Striking a Balance

Like other schools for troubled teens, the structure and operations here reflect a set of core values and beliefs. Two of these are that 1) education is necessary for a successful life, and 2) that a strong work ethic is essential for student growth. Can these two ever be in conflict? For one troubled teen girl, they seemed to be. Despite her spectacular emotional progress and growth over the past two years here, she still struggles academically and recently failed an exam that has jeopardized her scheduled graduation date. 

Understandably upset, she was nevertheless able to look at how her student internship in the school's administrative offices (which she performs brilliantly) could have negatively impacted her academics. In this case, there is no doubting her strong work ethic, or the emotional maturity she has acquired on the job. But being so caught up in it, she procrastinated when it came to studying for her test, perhaps convincing herself that her good performance on the job would somehow carry over to her Regents exam. She learned the hard way that life doesn't work that way. Over-functioning in one area doesn't make up for under-functioning in another. She seems to have accepted this and is moving on, emboding yet another core belief: that life is about progress, not perfection.