This collection of over 60 readings on the education of students with emotional disturbances is organized into nine chapters. In each chapter, the articles are bound together by the humanistic ties of psychoeducation, which involves a concern for both the inner life and the external behavior. The book aims to make school time effective enough to empower troubled and high-risk students to manage their lives more successfully. It focuses on education's response to four trends: (1) increasing numbers of disturbed students; (2) greater severity of their disturbances; (3) inclusion of all students in the mainstream; and (4) the importance of family preservation. The first chapter contains selections from literature that describe how it feels to be a student with severe emotional problems. Chapter 2 examines the nature of the helping process, with readings on such topics as the therapeutic milieu, the curriculum of control, and inclusion. Chapter 3 considers strategies for understanding students and their families and what educators bring to the interaction. Strategies and skills for promoting positive group behaviors and harnessing the power of group forces in the classroom are discussed in the selections of Chapter 4. Chapter 5 offers generic strategies for promoting responsible student behavior based on the conflict cycle of Nicholas Long. Chapter 6 presents intervention strategies for dealing with common behavior patterns ranging from aggression to suicide. Strategies for dealing with crises are the subject of the seventh chapter. Chapter 8 addresses the therapeutic potential of the psychoeducational classroom, in readings on such examples as the prosocial curriculum, multiple intelligences, cooperative learning, drama, and adventure education. The final chapter focuses on ways the school can support families. (Most readings contain references.) (DB)