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It started on a flight from Seattle, Washington, to Victoria, B.C., as a casual conversation between a counselor educator and a teacher educator, both assistant professors in the School of Education at Gonzaga University. Soon, it had turned into a passionate dialogue about the similarities between teachers and counselors. We decided that we have much to learn from each other—that we can learn when to teach in counseling and when to counsel in teaching. We agreed that we could strengthen our positions by engaging in a united effort on the part of our kids. This also involves finding new ways of looking at children labeled "at-risk." It became apparent that both teachers and counselors need to move away from a damage/pathological model to embrace a challenge model built on assets in the child, family, school, and community. About this time, I felt like I was struck by lightning when I read Bonnie Benard's most eloquent work on resiliency, Fostering Resiliency in Kids: Protective Factors in the Family, School, and Community. Benard's research documents Emmy Werner's landmark study on resiliency and clearly tells us what makes kids succeed. My experience, expertise, and interest in counseling have taught me that one has to be flexible and continually look for ways to reach kids defined as "unreachable." We need to see all children as reachable, then find ways to reach them. However, the western education and mental health systems are based on a verbal-linguistic model, which assumes verbal ability and preference. I have long believed that art, music, and movement can be used to reach kids who are not verbal. Often the children we work with were traumatized at an age when they were pre-verbal and may not have had words for their experiences. However, they may have stored this information as visual images, sounds, or movements and express the experience behaviorally, instead of verbally. This, of course, fits in beautifully with Howard Gardner's concept of multiple intelligences. Gardner believes there are at least eight intelligences (verbal-linguistic, logical-mathematical, visual-spatial, musical-rhythmic, kinesthetic-movement, interpersonal, intrapersonal, and environmental). We need to ask in what ways children are smart, not if they are smart. My experiences counseling children taught me that I need to get smarter. I can't change the past of the kids I work with, but I can affect what happens when I am with them. In that way, I can make a difference. If teachers and counselors and community workers all take the same approach, we can make a significant difference in what happens to our kids. The casual conversation that started 30,000 feet in space, became a concept which became a dream which became a grant which led to research that helped us to develop a graduate program in education designed specifically for teachers who work with challenging kids. The program accommodates teachers who work full time and who balance many roles and responsibilities. Although called "Teaching At-risk Students," the program is focused on resil iency. Teachers can do a great deal to foster resiliency in their students and to change what happens in our schools. Today's teachers face a variety of challenges in their classrooms for which they often have limited training and few resources. The dynamics in the classroom are intensified by individual issues each child brings to school. Family violence and child abuse, attention differences, emotional problems, and learning disabilities can greatly interfere with the student's academic and interpersonal performance. Although teachers are not traditionally trained to deal with the affective needs of students, they are often the first ones a student turns to for help. This can be an overwhelming challenge for the teacher. In many cases, special services and resources are necessary, but there are certain communication and intervention skills a teacher can develop that will help her to communicate effectively with students and their parents, when necessary. Gonzaga University offers a master's program, with concentration on teaching at-risk students. The program provides the theory, methodology, and resources necessary to support the classroom teacher and foster resiliency in children. The nature of the program is theory to practice; the graduate students classroom becomes the research lab. The program is currently offered in the greater Spokane area and can be provided in any community in the northwestern United States, Hawaii, and Canada. The core courses include: Human Development and Learning, Teaching Strategies, Curriculum Development, Research and Statistics, and Educational Evaluation and Measurement. The concentration courses include: Teacher as Counselor; Risk and Protective Factors; School, Family, and Community; Issues in Multiculturalism; Intervention Skills in the Classroom; and Managing and Enhancing the Instructional Culture. Coursework encourages active student participation from teachers experienced in K-12 classrooms. We hear of violence in schools across our nation on a daily basis. Within the past 14 months, there have been four student shooting sprees and countless other acts of violence. Schools cannot avoid addressing these issues and universities must take an active role in preparing teachers to work with children at-risk. This graduate program focuses on what the teacher can do to strengthen and support today's youth. Resource note: For additional reading on resiliency factors, see Bonnie Benard's Fostering Resiliency in Kids: Protective Factors in the Family, School, and Community (ERIC #ED 335 781); and Overcoming the Odds (ERIC #ED 344 979) by Emmy Werner and Ruth S. Smith.
Dr. Jerri Simms Shepard is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Administration, Curriculum, and Instruction at Gonzaga University in Spokane, Washington. She is the director of the Master of Arts in Teaching program with concentration in teaching at-risk students. Dr. Shepard teaches and consults in the United States and Canada in counseling, child abuse, and teaching at-risk youth. She can be reached at Gonzaga University (509) 328-4220, ext. 3471. —Jerri Simms Shepard
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Date of Last Update: 9/28/01 
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