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goodenoughcaring.com is an arena for the discussion of issues of interest to parents, foster parents, residential child care workers, counsellors, youth support workers, social workers, teachers, mentors, social pedagogues, educateurs and to young people who are, and adults who have been, in care. If you are interested in, or involved in the care,upbringing and education of children and young people or in the nurturing of children and young people who are unable to live with their own families goodenoughcaring.com is a site for you. The website welcomes thoughtful views - personal, practical or theoretical - about the care of children and young people. If you want to comment about child care or about goodenoughcaring.com use our comment form or email goodenoughcaring@hotmail.com
The goodenoughcaring.com site is archived at the British Library.
The goodenoughcaring Journal is an online publication which invites anyone wishing to publish articles, essays, memoirs.stories and poems about parenting, nurture, child care work and related fields or those wishing to write about their child care experiences to submit as e mail attachments papers or articles for publication to the editors at goodenoughcaring@hotmail.com The members of the editorial group are Evelyn Daniel, Siobain Degregorio, Jane Kenny, Ariola Vishnja, Mark Smith and Charles Sharpe. The current edition was published online on 15th December, 2009. The next edition will be published during June 2010. #
News, Events and Opinions
Lost for Words : It’s not the economy, it’s the poverty and the avarice, stupid!
Forgive this crude play on a tired old headline. It is a reaction to the BBC's broadcasting on February 15th. 2010, ( http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/em/-/2/hi/uk_news/education/8513340.stm ) of a report about a research study carried out by the Sutton Trust which found after looking at the results of vocabulary tests given to 12.500 British children that those from the poorest homes are almost a year behind middle class pupils by the time they start school. Whatever all this means – after all such studies are loaded towards the cultural values of the “haves” rather than the “have nots” - we wonder how many more research studies are needed to tell us that children who live in poverty are bequeathed failure at school, defeat in what is called the “world of work”, and life long poor physical and psychological health. All this is known, so why spend money on more research about it ? Let’s spend time on working out how we go about redistributing wealth. This is easier said than done, but no human being is worth, let’s say 10 times as much as the poorest. Should any person be worth any more than another ?
If as adults we conscientiously address our responsibility to protect and nurture all children then surely each of us would be prepared to give up income she or he does not require in order to make sure that all children have what they need to flourish. When fair minded people who are not rich, but who know they could exist quite adequately on less than they have, think about such a commitment they may feel a moral compunction towards it but they may also be fearful of it. "What if," they ask, "we do this and then we fall upon hard times ? Who will protect and look after us ?" Such a poignantly ironic question. We know the answer we ought to be able to give.
Other than those who suffer so wretchedly from poverty in all or any of its aspects, the people we should perhaps worry most for, and about, are the excessively avariciously powerful and wealthy. Surely it is not healthy to be the way they are. These people need help. Thought needs to be given as to how we can best support them in addressing their problems.
Still, even if we knew how to redistribute wealth effectively, we may have to accept that those with no experience of having anything will need a period of adjustment to spend as unwisely as we, “the haves” did in recent years.
This jumbled collection of thoughts and statements is not altogether naïve, yet it would be easy to become cynical about its chances of being taken up seriously, and so, decide to do nothing. The redistribution of wealth is not a simple exercise but someone – perhaps one or more of us - needs to start to consider it seriously if we are to do the very best we can to make sure all children grow up healthily. This is not an argument for an absolute answer. Every human being is unique but we are left with the pluralism and the conflict of freedom and equality. How long can we wait before we begin to confront this problem? What do we wish for our children ? We may have to acknowledge that freedom and equality are not necessarily harmonious, but somewhere along their continuum a choice should be made. As one kind of start we would truly welcome comments and ideas about this. (Posted, 5th March, 2010).
The goodenoughcaring Journal No 6 is now on,line !
In this issue :
In the first of a series of articles, in which different writers will consider the influence the place they were born and brought up has had on their adult lives, the Totnes author Bob Mann starts the ball rolling by reflecting on his experience of having lived in the town of his birth for most his life.
Jonathan Stanley , the Manager of the National Centre for Excellence in Residential Child Care in England in an interview with Charles Sharpe talks about what NCERRC has achieved and is achieving for the residential child care service in England.
Laura Steckley of Glasgow School of Social Work listens to the views of young people and argues that, depending on the circumstances, physical restraint can be part of an overall therapeutic experience for some young people.
Cynthia Cross , a freelance child care consultant and trainer offers us case vignettes which provoke us to challenge the defensive nature of practice guidelines for child care workers.
Jeremy Millar , in a moving description of an innovative project at Robert Gordon University, tells us about the participation of children and young people (recipients of social work services), in the training of social workers and Calum Strathie writes about Video Enhanced Reflective Practice and how it has been used in Dundee - with the involvement of young people - in a unique pilot training course for residential child care workers.
Nancy Mohindra examines the mental health services provision for young people in England.
The social worker, Donna Hugh , in a wide-ranging overview of educational provision for children looked after in the care system, shows why we should still be concerned about the educational achievement of these children.
Dominic McNally , who is a social worker, explains how psychodynamic principles influenced his work when he was a residential child care worker.
Leon Fulcher, M. Williams, M. Fisi’ihoi and S. McGladdery tell the story about what happened over a 6-month period during a young person's transition from secure residential supervision to an intensive foster care placement using a Team Parenting approach.
The text of Charles Sharpe's seminar 'Love and Hate in Good Enough Residential Child Care' which he presented at NCERCC conference Understanding Residential Child Care: Valuing the effect and effectiveness of daily living held in Leeds on January 28th, 2010, can now be found on this site in 'Writings''.
