Welcome to The Better Plan blog!

The Better Plan is about supporting those who are interested in leading choice theory lives. Since learning about choice theory myself I have sought to apply it’s principles in my personal life as husband, father, and friend, and in my professional life as teacher, principal, and superintendent. Prior to Dr. Glasser passing away (in August, 2013) I had the privilege of spending a lot of time with him as I worked to complete the writing of his biography. During 46 interviews I was able to ask Glasser, the actual architect of choice theory, questions about the development and details of his ideas, where they came from and how they changed. My experience with students, teachers, and parents; my training to become a faculty member in the Glasser organization; and especially my personal time with Glasser has led to my wanting to give back to the choice theory community. That’s what The Better Plan is about.

Anyone interested in choice theory, interested in living a non-coercive life, as I call it, will find helpful material and ideas on the blog. Teachers and parents will especially find help and support here. It is good to read a book or attend a workshop on choice theory, however it is important to stay in touch with the ideas, and even in contact with a community, after the book is finished and the workshop is over. That is one of the main reasons I was inspired to start the blog. Teachers would take one of my summer workshops and become very excited and committed to implementing choice theory in their lives and in their classrooms. Then the school year would begin and the crush of life would dim their enthusiasm and crowd out their commitment. Next thing you know, as they would share with me later, they were back to the world of coercing and manipulating. So the blog is about providing support wherever and whenever you might need it. It is about creating a community that can share ideas together. I hope you will join those of us who are on the choice theory journey.

It’s Easy to Follow the blog

Enter your email on the left hand side of the blog page and click the Follow link. It’s that simple. Explore among the previous blog posts on the left hand side of the page as well. I look forward to hearing from you.

Quickly Find Blog Posts on the Year-At-A-Glance Pages

The best way to access blog posts from previous months is to go to the 2013 – Year At A Glance and the 2014 – Year At A Glance links at the upper left-hand corner of the page. Previous posts appear in chronological order, which really helps when posts are part of a series. Click on a post title and that post will instantly appear.

The Soul Shaper Connection

I wrote a book in 2005 called Soul Shapers: A Better Plan for Parents and Educators. The book compared the writing and ideas of William Glasser, a well-known psychiatrist, with those of Ellen White, a lesser known spiritual author. Although Glasser, an agnostic, secular author who wrote mostly during the latter half of the 20th century, had little in common with Ellen White, one of the founders of the Seventh-day Adventist church who wrote many books on spiritual living, including on the work of teachers and schools, when you read what both of them had to say it becomes clear their central messages were very similar. Soul Shapers captures these striking similarities! The Better Plan blog is not written exclusively for educators who have read Soul Shapers or who have taken a Soul Shapers workshop at PUC, but those who have read the book will find very good support here.

Where Did the Title, The Better Plan, Come From?

I’m glad you asked that. I got the idea from a passage in one of Ellen White’s books. It goes like this –

Those who train their pupils to feel that the power lies in themselves to become men and women of honor and usefulness, will be the most permanently successful. Their work may not appear to the best advantage to careless observers, and their labor may not be valued so highly as that of the instructor who holds absolute control, but the after-life of the pupils will show the results of the better plan of education.          Fundamentals of Christian Education, p. 57