for food, clothing, shelter.
Power - The need to feel important, competent, proud.
Love -
The need for belonging to a group, such as a team, a family,
a club.
Fun -
The need for learning, laughter.
Freedom - The need to feel in charge of oneself, independent, able
to make choices.
Self-Questioning is a strategy
used in Internal Control Theory. The goal is to have people
ask themselves or others questions to help solve problems.
Some questions might include:
What do you want?
What are you
doing to make that happen?
Is what you’re
doing working?
Do you want to fix the problem?
Do
you want help?
What kind of student do you want to be?
Restitution
is “the action
of repairing a damage done” as discussed in
the book Restitution:
Restructuring School Discipline by Diane Gossen.
Restitution encourages self-discipline, internal control
of one’s behavior, and respect for self and others.
The restitution process not only makes amends to the
person who
was wronged, but it also strengthens the offender.
There are still rules and consequences with restitution,
but
the rules
are devised from a social contract. Social contracts
are beliefs created by the students encompassing the
values
of how they
want to be.
Planning Room - We believe that
everyone makes mistakes and that learning from our
mistakes helps us grow stronger. While we encourage
students to
solve
their own problems, occasionally a student may work
with their classroom teacher or a staff member for
additional
problem
solving or behavior support. Our goal for the Planning
Room is to create a learning environment free of fear,
anger and
guilt, wherein students can self-evaluate and fix their
mistakes. We like to give students the opportunity
to redirect their
thoughts, actions and feelings so they may return to
their group strengthened once they have problem-solved.
