Who needs Gentle Teaching? Gentle Teaching and a psychology of interdependence are being used to help marginalized children and adults around the world. Its key focus is on those who are on the very edge of family and community life: • Those who are homeless—living on the streets and not knowing where their next meal will come from. • Street children in the Third World—little children living in sewers and gutters, finding their respite under bridges and door stoops, and making their meals from garbage thrown on the streets. • Individuals locked up in long term psychiatric hospitals—people with schizophrenia, manic-depression, depression, and a host of other diagnostic categories. • Institutionalized individuals with mental disability—sometimes tossed into warehouse-like settings, sometimes in more home-like places, but most sensing deep loneliness. • Individuals being supported in community living and working settings—sometimes able to connect easily with a feeling of companionship and community, at other times left to live lonely, empty, and sad lives. • Elderly men and women confined in nursing homes—often forgotten and left to die alone. • Children and adolescents in public schools—children with "behavior" problems, children segregated from other children, children suspended from school, children who see violence as their only way to live their short lives, children who find meaning in gangs instead of in families. Many professionals try to separate people into distinct categories and apply specialized rules for each group. People with autism need this… Those with schizophrenia need that… This syndrome demands that treatment. This particular behavior should result in that particular consequence. Words swirl around, "Use time-out. Use token economy. Use physical restraint. Punishment is the only way to teach him/her a lesson." Our approach is to be gentle and teach companionship and community.