There’s a phenomenon most therapists have been confronted with, but few explicitly identify or discuss (partly because it’s hard to know what to say about it): the patient who is financially disincentivized from working. Often it’s because the patient receives some form of disability benefits contingent on demonstrating their continued incapacity to work; other times it is the patient’s parents or other family members who, with the best of intentions, fall into playing the role of the “disability office.” Regardless, the observed effect is the same: an arrested development that makes it impossible to achieve any but the most superficial and transient gains in therapy—until and unless the anti-work incentive gets explicitly addressed and challenged.
This is what's so often missed in schools. Humans OF ALL AGES need "effortful activity purposefully directed toward the achievement of some valued outcome in the world." Kids do better when they are encouraged & supported to make a difference in the world, in their families, in their communities.
Isn't this a bit like saying, "people who walk away from car accidents are more likely to recover fully"? It's probably true, but it doesn't mean it makes sense to encourage everyone to try it.
The best way to build yourself is to build
This is what's so often missed in schools. Humans OF ALL AGES need "effortful activity purposefully directed toward the achievement of some valued outcome in the world." Kids do better when they are encouraged & supported to make a difference in the world, in their families, in their communities.
Isn't this a bit like saying, "people who walk away from car accidents are more likely to recover fully"? It's probably true, but it doesn't mean it makes sense to encourage everyone to try it.