Our Needs and other Ecological Concerns: A Teacher's Personal View of Work with “Secondary School-Aged Seriously Emotionally Disturbed Children”

Abstract

In this article, a teacher of adolescents with severe adjustment problems reflects on his vocation. The author describes programs in which he has worked, and skills important to successful teaching in them. Also discussed are those training experiences which in retrospect stand out as having been most worthwhile in preparing the author to be a teacher of emotionally disturbed youth. In a final section, he makes some brief observations on various aspects of special education for adolescents with severe behavior disorders.