RUI MATOS

Puzzled

My life is a puzzle
Waiting for the missing pieces
It keeps falling down
Breaking apart in front of me

My dreams build up
Then shatter
The shards pierce my heart
Ripping my life apart

My voice goes unheard
I cry in pain but no one listens
I need a second chance
To go through my life again

Friendship bonds the pieces
Of my life together
Be there for me
Be the missing piece

                           — Rabea, age 12 *

___

VINTAGE CHARLES SCHULZ

“Elaine and I are sort of off and on ... One day
she likes me and the next year she doesn't!”

See also a previous CYC-Online feature

___

“Boredom will always remain the greatest enemy of school disciplines. If we remember that children are bored, not only when they don't happen to be interested in the subject or when the teacher doesn't make it interesting, but also when certain working conditions are out of focus with their basic needs, then we can realize what a great contributor to discipline problems boredom really is. Research has shown that boredom is closely related to frustration and that the effect of too much frustration is invariably irritability, withdrawal, rebellious opposition or aggressive rejection of the whole show.”

                                  — Fritz Redl, When We Deal With Children

___

“He’s going to be a managing director.”

___

“It is our choices that show
what we truly are,
far more than our abilities.”

 — Dumbledore, in J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets

___

The truly creative mind in any field is no more than this: A human creature born abnormally, inhumanly sensitive.
To him ...
a touch is a blow,
a sound is a noise,
a misfortune is a tragedy,
a joy is an ecstasy,
a friend is a lover,
a lover is a god,
and failure is death.
Add to this cruelly delicate organism the overpowering necessity to create, create, create  - - -  so that without the creating of music or poetry or books or buildings or something of meaning, his very breath is cut off from him. He must create, must pour out creation. By some strange, unknown, inward urgency he is not really alive unless he is creating.

                                    — Pearl Buck

___


The average income
of the modern teenager
is about 2 a.m.

___

Who Am I?

Who am I can you tell me?
I really have no clue,
A name is something I've forgotten,
or what I've never known,
I've never laughed or even smiled, nor even known one joy,
Never talking always hurting,
I've lost my heart, my soul, my mind,
So if you know me tell me,
though you'll probably laugh and leave,
I wish I knew just who I am so
I could live in peace.

                         — Carla, age 13 *

* Toronto Public Library