I assume that when you say that others think emotion is a weakness you are talking about other teachers and principles etc and not just students.

If this is the case these other teachers are taking an extreemly narrow view that will certainly go against efforts to help these kids get any sort of interest in learning. I would say in fact that these are precisely the tyoe of kids who need to be understood and accepted if they have are to have any posibility of thriving in the school system.

I suggest you may want to consider the following:
1. Work through the exercises in this group to develop your self esteem
2, Understand your qualities and strengths and what make you unique as an individual
3. Read books and reports about the specific problems that kids face in an institution like yours
4. Spend some time in the area around the facility to understand where these kids are comming from (keeping yourself safe at all times of course)
5. Look for kids who appear less confrontational and talk to these kids about their problems outside the classroom environment.
6. Ignore other emotionally neaderathal adults around you.

If you can do the tyoe of thing I suggest you will automatically develop an empathy with some of the kids which you can use to really begin to make contact with them.

There are a number of people in this group who have been working on their self esteem for some time now and whom I would consider emotionally intelligent and I am sure would be there for you to discuss your issues with. I myself would also be happy to discuss any problems you are having in your job and I would be happy if you PM me here on DS..

Remember your goal in this job is to do the best you can for these kids, if you can begin to live the dream of making their lives a little better even if only small ways to start with you will be successful. I have every confidence that you can do well because it seems that you already have the seeds of what you need to do.

There are a few teacher in my building that fit that bill, but its not so much that they are emotional neaderthals as it is I am not cvomfortable talking to them. By emotionally ignorant, I meant most of the rest of the world I come into contact with.

I appreciate your advice. 2 and 3 I do quite a bit. 4 is not practical for me due to logistics (I live a county away and the students come from all over the other county. It would be good advice though in a traditional setting). 5 is actually a daily part of the job. And 6 is why I'm on Daily Strength.

Yesterday I needed to spout off, sorry for barging in and dumping. I see that you have a process going, I'll try to be more respectful. I'll think about #1.

jim

I am studying person oriented counseling as well as CBT techniques, the most important process for me is to be as open and accepting as I can to people expressing their feelings.

I welcome people posting their own posts and I also recommend you doing the excercises as I have found them useful myself my philosopy on DS is that people should take whatever they like from the groups.

I am glad to be of help as I am sure that you will be helpful and supportive to other members of this group