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23 MARCH 2009
NO 1416
Heart and soul
We are living and educating our children in one of the most extraordinary times in human history, one that is perhaps even more distinct and momentous than when we shifted from the Agricultural Age to the Industrial Age. As we step into the new millennium, we are holding in our individual and collective hands the opportunity to use our new knowledge and advances for unbearable evil, devastation, and moral breakdown — or for goodness, transformation, and hope. The choices we make today regarding how we nurture children’s development will have critical implications for generations to come. Even as we make huge advances in the world of technology and in our understanding of the brain, we are struggling to rescue generations of young people who are not growing up with the supports they need to feel valued. In fact, Yale psychiatrist James Coiner tells us that "we are doing the least harm to the most privileged ."1 According to the Annie E. Casey Foundation’s Kids Count for 1999, 21% of children in the United States still live in poverty and "are growing up with a collection of risk factors that are profoundly unsettling."2
Too many young people experience mental health and adjustment difficulties, and schools don’t have the resources to provide appropriate attention. It is estimated that 20% of children between the ages of 9 and 17 have a diagnosable mental disorder.3
Many young people today do not have any understanding that their lives have a higher purpose. Many have trouble imagining what their future will look like. Psychiatrist James Garbarino, author of Lost Boys, calls this "terminal thinking," which he warns can undermine young people’s motivation to contribute to their community and invest in their present life circumstances. He also speaks about what he calls "juvenile vigilantism": Violent boys who have lost confidence in the ability of adults to protect and care for them join gangs to feel a little safer.4
The dilemmas of our times are ones that our young people need to be prepared to meet at all levels. The senseless stream of high-profile violent incidents in our schools share some common characteristics. These multiple murders, often linked to attempts at suicide by the perpetrators, have been in places where young people possessed too many things that had too little meaning. Material wealth did not seem to satisfy their deeper hunger for what feeds the soul. And yet, most of our young people growing up today, from the poorest to the most affluent, are imprisoned by our culture’s obsession with material things. Early on, they get the message that to feel good about themselves or to feel the love of their family, they need to own the latest Star Wars toy, designer sneakers, or a fancy car. We are teaching children by example that we should look to the outside — rather than the inside — for meaning. In Dr. Martin Luther King’s words, we are "judging success by the index of our salaries or the size of our automobiles rather than by the quality of our service and our relationship to humanity."5
The fact is that an increasing number of children are entering schools in crisis, cognitively and emotionally unprepared to learn. Educators today are being confronted with the challenge of strong public expectations concerning performance and diminishing internal resources to accomplish it.
Our schools function against this backdrop of social disarray that tries the best of us. Instead of fostering meaningful discourse, tolerance of divergent thinking, and the opportunity to get to know ourselves and each other, schools today look more like huge centers for testing preparation. The deeper questions of life have been put on the back burner. As educators, we are somewhat aware of this void, yet we are not sure what to do about it.
LINDA LANTIERI
Lantieri, L.(2001). Why
we need schools with heart and soul. Editorial in Reclaiming
Children and Youth, 10, 1. pp. 2-4.
NOTES
1. Corner, J. (1996, November). Remarks. Presentation at the Social and Emotional Learning and Digital Technologies Conference, Teacher’s College, New York.
2. Anne E. Casey Foundation. (2000). Kids count databook: State profiles of well-being 1999. Baltimore: Author.
3. Shafer, D., Fischer, P., et al. (1996). The NIMH diagnostic interview schedule for children. Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, 35. pp. 865-877.
4. Garbarino, J. (1999). Lost boys: Why our sons turn violent and how we can save them (p.118). New York: The Free Press.
5. Children’s Defense Fund. (2000). The state of
America’s children 2000. (p. 4). Washington, DC: Author.
You can read this full editorial at https://www.cyc-net.org/Journals/rcy-10-1.html#edits
