As president of the William Glasser Institute-New Zealand, I attended the William Glasser Association International Conference in Los Angeles last June. Participants at the conference were told of some exciting research by staff at Loyola Marymount University with inmates at the Californian Institution for Women in California.
Since 2007, groups of women at the Californian Institution for Women have elected to take part in training in Glasser’s Choice Theory. This choice psychology is offered to replace external control psychology, the prevailing psychology in the world. It uses models and metaphors to explain how and why we behave in the ways that we do.
In the five years, over 500 women learned ways they can take more effective control of their lives. At any one time there are no fewer than 100 inmates on the program’s waiting list.
Two staff members qualified as instructors with the William Glasser Institute have volunteered their own time to teach the inmates. They are currently pursuing recognition of Choice Theory as an evidence- based rehabilitation program in prisons in the United States.
From Californian Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation report we read of one prisoner’s story:
“Choice Theory has completely changed my life” said inmate Nicole. “I just want to figure out a way to be happy and this has changed the whole process for how I make decisions.”
Of the 175 women trained in Choice Theory who have been paroled since 2007, only five have returned, less than three percent. The normal reoffending rate is 40 percent.
So what are the implications for schools? We know that when students are taught Choice
Theory, they are better equipped to make more effective decisions. Anecdotal evidence suggests that this is long term.
One of the criteria for a Glasser Quality School is that staff and students know, understand and use Choice Theory. I have been to schools where Choice Theory is taught by senior students to the whole school assembly. These students develop a good understanding about the difference between internal and external control and motivation.
Classroom teachers use a variety of ways to teach Choice Theory. Students learn about their Basic Needs, their Quality World and their Total Behaviour through many creative learning activities.
Class Meetings and Solving Circles are strategies that teach children about making more effective choices. Reality Therapy questioning helps students to self evaluate and plan for better ways to behave.
We know that teaching Choice Theory works for women in prison, helping them to turn their lives around. We know schools where students have eliminated the need to use external control on each other are happier places with high academic standards. We know that if students learn self control by the age of 10 it impacts their health, wealth and likelihood of committing crime.
What more do we need to know to begin to make a real difference?