We Teach Responsibility! What's the key, missing ingredient when it comes to today's teens? I believe strongly that it has to do with their not wanting or knowing how to take full responsibility for their behavior, their personal decisions, and ultimately their lives. Here at the Elan School, we focus on several core principles, and this is one of them! Students much learn to accept that they make choices every day, and those choices lead to various scenarios that either undermine or encourage their own personal growth as individuals. Taking responsibility for one's choices and behaviors in life is fundamental in terms of creating a meaningful life that will help an individual to be successful or not.  Our students are taught from day one that they must take responsibility for their every action. Honesty and integrity are essential elements of acquiring this cornerstone. How do we do that, you might ask? "I've tried and tried as a parent, and it just never happened!". Well, it doesn't "just happen". Some children must be directly taught, and need constant reinforcement. Sometimes in our busy lives, it's a difficult task to be consistent with our children. It's sometimes much easier for us to let things slide, or to foster such a busy lifestyle that structure and accountability go to the wayside each day, until all we have left is a teen who feels "entitled" rather than one who displays "responsibility".  No parent "means" for that to happen, and indeed, it does not often happen with every one of our children. You might only have one out of two, three or four who are irresponsible, and you feel you've done the same exact thing with them all! As reading is for the child with Dsylexia, or social issues are for a child with Asperger's Syndrome, teaching responsibility to a child with ADHD, or one who has other emotional challenges, responsibility for one's actions sometimes must be directly taught.  Parents need special skills in order to do this, but may not have the necessary training at their disposal. Neither our families nor our personal lives are as structured as they once were, due to our 21st century society in all it's technological splendor! So, what do you do? Allow our trained staff to help your child on a daily basis to fill in the gaps, and teach them directly how to take responsibility for their actions, once and for all. It's never too late. Our program, with it's positive peer culture, helps students who did not "get it" before, turn out to be educated, respectful, and responsible adults. At Elan School they will live out their day to day lives with structure, consistency, and nurturing staff who know from experience how to directly teach these skills.  We hope you will visit us, take a tour, and see what we mean. Our students' behavior speaks for itself! Andrea Lane M.S. Ed. The Elan School's purpose is not to change an ill-behaved child into a well-behaved child, but rather to return home a responsible young adult. We are a private special purpose boarding school for troubled teens,  a pioneer in the field of successfully reengaging teens and reconnecting families, all without the use of medication. This is a claim that only a handful of schools in the country can make.  Medication has become an all too often choice for managing troubled teenagers. We continue to be proud of the success that we've had with children, who have been medicated previously, without positive results. To learn more about us, please visit us at www.elanschool.com. You can also visit our blog at www.theelanschool.wordpress.com or follow us on  twitter.com/elanschool for interesting information and "real time" updates about The Elan School. ...read more

 Elan School Celebrates Student Differences! While most of the students who attend Elan School are struggling with some type of emotional or behavior challenge, there are many who also come with a label containing the words "dyslexic", "learning disabled", or a similar special education code. Early on in my career as a special educator, I realized that these labels are attached to the child in order to supposedly help them overcome the disabilities they face. Oftentimes, however, the label itself gets in the student's way and becomes part of the issue, and actually helps foster the student's emotional distress or disruption.  Many times, the label causes the student to feel "less than" and ostracized from the mainstream group of kids in their particular educational setting. With diminished self esteem, the student is then vulnerable to substance abuse, forging friendships with "the wrong crowd", and their spiraling downward continues. What was meant to help them actually leads them further into defeat. In my first year as a teacher, I was responsible for planning and implementing nearly one hundred IEP meetings for my large student case load. In planning and implementing their programs, I noticed how the majority of these students were creative, hands on learners who enjoyed doing projects and engaging in the many alternative educational experiences I planned. Slowly I began to put together a generic profile that rang true for approximately 90% of my students. Most had above average IQ's, were curious, energetic, and creative. Most challenged their