how do we help our kids??

Question

What can be done by us, the goverment, schools, communities to prevent the teenagers (and younger) going so far off the rails there will be no going back?
As a teacher i have noticed the changes in attitudes from children and find it a bit worrying.
Im interested in ideas and comments

Answer 1

scary stuff. 12 year olds i know are lippy, super confident and seem to have no boundaries or guidelines. parents are too busy working to pay for houses, cars etc that grandparents are raising them. no consistency between school, parents and grandparents - kids easily play one off against the other. will be tricky to fix cos there is no easy solution. good luck.

Answer 2

I am currently a high acheiving student who plays sports during two seasons and is actively involved in community service. I know that this is totally cliche but having a safe home, or just a safe place for a child to go brings a sense of security. I live in a town known for rampant underage drinking and marijuana use and I have never had to be afraid because I always know i can go somewhere and be safe. Being actively involved in a church has brought me a sense of community and responsibility and has given me many opportunities to question and grow while providing me with a nurturing loving family. Through my church I have been able to do a lot of community service and recently gone on mission trips to costa rica, biloxi MI, and Strong ME in addition to many other local missions. I don't know how I would've had the opportunity for this any other place. Having supporting parents and teachers that are willing to help a child in any way when they are in trouble is also something that makes a huge impact in a child's life.
One of the problems with the educational system today is all of the standardized testing that occurs. Today children begin testing in the third grade at most public school and they continue to take standardized testing until they graduate high school. Because of this, the focus in many schools is preparing the students for the test instead of making sure that they understand the material and pushing them to achieve deadlines that are not realistic for some kids. There is a lot of pressure to succeed nowadays and young people are taught to look up to celebrities and other famous people that do not make great role models. The US is always trying to compete and soon our country may become similar to Japan, where youth often commit suicide because of their academics.

Answer 3

I am not sure there is an answer to this one. Lets face it, people have been worrying about the moral state of children for centuries - I heard a quote from a medieval boy bishop which could have come from anyone today about loss of innocence and bad behaviour, and one from a Roman senator about the dangerous antics of the boy racers in his street..

I really do feel we are suffering from a lack of coherent policies - we try this, and try that and nothing seems to work.

It does not help that parents are left to flounder on in quite impossible situations with teenagers with no one to turn to, or that teenagers are forced into ever longer stretches of time in school, which many of them find an intimidating and unsafe place to be.

It does not help that teenagers are bombarded with very mixed messages about values - we talk about how violent kids, yet it is the adult world who makes the films showing young people that violence gets you respect and makes you look glamorous. And the incredible number of violent images a day to which they are subjected cannot be good.

What about advertising? - young people are taught to want at an age they cannot get. Owning stuff is shown as crucial to self respect.

As for solutions - we need more services targeted at young people. The general public do not understand how woefully inadequate mental health services are in this country for under 16's, and how difficult it is for teenagers worried about their drinking and drug taking to get into rehab, despite all the glib talk we have had from this Government. Probation services for any kind of offender are a sick joke, because the Government know very well that spending on rehabilitating offenders can be cut without the public complaining, whereas the Daily Mail and the Sun can be sure to have a hissy fit if such spending is increased.

And what about access to organised and interesting activities? Way too expensive. We are reaping what we sow, I am afraid.

Answer 4

A bit worrying? Understatement of the year I think. Its bloody terrifying. My 10 year old can be so rude, I would never have spoken to my parents the way he does to me. I have tried so hard to bring him up with the values and rules that I was brought up by but I cant fight against the media and peer pressure. Its a losing battle