Choice Theory in New Zealand

  According to the New Zealand Department of Corrections website,  one in every two prisoners is re-convicted and re-imprisoned within four years of release. With a 50% failure rate, is what we are doing working? Anne Tolley, Minister of Corrections wants to reduce this rate by 25%.           How about 3.5%  That is the result of a 2012 longitudinal university study in the Californian Institution for Women. These inmates are being taught how they can have control over their lives  by Instructors from the William Glasser Institute.  Over a period of five years 500 women have spent over 100 hours learning Choice Theory.  There is currently a waiting list of 200 women wanting to be involved.  They request transfers from other prisons to be able to learn this life -changing program. Of the 175 women paroled, only five have returned to prison.  That is 3.5% - a long way better than 25%. This tra...

Watching the recently screened TV program Bullied to Death: The Tragedy of Phoebe Prince, several thoughts came to mind. This scenario is no doubt played over and over throughout the schools in many countries around the world. New female student arrives at a school, leaving behind friends at a previous school. At first the student is popular, perhaps because of a novelty factor. Then the girl is seen as a competitor with the popular boys of the school. The perpetrators join forces to threaten and punish the victim. Without intervention this can be an ongoing barrage - deliberate, calculated, purposeful. Phoebe Prince hung herself, after this ongoing verbal assault over many months became intolerable. A similar scenario occurred at the school when I was deputy principal. The new eleven year old girl arrived – very attractive and bubbly – and at first was welcomed into the group of popular girls. The friendship and the subsequent behaviour of all of the girls deteriorated,...