Our Philosophy: The Spirit of Re-Education

It is said that Re-ED is hard to describe. That is true. Re-ED is a state of heart as much as a state of mind-as much spiritual as it is intellectual. It begins with an attitude of unconditional caring-not just for troubled and troubling children, but for all people. It incorporates a sense of limitless hope sprinkled with naiveté and energized by boundless enthusiasm. When it comes to children, Re-ED is blind in one eye and has stars in the other. Re-ED never says never. Re-ED is not good at finding the disease or sickness or weakness in people. Re-ED targets personal strengths and builds on them. Re-ED sizes up what's working, what's resilient, and then nurtures that part so that it takes up more and more space in a child's life.

Re-ED doesn't blame kids for their problems. Rather, it recognizes that the problems kids cause are not the causes of their problems. Re-ED understands that in the life of a child, problems are temporary; that the group, the community, the family, the ecology are all important.

Kids can never feel completely whole if they are not gaining knowledge and skill academically, because, as Hobbs noted, that is the business of children. Re-ED does not stop at the four walls of the classroom; and when at its best, Re-ED is infinite, carrying its influence far into the child's future. Re-ED is a talisman crafted carefully by the loving patient hands of teacher/counselors and gifted to the spirit of the child. It is unforgettable, irreversible, and enduring. It is the backbone of our past, it nourishes our daily work, and it guides our future.

Frank A. Fecser