Cognitive-Behavioral Interventions for Emotional and Behavioral Disorders: School-Based Practice Book

A book that tackles some very complicated problems that are plaguing many schools all over the United States in a very rudimentary and fast way. This book tackles many strategies that when used in tandem can create a safe, mutually respectful environment and community, and ultimately will allow all students to drive for success. The things I liked about this book is the fact that much of the book doesn't harp hundreds of pages on the root causes of the issues, but rather provides a strict outline and organization of solutions and strategies that can be used directly in the classroom to immediately begin to turn the culture and climate of your classes around. It also does a great job with strategies of not only that, but of making sure there are opportunities for success from all students as well. The things I do not like about the book - and this is a pretty strong one - is the lack of an ultimate overall solution for schools. This is the thing... A teacher can do all of these strategies in their classroom and have success with their students in an entirely enclosed and lone-wolf manner, but the only way that schools are going to be successful is if they are all implementing a concrete set of rules, everyone is following them and they are easy to follow, and that there is no favoritism, exceptions, or double standards to how they are executed both in the halls of the school, streets of the city, and rooms of the student's home - the words "it takes a village" shows up in this book several times, and it is absolutely true. Everyone in a city is a member of the village, and everyone is responsible to make sure everyone is being the best they can be at all times - and that includes the youth being their best and the adults recognizing manipulation. I am reminded of one of my favorite lines in the book "Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close" where the main character is talking to his father and his father says "you are smarter than I am," and the little boy denies it, and the father reiterates, "I am more knowledgeable, but you are smarter than me. Kids are always smarter than their parents." Forgiving my paraphrasing, my point is that we all have a tremendous responsibility as members of a society, and we are not all pulling our weight. This book, teamed up with a full community outreach and civic engagement from the schools to the parents to the businesses and everyone in between could really turn a city around and become something amazing... But everyone is needed. If there is one thing this book really made me think, it is that it is not this easy, and that a teacher can implement these strategies in their classroom, but perhaps they may become - or some have become - exhausted with the responsibilities of having to shoulder everyone else's responsibility in the school, neighborhood, and city as well.