Belonging
The mission of The Children Matter Network of the Archdiocese of Chicago is to promote, encourage, and support positive ways of helping children to grow into balanced, self-directed, responsible and ethical adults.
Over the next few months, the Children Matter Network will be sharing with readers how the core needs of children can be met through the Choice Theory principles of psychotherapist William Glasser, M.D., author of twenty books, including Reality Therapy and Schools without Failure. Dr. Glasser is also the founder of the William Glasser Institute, which has certified more than 60,000 clinicians, educators, and managers in Choice Theory.
The Children Matter Network will focus on the qualities Glasser identifies as the basic needs of all human beings:
- Belonging
- Power and self-esteem
- Achievement
- Freedom
- Fun
As children in the lower, middle, and upper grades return to school, belonging will be uppermost on their minds. Making wholesome connections and relationships in the school environment with other children, teachers, and administrators will be very important to them. Every student has a deep desire to belong and to be seen as belonging. Research tells us that a sense of healthy belonging is essential to developing a child’s growth, maturity and exercise of responsible freedom. When alienation and isolation replace belonging, then relationships, future possibilities and life itself become diminished. This type of alienation and isolation may put children at risk for destructive and self-destructive behaviors such as substance abuse, eating disorders and gang involvement.
This Fall, CMN will begin to explore children’s need for belonging by focusing on how parents and family can contribute and help children develop and build their sense of safety and belonging. The focus will be expanded in the coming months to include how peer groups and society/culture can help to develop positive ways of belonging for children at home, in school and elsewhere.
Information on the website will highlight ways that children can “connect” appropriately with others in positive ways, and how to focus attention on what matters most – developing into healthy adults: physically, spiritually, intellectually and emotionally.
(Other core needs will be discussed in subsequent CMN websites throughout the 2007-2008 school year)