Another School Shooting…Are You Paying Attention?

March 13, 2012 By Leave a Comment

Recently in Ohio, another tragic high school shooting occurred, and the unhappy, struggling 17-year-old who did the killing will likely be tried as an adult. So many young lives cut short including the shooter’s. Everyone is in pain. An entire community feels the loss.

Prosecutors tend to demonize the perpetrators of school shootings in the mistaken belief that these are “bad” kids and that punishing this young person will prevent further shootings. The rationale is the perpetrator committed an adult act and so he must pay as an adult. But who made the gun available to him and modeled using it?

We talk about holding these young people accountable for their actions, but who is going to hold accountable his peers who rejected him, the school officials who created an emotionally painful environment and who neglected to recognize this young man’s struggle and to do something effective about it? Where was his family? Who is going to hold these people accountable for their part?

Most school professionals sincerely try to do their best for the young people in their care. Yet they are also pressured by the hierarchy above them and an educational system based on conformity, not nurturing the emotional needs of children.

Young people who commit these acts struggle painfully with confusing emotions and problems, because of which they can see no other way to resolve their distress. They feel out of control emotionally and disconnected with their family, teachers and peers.

A little known fact is that most school shooters were on anti-depressant drugs, which have a documented history of producing violent and aggressive acts. Will we ever know if T J was taking prescribed psychiatric medication?

If we are to end these violent acts, we must look through the eyes of the perpetrator, beyond punishing him, and explore and discover effective ways to prevent and heal children’s emotional pain.

Looking deeper, the young people who commit violent acts reflect the emotional distress, loneliness, and pressure all students experience in our schools, whether they are academically and socially successful or not. School is a high-pressure institution for our young people, one that isolates them from their peers, their parents and teachers and that demands they conform to the expected standards of achievement.

Even the so-called successful ones who appear to be okay on the surface feel the same things, sometimes more so because more is expected of them. Young people who commit violent acts against others and themselves are like the canary in the mine, indicators of what is happening for all.

Our Western culture values academic, professional, and financial success as our highest measure of accomplishment, even at the price of our inner happiness and peace and loving connection with the precious people in our lives.

Today, as you interact with your child, look to see how he is doing emotionally before you make demands on him.

Is she relaxed and happy?

Has he had a good day and is he sharing it with you?

Is there something else she needs right now – perhaps from you – more than to complete her homework? Does he need some down time by himself to regroup?

The opportunity to learn academic information will always be there. This moment for your child and with your child will never come again. Make it one that nurtures you both!

What are you going to do differently today? I’d love for you to share it with me and other readers by commenting below.

Filed Under: Children, Current Affairs, Education, Grandparenting, Parenting, Parenting Tips Tagged With: , , , , , , , ,

How Children Learn Best

May 13, 2011 By Leave a Comment

I had my 3-year-old grandson Sebastian here this week for our usual Tuesday time together. I always enjoy watching his enthusiasm to explore and create.

As I observed and played with him, I discovered something interesting about what he does when he creates, aka plays.

We have a rich variety of cool stuff at our place – two “hick-up’s” (Bas’s word for ‘pick-up’), lots of tools, ropes, bungee cords, a wood pile, all of which invite creating boy-style.

After sitting in the cab of our blue “hick-up” for a while and turning the dials, he asks to look at the area between the seats, an area filled with fascinating tools to explore. He spots the bungee cords, takes the red one, and walks to the back of the truck to find some way to use it, something to hook it to.

The tie-down’s around the pick-up bed are the perfect place. He asks me to lift him into the back of the truck where he hooks one end and then looks for a place to hook the other end. He tries several possibilities and the cord won’t stretch far enough.

Back to the other bungee cords, longer ones. He discovers the white bungee cords will stretch between two of the tie-downs’s on one side. Next question he asks, “What can I do with this?”

“Ah, I can use it to help me climb up the tire and get in and out of the truck by myself”. He repeats this several times. New hand-holds are discovered and he’s quickly swinging his leg over the top to get in.

Back to the other bungee cords and the process continues until he has 4 bungee cords fastened to 4 tie-down’s. Again he asks, “What can I do with this?”

“Connie, put my cycle (his Big Wheels) in here.”

Now he finds places to hook the unfastened ends of the bungee cords to his bike.

And so it goes. He finds tools (stuff in his physical environment) that catches his eyes and then explores ways to use them. He is in a constant state of exploration and discovery. The question he always seems to be asking is “What can I do with this? How can I use it?”

Thus, he develops both coordination and understanding about our physical world. His curiosity and experimentation motivate him and keep him inspired to discover more principles of our physical world, all of which will keep him safe and help him function successfully the rest of his life.

This is learning at it’s best. In fact, this natural, self-driven way of learning is the best way for children of all ages to learn. He asks questions and finds answers through experimentation, just like any good scientist.

What happens to this natural curiosity and drive to learn as children grow older? Why do children seem to stop being interested in learning and to need the external motivation of grades and gold stars? The answer – we adults believe we need to “teach” them in order for them to learn.

Not true! The best way for children of all ages to learn is finding answers to self-created questions.

How have you created an environment in which your child’s natural curiosity and experimentation have flourished? What could you create to nurture his learning from the inside out?

Please write in the comment space below and share with me what inspires your child, what you’ve done to nurture her interests, or what you’re going to do after reading this article.

