We, who are

of the middle-aged range (myself included) must remember

that we were not born into nor reared in the type of

society and culture that our young people are struggling

with today.

Our young

people today often attend megagiant impersonal schools

where they frequently feel like a lonely isolated grain

of sand on the beach. Often there only two or three

counselors for hundreds of students. Also, these

counselors aren't really interested in nor have time for

listening to personal problems and their emotional

difficulties.The counselor's focus is on academic

scheduling, graduation, and what paperwork to do for what

college they may possibly attend following it.

I, myself,

am the parent of children with neurological and delayed

developmental disabilities. I'd love to say that the

public schools did everything possible for my children,

but this is simply not true. Perhaps they followed their

curriculum guidelines dictated by the system supervisors,

but this is a far cry from following the latest

scientific, medical and educational advances in working

with their special disabilities. They may say they have

no more money for all this, but I have read that there is

money available for public schools that they don't use or

don't try to attain.

Working

with, teaching or assisting children with disabilities -

be they physical, emotional or behavioral - is just like

anything else, "the squeaky wheel gets the

grease."

The

emphasis in public schools is on sports, pushing the

gifted student, having a higher and higher SAT score for

more students, and how many of the graduates will attend

well-ranked colleges. I'm not knocking teachers because I

used to be one (takes one to know one and the system),

and I think it is remarkable that they do as well as they

do.

The child

with emotional problems often falls through the cracks in

today's schools and society. They are challenging (often

difficult) to work with, don't give that great ego-boost

and satisfaction that working with the gifted does, and

there's no glory to the system, but they are often the

ones who, upon feeling excluded, isolated, different, are

going to be consumed with hate and anger and cause

trouble in schools.

I think

that mentorship in the public school system would be a

great benefit to help those who feel isolated and

different.This would mean that a well-functioning student

would assist the troubled problem student in every way

social, academic, etc. I brought this idea up in my

child's school, but nothing was done about it.There are

mentorship programs for academics - poor, abused and

deprived, language - but I don't know of any in this area

for children or teens with emotional and behavioral

problems. You would think that this would be a challenge

to some students, so why isn't it attempted or done?

I recently

finished a NAMI (National Alliance For the Mentally Ill)

12-week family-to-family education program here in

Fayetteville at the Heritage Bank. We, class members, and

others who will be attending the next class in September,

are founding and starting a local NAMI chapter, which

will meet monthly in Fayetteville at the Heritage Bank

(information to be in papers).

The purpose

of NAMI is to provide education and support to parents,

guardians and relatives of the mentally ill. Another big

focus of NAMI is to try to eradicate through education

that scrouge that the mentally ill have lived with -

prejudice, suspicion, withdrawal from them, isolation,

etc. There is a tremendous stigma applied to all forms of

mental illness in our country and society.

Evidence

indicated that mental illness is much more widespread in

our society than anyone will admit. Depression and

obsessiveness also fall into the category so the chances

are that you or someone you know may have some form of a

mental illness. These people have been ignored, avoided,

misjudged and prejudiced against by schools, churches,

society and people in general for centuries.

It's my

opinion that we will continue to have trouble in schools

and our society until many issues are looked at and paid

attention to. We cannot call ourselves a religious or

spiritual society if we don't acknowledge that the

mentally ill, emotionally disturbed, etc., exist and want

to be listened to.

Recently I

read an article by Dana Goldman, a senior at Paideia

School. Here is a quote from it:

"The

adage, children should be seen and not heard, doesn't

work anymore. The killings in Colorado and the high

suicide rate among teens emphasize what we teens have

known for years.We need to feel free to speak. we need to

be listened to, we need to be given advice (although we

might dislike it at the time), and we need to be loved.

When we are silenced, we feel isolated. The shootings in

Colorado makes me think the killers were lonely, scared,

and felt like their lives were worthless. If someone had

been available to talk with them, would this tragedy have

happened? If someone had taken their threats seriously,

would this have happened?"

Dana, you

said it better than I ever could have.

P.J.

Morris

Fayetteville

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