Stress Lessons

Paddling students and canoes

Three days a week students learn math, science and English. On the other days they may be dangled off a cliff, abandoned two miles deep in a cave or locked in a padded cell. At Butler High School in western Pennsylvania, this harsh treatment is known as stress education for "in-school dropouts"--the disruptive students and juvenile offenders.

The idea is to build self-esteem by showing youngsters they can cope with fear. Says Former Phys Ed Teacher Kenneth Musko, who developed the program: "Some of them do panic, but you'd be surprised how most of them cope with new situations that normally would terrify them." A few of the 52 stress activities seem particularly dangerous: riding through rapids on a rubber raft, rock climbing and "parasailing" (hanging from a parachute while being towed by a truck). One prosaic activity--incarceration at a nearby jail or detention center--is supposed to show the students the life they can expect if they flunk out of the program. There they are given a chance to talk to inmates, who usually advise them to reform while they can.

Classroom punishment ranges from tongue-lashing to old-fashioned paddling for a repeat offense. Despite the drastic methods, Musko tries to get across to students that the program is a last-ditch effort run by people who care. Says he: "These kids have passed the 'please' point; they are tough. We have to make them feel that someone cares. And we will use any method to do this." So far, he says, the reform by stress seems to be working. More than half of the 90 students who have passed through the course have remained in school and shaped up.

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