Educators and parents are seeking viable
answers before school bells ring this fall.
Joyce Divinyi, national expert on human
behavior and a psychotherapist for troubled children, gave some answers at
the highly successful Southern Regional Education Board (SREB) "High
Schools That Work" conference in Nashville on July 13 and 14. One of her
most popular programs was "Creating Safety: How to Identify and Intervene
with the Potentially Violent Student."
In the third printing of her book Good
Kids, Difficult Behavior: A Guide to What Works and What Doesn't, she
describes the behavior signs and symptoms of emotionally vulnerable or
volatile students. Further, she identifies educators who are the most
likely targets for violence. A nationally certified counselor with over 20
years' experience, Ms. Divinyi has helped defuse potentially violent
students and can recognize the danger signs.
Joyce Divinyi points out that most of the
students responsible for the school shootings that occurred throughout the
country in the past two years had a common set of identifiable
characteristics. She believes that these tragedies may have been prevented
had educators received training on how to identify and effectively deal
with emotionally volatile and potentially dangerous students. Her theory,
called the E-T-A Method, explains that these students behave purely on
emotion (E), by-pass the thinking (T) process and act (A) without
awareness of the ultimate consequences.
"Today's children have been robbed of an
age of innocence. They are exposed on a daily basis to situations and
circumstances that most adults never experienced during their childhood,"
said Ms. Divinyi. "According to studies by the American Psychological
Association, if a typical child, ages 3 to 12, watches 27 hours of
television each week, he or she will view 800 murders and 100,000 acts of
violence."
Good Kids, Difficult Behavior
unlocks the mystery of how emotions are powerful and are an important part
of a child's decision-making process. One hundred percent of the violent
incidents that have been reported in the national media began with a
person-to-person conflict. The ability to understand and control one's
emotions while choosing to act appropriately is what is called mature
behavior. Children are not born with this ability; they must be taught to
manage their own emotions as well as their behavior. The E-T-A Method is a
practical technique for even the most non-responsive and hostile children.
Ms. Divinyi shows the importance of
children being able to engage their thinking processes before they act.
Punishment alone will not work to deter or prevent bad behavior.
Inappropriate behavior automatically requires more teaching, not more
punishment. Ms. Divinyi's techniques are so effective that they are used
in college curricula on campuses from New Hampshire to California.
"Joyce Divinyi's views on choice and
consequences are wonderfully useful and smart," said Gavin de Becker, the
best-selling author of The Gift of Fear and Protecting the Gift.
"For me, the section about identifying a child's strengths are worth the
price of admission all by itself -- but that happens again and again in
this book full of great wisdom."
Ms. Divinyi has an Atlanta-based private
practice in individual and family therapy and is the owner of The Human
Connection, a company dedicated to understanding and changing human
behavior. She has trained parents, professionals and employees of Fortune
500 companies in behavior management and in strategies for communicating
with difficult people.
