Conquering the Problem Child Technique

While working as a substitute teacher for three years in Long Island, N.Y. and Indianapolis Public Schools in Indianapolis I theorized and tested a technique to drastically change the anti-social behavior of inner city children. It seemed to work well when used but I soon left teaching and so this technique was never fully developed. I planned to use this technique as the basis for my Master's or Doctorate thesis should I ever return to higher education. This was not to be. But now anyone who wishes to pursue this technique and use it please feel free to borrow this knowledge and experience in this article.

First, a little background understanding. While visiting my grandmother's farm in Tipton, Indiana I notice feral cats. If a human did not befriend and pet kittens when they were very young they will grow up feral or wild. They will avoid humans and not allow humans to touch them like most wild animals act.

When I started teaching in inner city schools I noticed that many of the children acted just like feral or wild cats. They avoided touching at all cost and were fearful of everyone. Their primary defense was to run away or if cornered to fight viciously like their very lives depended upon it. These are the behaviors of problem children that are born of young teenage mothers who have no fathers around to guide them. These are the children of poverty and neglect and a hundred other sad stories. But I recognized them all right away as feral cat children of the hood.

I am a longtime student of Natural Hygiene of Dr. Herbert Sheldon. This is the teachings which looks to nature to understand life and man. Dogs and wolves in nature must discipline their cubs quickly and effectively. Wolves especially must keep cubs from running far from their mothers into danger or from becoming lost. Nature's penalty can often be death for a young wolf who does not mind their mother and strays from the pack.

Wolves, dogs, and cats have a simple but effective technique to discipline their cubs -- they either pick them up off the ground in their teeth and hold them there until they stop squirming. Or they clamp down upon them with their mouths and hold the cub tightly until they stop resisting. This works extremely well to discipline wolf cubs and make them mind their mothers in most every respect. And so few baby wolves are eaten by predators because they do not follow their mothers directions. It is an extremely effective technique to quickly teach dominance and obedience to young wolves and other animals in nature.

I next thought that this is exactly how humans learn this respect and submission to adults. When and older brother, uncle, or father plays with a child and wrestles a child to the ground they are naturally teaching this lesson of dominance and obedience of the stronger adult. They are teaching, "I am stronger than you, stop resisting and yield to me and I will release you." Or they are teaching, "I am an adult human and I am your protector, I will never really harm you." Or again they are teaching, "It is all right to yield and be vulnerable, you can trust adults." This lesson of touch and human contact is learned well by most children. They are taught to trust humans and they are welcomed and initiated into the community of man for the rest of their lives by these simple playful gestures of humans. It is this simple trust of fellow humans that truly makes a man civilized for the remainder of their lives. Children become new members of the tribe of man by simply playing with adults. And no one has ever observed these profound initiations of children into humanity and understood them because they were so natural and transparent activities.

The problem children of the inner city and also of the suburbs grow up wild and feral and have never learned to trust adults nor most any other humans. These are the children that become lifetime criminals who can not hold a regular job nor find their place in societies. And these are the children that grow up in prisons to one day be powerful frustrated men and women of crime and poverty. Men and women who have children of their own who become most often the same feral, wild, anti-social children as their parents.

This is what I see clearly when I teach in the inner city schools and also to a lesser degree in suburban schools of wealthier neighborhoods.

The technique I tried was to simply ask the child or teen to wrestle me on a mat. A simple challenge either alone and in front of his peers if he was reluctant to accept. Upon lightly defeating him I would let him up quickly the first time and do it again. I would pin him again and hold him down until he yielded and stopped resisting. Again I would let him up and we would go again. Each time holding him lightly but firmly until he stopped resisting. After a few falls and a light playful attitude I would end it. I might again challenge others who were discipline problems and do the same.

In a short time the boys bonded with me and often tried to please me with small things. It was a dramatic reversal once they befriended me and later teachers remarked when I returned to the schools that the teens had now become model students and no longer were a problem for them.

Another quicker version of this technique was to simply grab a student and pin him to your body playfully like so many PE teachers do with their students at times. Do this until they stop resisting and try to hold the contact longer each time after the resistance stops.

I always ask permission to touch the child first before proceding and this is the most important first step in proceding. Because there are many hard core feral children which are much more difficult to turn with this technique. They are either much more fearful of man or are much more strong-willed or both. They will almost fight to the death rather than yield to another human. But if you allow this behavior and allow their will to win the contest by releasing them then the technique does not change them and you must do it correctly the next time and not give in first by releasing them too soon. Problem children only learn more dominance over you and all others if your will is weaker than theirs and you release them before they yield to you.

I have never done this technique with young women as it is inappropriate for a man but it seems far less girls grow up wild and feral in our society. They have a natural ability to play and trust others. But there are a few young women that I have seen that were definitely wild and feral.

Older men in prison may learn respect and submission from other larger inmates by physical dominance of more aggressive and stronger males in much the same way as children. And some men may learn it from prison guards while being beaten into submission with a nightstick until they yield to them. But learning these lessons very late in life in prison is probably much tougher and brutal but it may serve to change a man to a better way of living just the same. But this is only speculation.

To implement this technique in schools I would start a program as early as possible of wrestling or judo for all children for several months duration or one semester. Older family children or family members are the best teachers of this technique to young children. But in a school setting other children of the same age will have to do. The important thing is to make the children hold their opponent down firmly until they stop struggling and resisting. Then hold the defeated child a bit longer to make your point felt and the lesson sink in -- say to a count of 5. So after resistance has ended, a count of five, and then end the match would be a part of the technique taught to children in all schools.

But if there are children who dominate the contests and are never defeated then the teacher must wrestle them to the floor repeatedly and do the technique so that no one is left behind -- wild and feral and an outcast from society. This is a true "no child left behind" program that works in a very short time.

One other situation will arise which is important to know about. Some children or souls may wish to experience life as an outcast, rebel, criminal, or loner and continue to live wild and feral lives. This small number of children should not be forced to submit to this natural technique of civilizing and initiating humans into society. It is not proper to force your own will upon another and do this technique if they do not wish it. Just note that they have not learned the lessons of submission, dominance, and trust of humans and let them have their space. Your own intuition will tell you who these children are. Perhaps someday another person will teach this lesson to them and bond with them. Or perhaps this souls has decided to experience life as a criminal or other troubled soul. But all life is spiritual and has purpose and we should not judge them nor their decisions to forgo the technique.

Perhaps a small number of these children will provide new insights and experiences which will one day enrich all mankind. So give them their space to be different and move on.

In later years an intellectual class might be taught to these growing adults to let them know the importance of learning these lessons of dominance, submission, and trust of other humans so that they can relate better within the community. And the technique might be again offered but not mandatory for them.

Anyone wishing to adopt, research, and study this technique for education, prisons, or other purposes please feel free to contact me for further questions and advice. -- J.E. Ante