Wright School at Durham

I had the opportunity to visit the Wright School at Durham. Wright School is a child mental health treatment program, one of the original demonstration sites for “Project ReED,”. Re-ED is an acronym for the Re-Education of Emotionally Disturbed Children and builds on positive concepts of normalcy and health rather than deviance and illness. The Re-ED approach is grounded in educational, psychological, and ecological principles. Nicholas Hobbs had been impressed by the "educateur" of Europe and Canada, and his approach blended elements of education, child care, and treatment into the profession of "teacher-counselor." These professionals are trained to build competence and restorative relationships in schools and residential settings, and they work closely with families and communities. Hobbs believed that children "have a tremendous desire to learn and to do well; that destructive and self-defeating behavior must be faced; that young people can help each other sort things out and arrive at good choices; that the world is rich in things to learn; that life is to be savored at each moment; and that decent, caring adults are absolutely essential in the lives of children if these children are to grow up strong in body, quick of mind, generous in spirit."

Click here for a guided tour of the Wright School at Durham.
“Creative people can revert to simpler ways of experiencing, to fresher ways of perceiving. They can throw away the common templates that are used to order the world and confidently seek simpler, newer ones.” Nicholas Hobbs (1960)