Climbing Jacob's Ladder: Teaching and Counseling Orthodox Students

Climbing Jacob's Ladder* analyzes the way we understand, through the lens of religion, Orthodox students who are referred to a therapeutic day school for school-related problems. It supports the view that underlying conflicted religious feelings have been underestimated as a significant problem in this specialized population.School problems are universal. Orthodox students with emotional and behavioral problems who are referred to a therapeutic day school frequently experience underlying conflicted feelings about their religion. This book provides psycho-educational profiles of Orthodox students with behavioral and emotional problems. Moreover, the book shows how conflicted religious feelings may cause or aggravate psychological problems that lead to unhealthy and inappropriate school behavior. The spectrum of students’ conflicted feelings about religion is classified into five levels as a guide to selecting appropriate counseling interventions. Climbing Jacob’s Ladder discusses how to identify Orthodox students who have conflicted religious feelings in addition to school-related difficulties; how those conflicts affect their school performance, and how to work with these students and their parents in a school setting.*This is the second edition of this book, and the chapter front-panels are printed in full color.

Henry J. Roth, Ph. D., has been the Executive Director of the Sonia Shankman Orthogenic School at the University of Chicago since August, 2005. Prior to that, he was the principal of the Jewish Children s Bureau Therapeutic Day School in Chicago, Illinois, from 1989 - 2005. Before moving to the Chicago area, Dr. Roth was principal of the Duke University Child Psychiatry Day School, from 1975 - 1989.

Dr. Roth received his Ph. D. degree from Duke University in Durham, North Carolina, in 1977. He graduated with his B. A. in Psychology from DePaul University in Chicago, in 1971. He received a Masters degree in Special Education from Northeastern Illinois University in 1972; and a Masters in Human Development from Governor s State University, in Park Forest, Illinois, in 1974.

Dr. Roth taught classes in the Department of Special Education at Northeastern Illinois University since 1991. He was a Clinical Associate Professor at Duke University from 1982-1989. He has written more than sixty articles and publications in the area of working with children and adolescents with emotional and behavioral disorders.

In addition to Climbing Jacob s Ladder, Dr. Roth is the author of a book about children s humor in time-out situations in a therapeutic school, Tales from Time-Out, charmingly illustrated by his wife, Lorraine Sharon Roth, M. D.