Educational Goals and Schooling in a Therapeutic Community

Abstract

This article examines a therapeutic community for the rehabilitation of drug addicts run by Marathon House, Inc. To aid the often difficult transition from community to society, a school program was introduced. The author, selected as the first teacher, describes the problems faced by the organization and its residents, who believe in the values of a highly structured, supportive community, yet who must be responsible to a society that does not share these values. The author terms this the corporate-communal dilemma, and he uses the introduction of the school program to discuss how the organization and individuals in it tried to cope with this dilemma.