Yes, I didn't mean to lump anybody in with "inarticulate lower classes" - the point is that it does cross classes but how open it is tends to differ. At least in my experience. On the "deprived estate" next to where I used to live I made friends with one young woman who in one breath described how her ex had held her up against the wall by her throat (after they'd split, just in a general argument) and in the next mentioned that she was looking forward to the weekend when he would have her son for contact and she'd get some time off. Later that day as we walked to a different children's centre they commented negatively about a woman who walked past with a string of eight or nine children, she had an obvious black eye and they attributed it to her partner. I wasn't really clear whether they were judging her or judging him at the time. (They knew her.) The children would act out violence at playgroup quite freely. It was different from the middle class playgroups which I had also attended, although violence of course happens in every class, it just comes out differently. But it's generally really difficult for anybody entrenched in one lifestyle to really imagine what it is like to be a part of the other. I just observed snapshots, really, I haven't lived it.
And yes - actually, I do think it's entirely relevant that the general public and many organisations don't really understand the mechanics of how a child ends up being SO disordered that they are violent, aggressive, oppositional, they steal, they take drugs, they have sex very very young. It's not simply about a "naughty" child, their needs are extremely complex. Whether KC is meeting them, I don't know. Certainly the point about them being self referrals and hence not really meeting the needs of who they need to meet is key for me. But on the other thread, one of the first posts was a typical judging one, talking about teenagers with knives and fighting being given brand new trainers and gadgets. That is so simplistic, I don't even know where to begin. But certainly when dealing with kids with the kind of issues that KC hopes to help, they aren't going to be sitting around quietly minding their own business and getting on with homework or whatever in these clubs. If you write them off for their erratic behaviour, then what happens to them? They do get written off, cut off, kicked out, excluded, from homes, from schools, from foster placements, I know that they are difficult to deal with, but you're just shoving them further and further away. It's the age old question of how early do you need to intervene, at which point is it "too late" and what do you do with the ones for whom it's already too late? Mostly the boys end up in prison, but not for very long, and the girls end up with a string of removed children, creating more messed up lives.
TBH, it is such a mountainous and messy task that I totally take my hat off to anybody who is attempting to do anything about it, and I don't really care how efficient they are, because it's perfectly clear that the most efficient system in the world wouldn't be able to handle the demand anyway. If anybody has a better solution, then I'm interested.