Issue 149: july 2011

vi o lence and fear in urban, rural, and sub -

ur ban schools (Willerton, 1995). Riley

chal lenged the na tion to cre ate new “rites

of pas sage” for youth threat ened by a cul -

ture that too often glam or izes vi o lence.

By  ex ploit ing  the  po ten tial  of  pos i tive  de -

vel op men tal  path ways  through  pro grams

like Stockton’s “Rites of Pas sage,"- adults

are  re dis cov er ing  the  im por tance  of  di -

rect ing  chil dren’s  in nate  re sil ient  abil i ties

through prosocial rit u als that guide a

young person's sense of possibility and

responsibility.

Ref er ences

Boys and Girls Club, Inc. (1998). Rites of

pas sage. Stockton, CA.

Delaney, C. (1995). Rites of pas sage in

ad o les cence.  Ad o les cence,  30(120),

891—897.

Gar ri son, K. (1988, win ter). Ed u cated rites of

pas sage. School Safety. pp 10—Il.

Harvey, A., & Rauch, 5. (1997). A

com pre hen sive Africentric rites of pas sage

pro gram for black male ad o les cents, Health

and So cial Work, 22(l), 30—37.

Howell, I. (1998).Youth gangs: An over view,

Ju ve nile  Jus tice  Bul le tin.  wash ing ton,  DC:

U.S. De part ment of Jus tice, Of fice of Jus tice 

Pro grams,  Of fice  of  Ju ve nile  Jus tice  and

De lin quency  Prevention.

Huizinga, D., Loeber, K.. & Thoroberry, T.

(Eds.) (1993). Urban de lin quency and

sub stance  abuse:  Tech ni cal  Re port.

wash ing ton,  DC:  U.S.  De part ment  oflustice, 

Of fice of Jus tice Pro grams, Of fice of

Ju ve nile  Jus tice  and  De lin quency  Prevention. 

Kelly, B., Loeber, K., Keenan, K., &

DeLamatre, M. (1997). Detelnpmenlal

path ways in boys dis rup tive and de lin quent

be hav ior.  Wash ing ton,  DC:  U.S.

De part ment of jus tice, Of fice of Jus tice

Pro grams,  Of fice  of  Ju ve nile  Jus tice  and

De lin quency  Prevention. 

Loeber, R. (1990). De vel op men tal and risk

fac tors  of  ju ve nile  an ti so cial  be hav ior  and

de lin quency,  Clin i cal  Psy chol ogy  Re view,

10(l), 41.

Loeber, R., & Sebmaling, K. (1985). Em pir i cal

ev i dence for oven and co vert pattenis of

an ti so cial  con duct  prob lems.  Jour nal  of

Ab nor mal  child  Psy chol ogy,  13,  337—352. 

Myerhoff, B., Camino, L., & Turner. E. (1987).

Rites  of  pas sage.  The  En cy clo pe dia  of

Re li gion. New York: Macmillan.

Nirode, J. (1997, October10). Fam ily blames

gang rile in slay ing, Co lum bus Dis patch.

Parker, T. (1995). The vi o lence of our lives: 

In ter views  with  Amer i can  mur der ers.  New

York: Hensy Hole.

Turner. V. (1969). The rit ual pro cess. Ithaca,

NY: Comell Uni ver sity Press.

U.S.  De part ment  of  Ed u ca tion.  (1998),  Early

warn ing, timely re sponse: A guide ro safe

schools. Wash ing ton, DC: Au thor.

van Gennep, A. (1960). The rites of pas sage.

Chi cago:  Uni ver sity  of  Chi cago  Press.

Venable, S. (1997). Ad o les cent rites of pas sage:

An  ex per i men tal  model.  Jour nal  of

Experirnental  Ed u ca tion,  20(l),  6—13.

Wartield-Coppock, N. (1992). The rites of

pas sage  move ment:  A  re sur gence  of  Af ri can 

cen tered  prac tices  for  so cial iz ing  Amer i can

youth. Jour nal of Negro Ed u ca tion, 61,

471—481.

Willerton, S. (1995, Jan u ary 30). Riley to sa lute

,math Olympians as sec ond an nual state of

Amer i can  ed u ca tion  speech,  Wash ing ton,

DC: U.S. De part ment of Education

This fea ture: Gar ri son, Ron (1998) De vel -

op men tal Path ways as Rites of Pas sage.

Reach ing  To day's  Youth. Vol.3 no.1

pp.33-36

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Background: high risk infants,

orphans and their care organizations

Fos ter  fam i lies,  or phan ages  and  other

set tings are re spon si ble for infants and

chil dren  with out  ef fi cient  parenting. 7 mil -

lion of the total 143.000.000 or phans

glob ally  are  in fants and tod dlers at high

risk for crip pled so cial, emo tional and cog -

ni tive  life span  de vel op ment. Their NGOs

or pub lic care givers have tight bud gets, lit -

tle local po lit i cal sup port, and their jobs

are often low sta tus with little or no ac -

cess to care  ed u ca tion  and  su per vi sion.

Or phan ages  and  fos ter  fam i lies  often

work  from  prin ci ples  of  care  or ga ni za tion

that are harm ful to child development, as

seen in former Romanian orphanages.

I’m  a  Dan ish-Amer i can  child  psy chol o -

gist  spe cial ized  in  de vel op ing  or ga ni za tions 

work ing with chil dren suf fer ing from early 

de pri va tion,  loss  and  mal treat ment.  In

2005 I pub lished “Se vere At tach ment Dis -

or der in Child hood”, which spurred vis its

to  uni ver si ties,  or phan ages  and  fos ter  fam -

i lies in Latin Amer ica, Can ada, the US and

Eu rope. After this tour my con clu sion

about  em pow er ing  care givers  was  this:

What they need is not nec es sar ily only

more money or staff, they are mostly

highly mo ti vated but need ac cess to ed u -

ca tion and ideas for de vel op ing their

organizations in order to provide quality

care.

My idea was cre at ing a handy tool for

de vel op ment:  let’s  unite  child  de vel op -

ment sci en tists, child care giv ers and their

lead ers, and de ci sion mak ers in a joint

ven ture to de sign at tach ment based ed u -

ca tion and qual ity care so cial sys tems.

Make it on line and in peo ple’s local lan -

guage, with their own video

dem on stra tions  of  qual ity  care.  Let  par tic i -

pants be ac tive co-de sign ers of their local

prac tices  by  in clud ing  di a logue  based  plan -

ning. All I had was not a dime and a firm

belief in what people can do together.

So I de signed 15 ses sions for staffs (or

fos ter fam i lies) and their daily lead ers (or

fos ter  fam ily  man ag ers)  cov er ing  meth ods

for learn ing basic child brain stim u la tion,

at tach ment  the ory,  so cial  re la tions,  in di -

vid ual  and  group  iden tity  de vel op ment,

31

CYC-Online July 2011  /  Issue 149

Fair Start for you:

a Free Online Education 

and Development

Program

For res i den tial place ment and or phan care work ers.

In al most any lan guage

Niels P. Rygaard

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