Nancy S Buck, PhD
Developmental Psychologist
Senior Faculty for WGI
www.peacefulparenting.com
[email protected]
401-662-5788
The trouble with using external control in
schools is that it is illegal for teachers to
bring guns to school . I fear that one of these
days a student will bring a gun into school
and take revenge for the external control that
was exerted on him during all his school
years.
A few years later the first school shooting occurred in Columbine, CO
December 14, 2012
Changed Everything
Sandy Hook Elementary School -- Newtown, CT
27 people were shot and killed, including 20 children
Physical health is all that is addressed in the dictionary under “health”
Dictionary: 1a: being sound in body, mind and spirit
b: freedom from physical disease or pain
Physical Health is understood by most to indicate vigor, strength,
fitness and endurance. Physical health is taught in schools. Most
people in the USA over the age of 6-years old know what to do to
get into and improve physical health. Health and fitness clubs
abound.

Dictionary: No words or definition can be
found under this title

Wikipedia: Mental Health describes a level of
psychological well-being, or an absence of a
mental disorder

For most people, mental health means the
lack of mental illness

Dr William Glasser
You are mentally healthy if you enjoy being with most of the people you
know, especially with the important people in your life such as family
and friends. Generally, you are happy and are more than willing to help
an unhappy family member, friend, or colleague to feel better. You lead
a mostly tension-free life, laugh a lot, and rarely suffer from the aches
and pains that so many people accept as an unavoidable part of living.
You enjoy life and have no trouble accepting that other people are
different from you. The last thing that comes to your mind is to criticize
or try to change anyone. You are creative in what you attempt and may
enjoy more of your potential than you ever thought possible. Finally,
even in difficult situations when you are unhappy – no one can be happy
all the time – you’ll know why you are unhappy and attempt to do
something about it. You may even be physically handicapped as was
Christopher Reeve, and still fit the criteria above.
The ability to meet your needs for:
 Safety
 Love & Belonging
 Power
 Fun
 Freedom
responsibly and respectfully.

We need Mental HEALTH professionals to
teach everyone:
1.
2.
3.
4.
What is good mental and emotional health?
How do you get it?
How do you improve it?
How do you maintain it?

Teachers are professional educators,
excellent at helping all students learn as long
as students are ready to learn.

Are we expecting too much to ask teachers to
become professional gunmen or professional
mental health professionals?



In every school across USA there are the
designated troubled students. People in the
school, including the children, know who
these children are.
Our present system asks the counselors,
psychologists, social workers to help these
students.
Who helps all of the other people in school
with their mental health?


What if we started teaching good mental and
emotional health to all students, adults and
parents in our schools?
What if the students who are now designated
as needing extra help are also supported by
their classmates who understand good
mental and emotional health and help their
fellow students who are struggling to meet
their needs responsibly and respectfully?

Anti-bullying programs, behavior
managements systems such as detention,
and other externally controlling system
would no longer be necessary.

Please note this does not mean abandoning rules, boundaries or
expectations for all in the community.
Where will YOU begin?

[email protected]

Subject line: count me in

Share your plan and subsequent results or

Share your name, email address to be added
to the action list for good mental & emotional
health as a pubic health issue


Glasser, William, Treating Mental Health as a
Public Health Problem; A New Leadership Role
for the Helping Professions. Booklet published
by William Glasser Inc.
Thanks also to Kenneth Larsen, DDS,
certified in choice theory/reality therapy and
faculty of WGI-US for public health
implementation ideas.
Peter Breggin (1991) Toxic Psychiatry, St. Martin’s Press. New York
Peter Breggin and David Cohen (1999) Your Drug May Be Your Problem, Perseus
Books, Cambridge, MA
Richard Gasden (2001) Punishing the Patient, Scribe Publications, Melbourne,
Australia
Joseph Glenmullen (2001) Prozac Backlash, Simon and Schuster, New York, NY
Lucy Johnstone (1989) Users and Abusers of Psychiatry, Routledge Publishers,
London, UK
Terry Lynch (2004) Beyond Prozac, Bath Press, Bath, UK
Robert Whitaker, (2002) Mad In America, Perseus Publishing, Cambridge, MA