All kids deserve to have safe, caring adults around them. At least some of those adults should love them.
Maybe we think we’ve seen the movie and we’ve got this organized. Maybe. Really. That’s why I’ve called my website Imagining Better. It’s not that we’re doing it wrong, or badly, or worse than anyone else. We are here, engaging in a conversation about kids and their adults because we imagine there is something even better – not only for “our” own kids (the ones for whom we are one of those adults), but for all the kids that need us to imagine something better for them.
Why give my ideas your precious time?
In the past 3 weeks, at work*, we have made 3 referrals to the youth suicide prevention program serving our area.
I work with 53 students; three at a sufficiently red alert level that we were not able to deal with it “in house”.
We have also had several emotional explosions by those who turn the anger outward rather than inward.
Drugs and dealing have been a problem during this 3 weeks – although the kids use, it doesn’t always come to us as a school problem.
There’s also some support work required in the aftermath of a fight in the community and some vandalism.
I’m betting that for most of you, whatever “your” kids are up to you haven’t had quite the variety. I think, maybe, it buys me some cred?
Because variety isn’t the measure of intensity, or level of concern. If a child you love has gone from a reasonably happy and caring individual to someone who is tossing mean comments your way or no longer willing to join the family for dinner, it demands a seriously caring response – as serious as the kids in my examples require.
Everything I write about kids reinforces caring, identifying the needs, stabilizing the identity, playing fair & with transparency, maintaining appropriate boundaries, making family or your individual relationship with them matter, and providing meaningful service toward shared goals.
I beg you to share what you know. Having tried a lot of things over a lot of years, both professionally and personally, I know I have something to offer – and you do, too.
To imagine something better for kids will take our collective hearts & minds. Make yourself & your wisdom & your questions part of the conversation.
Posts in the categories Kid Betterness, Imaginative Education, Better People will give us lots of chance for that conversation.
