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are children who have behavior disorders. You know, who, for various reasons, are unable to adjust in the schools or at home. The original diagnosis involves attempting to screen out those children whose problems seem to be organically determined, and to refer those to appropriate sources, such as hospitals, etc. So what Northside deals with are those children whose behavior problems are reactive. They are reacting to a set of realistic negatives in their lives, you know -- poor, inferior schools, poor housing, a community that is certainly not geared to respecting their humanity, etc.

Early in our experience in setting up Northside, it became clear to us that one of the things that we did not want to be involved in would be asking human beings to adjust to negatives, and making this the definition of normality. That if, in working with a child and his family, it became clear that the child is reacting to a set of negatives that any “normal” human being would react to negatively, rather than accommodate to or adjust to, we then said, “Well, it isn't enough to work with this child alone and try to get him to behave better in a negative situation. We have topay some attention to the negative situation.”

Northside, for example, had to be concerned with the quality of the schools. It had to be concerned with the teacher. It had to be concerned with trying to help teachers be more sensitive, responsive to the needs of low income children. Northside had to work with the Housing Authority and see that a particular family could get better housing. Northside had to work with parents, mothers and fathers, and get them working together and talking about community problems and