Reynard's Mirror: Reflections on Teaching Oppositional Adolescents; Letters to a British Psychoanalyst - Softcover

Davis, Carolyn Crawford

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0692830979 ISBN 13: 9780692830970

Publisher: Sarah & Raleigh Crawford & Associates, 2017

Synopsis

In a series of witty and moving letters sent to a British psychoanalyst, a California special ed teacher, shares her vivid emotional tales about creating relationships with her very difficult and disturbed adolescents…there is Dawson, a heavy metal fan who has been hospitalized three times for nervous breakdowns; Kent, a bristly 17 year old who wants to have a kindergarten day at school; and, Sonny who loves to shock and bully. They are oppositional, stubborn and refuse to learn. Reynard’s Mirror carries the reader on a roller coaster ride of coping with 11 students, their parents, and the educational bureaucracy. For anyone thinking of entering the field of special education or even of just working with difficult adolescents, this is an eye-opening peek into the joyful, exhausting, fulfilling and heartbreaking world awaiting them. Reynard’s Mirror is not a book that offers recipes. Instead, it offers process, specifically, that of coping with feelings of hatred, love, disgust and delight. Those who struggle with alien feelings of guilt, anger or denial will find relief in these pages. This memoir of a teacher’s reality may help others recognize the sources of their own confusing emotions and find forgiveness for themselves and their oppositional adolescents.

About this title

About the Author

This is not a book about one more procedure or recipe to be applied universally to all students; it is about the process of learning to survive very idiosyncratic disturbed adolescents and coming to care for them. This book is the result of what I learned from Christopher Bollas and Lawrence Hedges, psychoanalysts. After obtaining my M.A. in Geography from UCLA and completing my first year of elementary school teaching, I stumbled into Mountainview, a private special ed school run by Paul, a playful, adventurous director who believed in the importance of the mental health of his students. To ensure this they were offered individual and/or group therapy. His teachers were offered weekly supervision by therapists. In that exciting experimental world teachers were free to try new and innovative ideas. During the 15 years I worked there I obtained a secondary credential, an M.A. in Psychology from Cal State Univ. at Long Beach and 2 special ed. credentials. We often presented case studies to visiting psychologists, and surprisingly, I became most interested in psychoanalysis. I was especially grateful for the mentoring of Lawrence Hedges, who taught me about the role of transference and countertransference in the classroom. Christopher Bollas was a visiting psychoanalyst from the U.K. who encouraged me to write my adventures down. I wrote to Bollas for about seven years and this book is the result of his patience and encouragement. The thought of my stories disappearing when I leave this earth fills me with despair. I self-published this memoir in the hope that other teachers will find the same comfort and self-understanding that Paul, Lawrence Hedges and Christopher Bollas offered me.

Edition details

• Publisher: Sarah & Raleigh Crawford & Associates
• Publication date: 2017
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0692830979
• ISBN 13: 9780692830970
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 334