Saturday, June 23, 2007
what a whirlwind
it's been three months and three days since we've been living in omaha, ne. feels like longer. E and I live in a 3-4,000 sq. ft. house with my family (wife and two kids) and seven boys. All deviants of somekind. We are to establish a traditional family model and then raise these boys in it. what a trip. at the moment, i'm having feelings of extreme inadequacy. they seem to come in waves. E and I, as a husband and wife, are very non-traditional. we are both strong authority figures - not one of us has greater authority than the other. so, i need to take a more leading role in the house? weird for me. i do understand the philosophy, though. most of the boys in our house come from a more traditional style home where the man is the head of the household - yada, yada, yada - you all know the drill......anyway. it's the day after i started writing this. today has been going pretty good. been having a lot of teaching opportunities with the boys. here's how a typical teaching interaction goes. i tell a kid to go put the garbage out. the "Cirriculum Skill/Objective" is "Following Instructions". There are four steps in Boys' Town to "Following Instructions";
1) Look at the person
2) Say Okay
3) Do the task right away
4) Check back/see if there's anything else you can do
If the Boys' Town youth (from here on out i will refer to the Boys' Town youth as "youth" or "youths" - unless there are extenuating circumstances that require more description. Like, "He was such a dumbass today", etc. - anyway, you get the picture.) misses one of those steps, they will earn a negative consequence. If they do all of the setps perfectly they earn positive consequences that go on a daily point card, alright, i don't want to talk to this anymore. it's basically a very complicated version of "pavlov's dog" - reward the good behavior, punish the bad behavior. immediately - no dialogue, etc. my boss says i'm to nice. yep. i am. oh well. last night was a bit more rough than today. sometimes i dread getting into work mode but, when i actually get to interacting with the youth, all trepedation goes away. this is such a technical blog, whatever. now you all know what i'm talking about - sort of.
kids are doin good. my time with them has been limited, but it's getting better. i've been spendin some good time with my aunt on my mom's side. she is very giving and caring. actually, my mom and dad's families, that live here in omaha, have been very supportive to us. we get two days off a week (till 11pm) and we don't really have anywhere to go except expensive restaraunts or a movie or something where we have to spend money and i don't like doin that all the time. so, mad love to my aunts and uncles, yo, as we say here in the hood. please send me e-mails with questions, etc. post some excitement - or excrement - whatever works for you.
pieces,
Drewl
1) Look at the person
2) Say Okay
3) Do the task right away
4) Check back/see if there's anything else you can do
If the Boys' Town youth (from here on out i will refer to the Boys' Town youth as "youth" or "youths" - unless there are extenuating circumstances that require more description. Like, "He was such a dumbass today", etc. - anyway, you get the picture.) misses one of those steps, they will earn a negative consequence. If they do all of the setps perfectly they earn positive consequences that go on a daily point card, alright, i don't want to talk to this anymore. it's basically a very complicated version of "pavlov's dog" - reward the good behavior, punish the bad behavior. immediately - no dialogue, etc. my boss says i'm to nice. yep. i am. oh well. last night was a bit more rough than today. sometimes i dread getting into work mode but, when i actually get to interacting with the youth, all trepedation goes away. this is such a technical blog, whatever. now you all know what i'm talking about - sort of.
kids are doin good. my time with them has been limited, but it's getting better. i've been spendin some good time with my aunt on my mom's side. she is very giving and caring. actually, my mom and dad's families, that live here in omaha, have been very supportive to us. we get two days off a week (till 11pm) and we don't really have anywhere to go except expensive restaraunts or a movie or something where we have to spend money and i don't like doin that all the time. so, mad love to my aunts and uncles, yo, as we say here in the hood. please send me e-mails with questions, etc. post some excitement - or excrement - whatever works for you.
pieces,
Drewl