Films and Psychoanalysis
Many visitors to the site remark on films they have seen which have enhanced their understanding of human development. For those interested in both cinema and psychoanalysis, The Centre for the Advancement of Psychoanalytic Studies (CAPS) is running a course Films and Psychoanalysis in London during March at the Institute of Psychoanalysis. The course is led by Andrea Sabbadini and consists of 5 seminars to be held on Tuesdays, 2.9.16.23 and 30 March 2010 at the Centre for the Advancement of Psychoanalytic Studies (CAPS), 112a Shirland Road, off Elgin Avenue, London, W9 2EQ
The nearest tube: Maida Vale / Warrick Avenue
The course costs in total £95
Seminar One: A brief historical introduction on psychoanalysis and cinema.
The (mis)representation of psychoanalysis in film.
Seminar Two: A psychoanalytic approach to film interpretation (1): Hitchcock’s Vertigo
Semin Seminar Three: A psychoanalytic approach to film interpretation (2): Powell’s Peeping Tom
Seminar Four: A psychoanalytic approach to film interpretation (3): Buñuel’s Belle de Jour
Seminar Five: Dreams in films / Films as dreams. Concluding remarks.
In preparation for the seminars, students are invited to watch the following films (easily available in DVD):
Vertigo (Alfred Hitchcock, 1958 - USA)
Peeping Tom (Michael Powell, 1960 - Great Britain)
Belle de Jour (Luis Buñuel, 1967 - France)
Students may also like to read psychoanalytic articles on specific films. These can be found in such periodicals as the International Journal of Psychoanalysis, or in edited books such as Glen Gabbard’s Psychoanalysis and Film (Karnac, 2000) and Andrea Sabbadini’s The Couch and the Silver Screen (Routledge, 2003) and Projected Shadows (Routledge, 2007).
Booking: marjory.goodall@iopa.org.uk tel: 0207 563 5016
The course presenter, Andrea Sabbadini, is a practising psychoanalyst and is Chairman of the European Psychoanalytic Film Festival and of the Screening Conditions series of films at the ICA. He is a fellow of the Institute of Psychoanalysis, current director of publications of the British Psychoanalytical Society, honorary senior lecturer at University College London and the Film Section editor of The International Journal of Psychoanalysis. He has published extensively in psychoanalytic journals and edited Time in Psychoanalysis (Feltrinelli, 1979), The Couch and the Silver Screen (Brunner-Routledge, 2003) and Projected Shadows (Routledge, 2007), and co-edited Even Paranoids Have Enemies (Routledge, 1998) and Psychoanalytic Visions of Cinema/ Cinematic Visions of Psychoanalysis (in Psychoanalytic Inquiry, 2007).
The goodenoughcaring writing competition
We invite all visitors to the goodenoughcaring.com site to take part in our writing competition. The pieces of writing may be essays, articles, short stories and poems. There is no lower or upper limit on the length of the pieces of writing and spelling punctuation and grammar are not too important as long as the piece is understandable and interesting. All entries must be emailed as attachments to goodenoughcaring@hotmail.com by March 31st, 2010.
The title is :
‘Fritz Redl once said “Modern society loves kids, neglects children and hates youth”. Write what you want about any aspect of this statement’.
The first prize is a £100 book token. The second prize is a £50 book token and the third prize is a £25 book token. The best five pieces will be published in the June 2010 issue of the goodenoughcaring Journal.
The entries will be judged by the Journal’s editorial group.
On sale now : Love Is Enough : sincerity and professionalism in the care and education of children and young people
A few copies of the goodenoughcaring book , Love Is Enough : sincerity and professionalism in the care and education of children and young people edited by Charles Sharpe, Evelyn Daniel, Siobain Degregorio, Jane Kenny and Ariola Vishnja and published by Abbeyhill Press remain. To purchase a copy from the UK send a cheque for £11.95 made payable to goodenoughcaring to 5 Orchard Waye, Totnes, Devon TQ9 5PN together with the address to which you would like the book to be sent. This includes the postage cost making this a bargain ! Purchasers from outside of the UK may have to pay additional postage charges. If you prefer to do these things electronically it is available for purchase through Amazon. The ISBN is 978-0-9560438-0-1. The book will be of interest to those with a professional interest in the lives of children, to students of child care and to parents immersed in the process of bringing up children. The authors offer an exciting variety of literary styles to illustrate and analyse their experiences of childhood, parenting and love.
The goodenoughcaring.com website is edited by Charles Sharpe. I am a child care consultant. I provide support to child care organisations in the United Kingdom and Europe engaged in looking after emotionally troubled children and young people. My services include project development, management supervision, team development and staff training. I have been involved in the care and education of children and young people as a practitioner, manager, teacher, trainer and lecturer. I am a psychodynamic counsellor and psychotherapist.
I am known to be vociferous about the lack of depth in training provided for those who work with emotionally troubled youngsters. In Writings at goodenoughcaring.com you will find articles, papers, a recommended reading list, and training documents I have written about child development and about the care of children and young people who have experienced disrupted childhoods. Most of these have been written and devised for different courses I have run. I hope they have general interest and are helpful towards the professional development of those who work with children and young people. My blog goodenoughlife can be found at http://goodenoughcaring.blogspot.com/
Useful Links
National Children's Bureau http://www.ncb.org.uk
Scottish Institute of Residential Child Care http://www.sircc.strath.ac.uk
Psychoanalysis and Therapy http://www.psychoanalysis-and-therapy.com
Childhood http://www.childhood.org
Children Webmag http://www.childrenwebmag.com/
The Planned Environment Therapy Trust http://www.pettarchiv.org.uk
The International Child and Youth Care Network, CYC-NET http://www.cyc-net.org
Clare Winnicott : Life and Work http://www.clarewinnicott.net
The Child Care History Network http://www.cchn.org.uk/
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