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Opinion from: Dwight Bain, Nationally Certified Counselor
The answer is yes!
We are living in a day and age that offers a barrage of psychological options to children in the classroom. You can take classes to improve your wounded inner child, feel good about your broken past or sit around the circle singing 'kum-ba-ya'. The irony is that we have a generation of American children that have great self-esteem levels... but they can't read!
Jeff, do the math on this one! School was designed to prepare children with the tools that they need to function in the world. To teach them how to read, use mathematical skills, develop the ability to communicate, both verbally and with the keyboards of computers. School is designed to train and develop children into balanced citizens; it is not to replace the need for parents to be the best source of insight and direction in a child's life.
Parents were designed for that leadership role, not social workers. It is not the psychologist's job to answer questions that should be addressed by a mother, or a grandfather. While I realize that some broken families may not have extended family support, most students do have supports and resources; beginning with mom and dad, then extended family and family pets. Then, low, low on the list are psychologists and psychiatrists. It is not a therapists job to step in to a parent's shoes. Ever!
What about the Littleton school shootings that we discussed on CULTURE SHOCK.
Did the excessive psychology in those classrooms solve the problems? No, it did not. If anything, Eric and Dillian spent so much time with self-absorbed, psychological introspection that they apparently began to lose touch with the real world. (Not unlike certain talk show hosts... (you know who you are J. G.), While they were able to escape back and forth between the over-all experience of reality and fantasy, eventually the fantasy world of being a 'hero' in their minds by using violence seemed to take over their minds and led them to make terrible decisions.
Decisions that totally slipped through the cracks of all the counseling and school based psychology that was supposed to protect a dozen teenagers from danger. But that kind of protection can't exist in a fantasy world where feeling good is better than striving to be good; and where liberal educators tell children that all that matters is how you feel. Sounds like a line from a song... in a wrong tune. I love you Jeff, and you are my friend, even if you live in a dream world.
Sleep well my dear co-host, because the conservatives are wide awake to help make your world a better place. Oh, and while you had dreams of the world as you wanted it to be, we were working on the world that is, and giving it some needed serious attention. Good thing that not everyone around here believes in the Tooth Fairy!
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