The "adultification" of children is now officially absurd. We expect our children to swim in a sea of sexually exploitative media that adults use for fun and profit, and then are surprised when kids act out sexually.
This morning, when I turned on the computer, one of the top stories was about thirteen-year-old boys being charged with sex crimes for slapping girls on the butt at school, and another was about a nine-year-old getting offered a credit card. In our public schools, a child who gets into a fight or "disrupts a school"(a rather broad concept that surely would've included some of the pranks we all pulled as teens), doesn't just get disciplined by the school, but, in addition, often faces charges in juvenile court. We are criminalizing typical teen behavior, applying a one-size-fits-all model and failing to empower the adults closest to the situations-parents and teachers-to apply discipline, reason and compassion.
We have simply forgotten to treat children like, well, children. In Georgia, the Genarlow Wilson case has gotten lots of attention, but the truth is, it's just the tip of the iceberg. I'm no idealist when it comes to addressing sexual offenders or disruptive or dangerous teens. At one point in my life I supervised a residential treatment program for children who had committed sexual offenses and had other significant behavior problems. Gov. Perdue would never be able to cure these children with just the right foster family. For most the intervention was too little, too late. We have dealt our children a ridiculous hand-we expect them to manage adult information and responsibilities and then suffer adult consequences. And, at the same time, we fail to provide their most basic needs, and then marvel that they behave as they do.
Check the new Kids Count data.
Wednesday, July 25, 2007
We Have Completely Lost Our Minds
Tuesday, January 16, 2007
Bibb County Rankings
For the last three years, I have served on the executive committee for Community Partnership, the Family Connections Program for Macon and Bibb County. This afternoon at 4 pm, fellow board members, Mark Nichols, Tony Rojas, and I will do a presentation for Macon City Council regarding the work of FCP and the issues we face in Macon and Bibb County. It's not a pretty picture. The rankings below compare Bibb County to other reporting counties in the state. (Not every county provides data for every indicator.) Keep in mind that in overall child and family well-being, Georgia ranks 43rd in the nation in terms. On some of these indicators, we are among the worst of the worst:
Child Poverty: 116 of 159
Free and Reduced Lunch: 114 of 159
Single Parent Homes: 151 pf 159
No Working Parent: 124 of 159
Teen Pregnancy: 107 of 146
Infant Mortality: 40 of 50
Low Birth Weight Babies: 130 of 159
Teen Births: 80 of 155
High School Dropouts: 70 of 159
Community Partnership works to facilitate collaboration among agencies and individuals engaged in addressing these and other issues impacting child and family well-being.
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