ORGANIZATION OF A FAVORABLE EDUCATIONAL ENVIRONMENT FOR THE AT RISK CHILDREN IN THE USA

Abstract

This article considers the issue of deviant behaviour and its prevention among the children at risk in the USA. The aim of the study is to reveal the influence of a favorable educational environment on the at risk children. Theoretical research methods have been used in this study: analysis of scientific sources, systematisation and generalisation of available data. The results of this investigation give possibility to state that among other ways of overcoming deviations in the behavior of at-risk minors, scientists consider the possibility of creating such an educational environment in which the educational influence of the team on the individual is fully realized. The axiological content of the idea of collectivity as a factor in overcoming the deviant behavior of minors during pedagogical interaction with them consists in changing their worldview. They get rid of the feeling of loneliness, isolation, their uselessness, the external environment is no longer seen as distant and hostile, but open, more understandable and benevolent. Such processes activate the need for communication and interaction in a teenager with deviant behavior, which leads to the improvement of such mechanisms as self-awareness, self-acceptance, and praxis. A teenager learns to understand and adequately perceive others, control his actions and emotions, feels the need for empathic and long-term relationships. All these phenomena in their totality, in our opinion, determine the processes of self-correction and overcoming deviations in behavior. The study of the researches of US scientists shows that the pedagogy of the country has already accumulated some experience in educating minors in the spirit of collectivism. In particular, the idea of country camps and the scouting movement, which is one of the traditional forms of organizing educational space in America, finds a new sound in the context of its importance for the process of overcoming deviant behavior of teenagers in the team. A favorable educational environment is created for minors with deviant behavior, who find it difficult to study in traditional educational institutions and often stop studying, also through social inclusion. Inclusion of children with deviant behavior is implemented with the help of alternative education, which in the USA is represented by alternative schools (public or private); alternative educational programs that can operate in regular traditional schools; original teaching strategies aimed at the assimilation of knowledge by all students. Alternative schools are characterized by expanding the degree of freedom of children both in choosing the content, forms and methods of learning, and in evaluating the results of activities, which always contributes to the formation of the child and as a subject of culture within the framework of his life activities and life creativity. Alternative schools for at-risk minors include charter schools, magnet schools, contract schools, correctional schools, multicultural schools, mixed schools, voucher programs, and homeschooling.