The Uses of Structure

When teens spend time in residential treatment facilities, group homes, psychiatric hospitals, juvenile detention facilities, or other institutions, every aspect of their life is structured. Ask the teens in your group to write down their daily schedules: When they get up, eat, go to school, do homework, go to bed, and anything else that’s required of them. For each item, have them write down who monitors that activity and how much leeway they have. Ask if they have trouble consistently doing the things that nobody makes them do.

Can It Help?

Then have them read Quotesia Johnson’s story “Freedom’s Not Easy.” Ask them to discuss the differences (or similarities) between their lives and Quotesia’s life in the RTF. Ask how they would (or do) handle such a rigid structure. Ask if they see anything good in it. Possible answers would be that you are also rewarded for good behavior by getting extra privileges; that you learn discipline; that it’s fair when everyone’s treated the same way and that makes you want to cooperate and do well.

Self-Discipline

Then ask how they’d handle a loss of structure like Quotesia experienced when she left the RTF and went into care. Would they be or have they been able to get themselves up and doing something productive without anyone telling them to? If they feel like they have that self-discipline, where did they get it? Ask them how one could develop his/her own structure to ease that transition, and why that might be important. Ask them to identify the goals that Quotesia had for herself after leaving the RTF, and then work out a daily or weekly schedule that would help her reach those goals.

Who’s Enforcing?

Quotesia writes about how the RTF staff drilled things like punctuality and responsibility into her head and also how she liked having a personal connection to Ms. Watson, her new foster mother. Have the teens discuss what sort of adult supervision helps them do their best. Get them to talk about the way rules are enforced as well as the relationship with the adult. How do rules feel different if they’re made and enforced by a trusted, caring person?