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Children Get Smarter with Video Games

May 2, 2011 By 4 Comments

My thirty-something son Orion has played video games for many years, perhaps as many as 25; and he loves them. He’s often gravitated toward the violent ones, in which he competes against other players to see who goes down first or who makes it to the end first.

I’ve never worried about him becoming violent or aggressive in day-to-day living because that is not who he is. Children who are happy and mostly enjoying their life are not aggressive toward others. Perhaps he uses it to work out some of his frustration, which I believe is totally acceptable. It’s certainly an opportunity for him to have fun with his guy friends.

Beyond these reasons, I’ve always believed Orion was getting something more from video games that went beyond the ‘violence’ and social interaction, something that was not obvious to me as an outsider.

In fact, I believed an entire generation was gaining something valuable and developing unseen skills from these interactive games. Otherwise, why would so many young people and adults be drawn to them? There had to be something positive, not just the dumbing down of our society.

Fortunately, I have found an answer, one that makes sense to me and to Orion. My answer came from a book I just read Everything Bad Is Good For You: How Today’s Popular Culture Is Actually Making Us Smarter by Steven Johnson.

Since childhood, Johnson has been a strategic game player even before the advent of video games so he gets his unique perspective from his own experience as well as from his in-depth research and his willingness to think out-of-the-box.

The startling discovery he found is people are actually getting smarter since the introduction of technology, which includes video games, reality TV, the internet, and popular TV series, such as 24 and Lost. IQ test scores have not reflected this increase in IQ because they’ve been adjusted upward to account for the increased intelligence and companies are making the tests harder. [Read more…]

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Education that Nurtures Our Children

April 25, 2011 By Leave a Comment

Our traditional approach to educating our children with its testing, grades, limiting structure and teacher-directed learning troubles me greatly. I can use words to describe what’s possible. Yet the most effective way is to show you.

That’s why, when I came across this inspiring, beautifully-done video of a child-directed learning program in which children’s natural curiosity and love of learning are nurtured, I had to share it with you.

Voyager Community School in Farmingdale, NJ, created this short video to tell others about their school and to demonstrate the joy and effectiveness of their non-traditional approach to providing an emotionally-nurturing learning environment for children.

I urge you to take just a few minutes right now – it’s less than 4 minutes long – to open your mind and your heart to considering the kind of ‘education’ you want your child to experience as you watch this video.

Then pause for a few moments to consider your child’s educational experience and consider what options you may have to create something more supportive of your child.

Summer is almost here. This is a perfect time to reflect on and create the best option for your child and for you this September.

Here is the viideo! Enjoy!

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Another Perspective on Video Games

March 16, 2011 By Leave a Comment

A friend recently shared the following excerpt from “Everything Bad Is Good For You” by Steven Johnson. It is a spoof on articles decrying video games, based on a fantasy that video games came before reading.

“Reading books chronically under stimulates the senses. Unlike the longstanding tradition of game playing – which engages the child in a vivid, three dimensional world filled with moving images and musical soundscapes, navigated and controlled with complex muscular movements – books are simply a barren string of words on the page. Only a small portion of the brain devoted to processing written language is activated during reading, while games engage the full range of the sensory and motor cortices.

“Books are also tragically isolating. While games have for many years engaged the young in complex social relationships with their peers, building and exploring worlds together, books force the child to sequester him or herself in a quiet space, shut off from interaction with other children. These new “libraries” that have arisen in recent years to facilitate reading activities are a frightening sight: dozens of young children, normally so vivacious and socially interactive, sitting alone in cubicles, reading silently, oblivious to their peers.

“Many children enjoy reading books, of course, and no doubt some of the flights of fancy conveyed by reading have their escapist merits. But for a sizeable percentage of the population, books are downright discriminatory. The reading craze of recent years cruelly taunts the 10 million Americans who suffer from dyslexia – a condition that didn’t even exist as a condition until printed text came along to stigmatize its sufferers.

“But perhaps the most dangerous property of these books is the fact that they follow a fixed linear path. You can’t control their narratives in any fashion – you simply sit back and have the story dictated to you. For those of us raised on interactive narratives, this property may seem astonishing. Why would anyone want to embark on an adventure utterly choreographed by another person?

But today’s generation embarks on such adventures millions of times a day. This risks instilling a general passivity in our children, making them feel as though they’re powerless to change their circumstances. Reading is not an active, participatory process; it’s a submissive one. The book readers of the younger generation are learning “follow the plot” instead of learning to lead.”

I love this spoof on reading! Brilliant! Cultural criticism of video games is over-rated and is not as harmful as many “adults” fear, often because it’s new and appeals to a new generation who require new skills and ways of being.

Perhaps it is not ‘either-or’ but ‘both-and’ with value from both reading and video games. I always love the quote from “The Prophet” by Kahlil Gibran where he talks about children:

“You may house their bodies but not their souls,
For their souls dwell in the house of to-morrow, which you
cannot visit, not even in your dreams.

You may strive to be like them, but seek not to make them like you.
For life goes not backward nor tarries with yesterday.”

May we as adults create the lives that are ours to live and allow children the freedom and respect to create the lives that are theirs to live, without with perpetual doom-saying about the next younger generation.

The operative word here is “trust.”

Filed Under: Books, Children, Current Affairs, Education, Grandparenting, Parenting, Parenting Tips Tagged With: , , , , , , ,
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