Resource materials help parents, teachers, and students
If it's August, the return to school soon comes to mind for parents, students, teachers, and administrators. And often anxiety arises –about school violence, bullies who harass other students, and other assaults.
An expert has developed several pragmatic tools that parents, students, and teachers will find most helpful. Noted psychoanalyst Stuart Twemlow, M.D. an international lecturer on the physical and psychological aspects of violence, has just released a new 54 minute video entitle "Back Off, Bully!" or "How to Prepare Your Child for School". Dr. Twemlow has also published a book entitled "Creating a Peaceful School Learning Environment: a Program for Elementary Schools" with Frank Sacco, PhD and a son, Stephen Twemlow. He has initiated the Peaceful Schools Project and within that, a program called the Gentle Warrior Program.
Dr. Twemlow describes how The Peaceful School Project came about. "Well, this came out of a typical piece of psychoanalytic work. I got a call one day from the principal of a school in the inner city of a Midwestern town where a second grade girl had been sexually assaulted by some second grade boys, and the school had a very high suspension rate, the highest in the district, and very low academic achievement. It was a mess. So that's how we started. We went into the school, we took volunteers, parents, and teachers who were willing to put in extra time. Using volunteers we put together a program that addressed the whole school. We didn't pathologize any kid, we didn't pick out a sick kid, we didn't pick out bullies, we didn't pick out victims. We looked at the whole school like a climate, like an atmosphere, and all of the interventions were addressed to make that more peaceful. What we addressed were bully-victim relationships in all aspects, not just between children."
He continued: "As you know teachers bully children, children bully teachers. The school custodian in one school was the worst bully of all; the school secretary can be a real bully also. In other words everybody can participate in this. Imagine it like a triangle: you have the bully and the victim engaged in this dance, and then there's an audience, like a play. The audience are the bystanders who clap or applaud in various ways and do things that facilitate the process. As in any sort of play, if there's no audience, the actors are not really very inspired.. So when something happens in the school, everybody is responsible, not just the kids involved in it, and when you take that philosophical shift, there's a huge change in the way kids see each other." This is just but one example of how Dr. Twemlow's work provides invaluable tools to schools for securing a peaceful learning environment.
Dr. Twemlow's work is well received by parents and teachers alike—his recent radio interview on a large Midwestern radio program generated more calls from listeners for more information than any other show over the last several years.
Stuart W. Twemlow was born and raised in New Zealand where he received his medical degree (M.B.Ch.B.). He immigrated to the USA in 1970 to the Karl Menninger School of Psychiatry, Topeka, Kansas and completed his residency there and was later board certified in general psychiatry. He is in the private practice of Psychoanalysis and Psychiatry in Topeka and he is a faculty member and graduate of the Topeka Institute for Psychoanalysis at the Menninger Clinic and has held various offices including President of the Topeka Psychoanalytic Society. He teaches at the University of Kansas School of Medicine Wichita, where he is Clinical Professor of Psychiatry and director of the residency training in Psychodynamic Psychiatry. Dr. Twemlow also serves as a consultant to the FBI on threat assessment.
Dr. Twemlow is available for interviews and can be reached at 785-272-5222 (stwemlow@aol.com).
The American Psychoanalytic Association (http://www.apsa.org)
For more information, contact Mark Smaller, 312-922-1313
9 August 2000