teachers in many ways, asking questions, moving around more, and struggling to "do it the right way". Clearly, these students learned in a very different way! Years went by, and I became an administrator. My hope was to find a way to strengthen student services for kids who "didn't fit the mold". I created programs for my school that targeted students who the "system" labeled "disabled". I called them talented, creative students who needed a different path. I taught them how to advocate for themselves in a world where most teachers are "two dimensional". These are clearly three dimensional learners, who have gifts others don't have. I began to demonstrate to others how to celebrate their gifts and talents. Parents, teachers, and the students themselves benefitted from that positive approach.  This is what we do at the Elan School. Many of our students have similar gifts and talents, though in the past they have been seen as only negatives in the student's life. Here we celebrate those differences, and show the students how they can be used to succeed. We have an empowered study body comprised of teenagers who are learning how to use their strengths to succeed both in school as well as in life! Whether a student has ADHD, a "learning disability", Dyslexia, Dysgraphia, Discalcula, or Non Verbal Learning Disorder, we will help them use their strengths to overcome their weaknesses, and will empower them to find their voice. Andrea J. Lane, M.S. Ed. Special Education Director The Elan School Editor's note :The Elan School's purpose is not to change an ill-behaved child into a well-behaved child, but rather to return home a responsible young adult. We are a private special purpose boarding school for troubled teens,  a pioneer in the field of successfully reengaging teens and reconnecting families, all without the use of medication. This is a claim that only a handful of schools in the country can make.  Medication has become an all too often choice for managing troubled teenagers. We continue to be proud of the success that we've had with children, who have been medicated previously, without positive results. To learn more about us, please visit us at www.elanschool.com. ...read more

Taken from the "Headmaster's corner" at www.elanschool.com At a recent faculty meeting, teachers were lamenting about the poor quality of writing they were receiving on homework assignments.  "Our language has been degraded by the computer," said our English instructor. My daughter, who is living in Kenya, writes me every week on her computer in this mystical code they call computer language.  I have an eight year-old granddaughter who translates the text for me.  Spelling rules are consistently ignored and I am hard pressed to identify the subject and the predicate. Further discussion revealed that I wasn't alone in feeling I had been disenfranchised by this generation.  I had a choice, get with it or get left behind.  A couple of weeks later I was delivering SAT forms to seven students.  The form has a section that protects the student's identity.  It requires that the student copy a statement in cursive and sign it with black or blue ink.  This is to prevent someone from taking the test, posing as someone else. I quickly realized that not one of these students could perform this task.  I had to write the statement cursively for them to use as a guide.  It required a full teaching period to get the task completed.  I asked staff about the quality of homework that had been handwritten and found the same types of issues:  the writing was difficult to read, lacked complete sentences, contained little or no capitalization, punctuation errors and an enormous amount of spelling mistakes. After several meetings devoted to this issue, we developed a new homework requirement that insists on readability.  If you can't read it, return it.  Spelling errors carry a one-point deduction, lack of capitalization costs another point and incomplete sentences are penalized.  The dreaded red pen will be applied liberally.  After a couple of weeks, I spent very little time reading homework and now the mechanics are improving.  Perhaps civilization and literature may survive after all! Because of our new concept "back to basics", we have added a new requirement to our curriculum.  All students will be required to take a class on cursive writing so they can write a check instead of punching a pin number. We begin this summer so look for the letter from your child written in cursive, spelled correctly, correct grammar and of course, readable.  Editor's note :  The Elan School, a private special purpose boarding school for troubled teens,  continues to be the pioneer in the area of reengaging teens and reconnecting families, all without the use of medication. This is a claim that only a handful of schools in the country can make.  Medication has become an all too often choice for managing troubled teenagers. We continue to be proud of the success that we've had with children, without the use of medication. The Elan School's  purpose is not to change an ill-behaved child into a well-behaved child, but rather to return home a responsible young adult. We welcome you to visit us at www.elanschool.com for more information ...read more