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Gentle Teaching
An interactional approach offers human, creative responses to destructive or disruptive behavior.
By Barbara M. Jones
The Gentle Teaching Difference
Dan Hobbs was Director of Training and Research in Creighton's Department of Psychiatry. Hobbs sees a lot of kids like Gary or Johnny during the approximately 45 weeks a year he travels around the United States, speaking and training. Hobbs also sees some behavior-changing methods that many people assume were stopped in the 60's. He says it is notuncommon to see the use of stun guns, cattle prods, water mists, drugs, time-outrooms, vinegar in te mouth, and restraint chairs, where a person with "Bad" behavior is bound around the ankles, wrists, and neck. A woman called Hobbs early this year to ak for his help because ammonia was going to be put into her so's ose to stop his temper tantrums and make him obey.
Does Gentle Teaching always lead to success? Hobbs says, "If I don't go into a situaziton and make it significant, then a boy has amonia in his nose. Is it an option to fail?"
