Robert Paterson's Weblog

Columbine, Ritalin, Hooking Up, Dropping Out, Child Obesity, Bullying - What is going on?

On PEI sex is commonplace for girls as young as 12. It is not just oral sex but going the whole way in the school washroom on the floor. If you think I exaggerate have a real heart to heart with a teacher. Amazing to me for whom young girls were sacrosanct, boys of 18 think nothing of having sex with a 12 year old. The "Ho" look is now essential to fit in. If you don't wear a thong, you are a loser. 30% of boys are on Ritalin. Think about this before you pass onto the next point. 30% of our boys have to take drugs so that they can cope at school and at home. Most of the really dreadful violence such as at Columbine does not occur in inner city schools but in middle class or even upper middle class settings. Its the kids who have all the things who are most desperate. PEI sent a choir to France recently. One of the sights that struck the parents who accompanied the kids was not the Eiffel Tower but the fact that not one - not one - of the French kids was fat and about half the PEI kids were fat. Bullying is endemic and no longer linked only to boys. There have been girls who have killed girls and girl hazing is as bad as anything in the Paratroopers.

Like the fog in the pot of water that is slowly heating, we have not noticed as life for our children has grown steadily worse over the last 30 years. Well folks the water is boiling now and we have to act. But what is the problem? We at least can sense that there is a problem. All the issues are now out in the open with sex at school being the last one to make the front-page and our news screen. In response of course we have started to blame others. TV, the Media, advertising, poverty, the teachers and the schools. We point to the hooker look of the stars, we point to how women's bodies have been forced into an ideal shape and every product has sexual overtones. We point to the inanity of TV and its hypnotic effect. We complain about the consumerization of our world and how our kids now have to have all these things. We think that violence is is a problem of poverty when it is in reality mainly middle class kids who are in trouble. We blame the fast food firms who tempt our kids to eat the wrong things and we blame the teacher who cannot control our kids. Well folks it is time to hang up the mirror and to look at ourselves as parents.

See more at the Kids Site

Can readers cope with complex writing on weblogs?

Here is a link to my Kids and Parenting page that contains an experiment.

I have tried to build a complex paper that deals with the topic of how the research into the first 3 years of life has become clear that if we as parents talk a lot with our children; touch them a great deal in the first 6 months and develop a listening/caring relationship that we will do more than any school to set them up for a great life.

How does this structure work for you?

PEI Election Watch

Much of my blogging energy is currently going into the PEI election. A group of friends and I have set up a site called PEI Election Watch that is following the election and providing not only comment but access to all who want to talk about the issues.

I am convinced that Blogging is changing the state of democracy. A point that is already clear to me in this sound bite world is that without blogging, the election discourse has to dumb down to what will fit in a sound bite. Dina in India it is so easy to polarize any issue around religion. In the US about patriotism. In the UK about class. There is no room to look more deeply in a system of slogans. In Canada healthcare is about access not results.

Example. I am very familiar with leaders in both the Liberal and the Tory party. All are very articulate and informed about what is really going on in healthcare. But on the hustings its all about who will bring more doctors to the province. My sense is that TV and the conventional press just can't handle anything thoughtful. If a leader did say something thoughtful it would just go over the heads of the electorate because the filter would either ignore it or screen it down to a bite.

Please have a look at our site and join in if you want. The rules are please be polite and please be thoughtful