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Why Do We Wait

A new idea to benefit the future

By DC HopePublished 2 years ago 10 min read
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Why do we wait?

Why don’t we step in when we see the lives of the young headed for a tailspin?

Why do we sit back in suburbs and condos looking down on those struggling and judge.

We judge the kids

We judge the parent(s)We judge the school

But not once do we ask “Is there something I could do?”

We don’t see the single mom that works two jobs just to keep a roof over their heads.

We see a lazy woman that sleeps all day and can’t be bothered to discipline her kids.

We see a deadbeat dad that walked away.

We see irresponsibility, slothfulness, vanity…

We see a punk kid with no respect the needs an attitude adjustment 

But...

Do we step in?

Do we lend a hand, bring a meal or play a couple games? 

No, but we love to pass the blame.

We blame the kid, the parent, the schools, the government.

We blame the gangs, the dealers.

Music, TV and even video games

But

Do we step in?

The system doesn’t see the kid who cant read or write. 

The kid who started slingin dope when he was only thirteen.

 The girl on the corner with a skirt too short for comfort

They don’t care about the kid that watches his mom get abused, because he’s not the one that carries the bruise.

They don’t care about the kid who falls asleep in class because he’s too scared to sleep in his own house. 

But aren’t they supposed to? 

Aren’t they supposed to help, to step up, to step in so the village around them can continue to pretend.

When do they step in?

At the end.

When everyone gives up. 

He gets expelled or just drops out.

He turns to crime and the violence he was never turned away from. 

He gets arrested. Gets out and gets arrested again.

It’s a cycle with a clear end and all it took to prevent it was someone to step in.

** * **

While I do hope you enjoyed that somewhat long poem its time to get serious. Why don’t we do something? Why do we give up on the kids that need the most help? People will make every excuse in the book but the truth is, we just don’t care. We can say we care. We say we wish there was something that we could do while we sit at home or in church pews, but… there is and we don’t.Psychologist everywhere agree that violent, repeat offenders all have a few things in common.

 1. Most (not all) were in foster care.

Studies show that 45% of foster kids will end up with a criminal record. 15% will end up spending at least one year in prison.According to a Harvard study 25% of former foster children suffer from PTSD while 75% suffer from some form of emotional attachment disorder.

2. They were victims of abuse or witnessed the abuse of someone close to them.

When children are exposed to violence at a young age that isn’t addressed they eventually learn that violence is the norm. They learn that violence is the answer to every day problems whether they are angry or want something. 

This also causes them to not develop key emotional skills and coping mechanisms that are needed in daily life. They lack empathy and respect for life and liberty.

3. They had difficulties in school that were not addressed.

When kids have a difficult time in school they act out as a way to garner attention. This leads them down a path that ultimately lands them on an unofficial black list. Teachers may deny that they “give up” on kids but the evidence is there.

When kids act out teachers simply don’t try as hard. The sad reality is that many of those delinquent kids have some form of learning disability and high student to teacher ratios is often overwhelming and prevents an individualized approach. 

Another popular trend that I have seen in public schools is no separations between teachers and coaches. Meaning most teachers also coach a sport. Generally speaking this isn’t necessarily a bad thing. The trouble comes when the teacher/coach becomes incapable of compartmentalizing the given roles. Sports are often the passion that takes priority leaving teaching on an unlit back burner. 

I have heard from many recent graduates that teachers often don’t actually teach. The “teacher” will write chapter numbers on a board and have student answer review questions at the end of the assigned chapters. No review, no explanations, mean while the teacher sits at his or her desk playing on their phone or catching up on paper work. This is not what I consider an adequate teaching method.

But I digress…

How do we counter the pandemic that truly threatens our society?

To answer that we can look into an unlikely source, prisons.

To answer the question I know you are asking I’ll cut right to it.Let’s take a look at Northern Nevada Correctional Facility. NNCF along with a few other correctional facilities around the country have a special program called the Wild Horse and Inmate Program (WHIP).

To explain briefly: this program pairs inmates with an untouched wild horse. The inmate then spends his time gentling the wild horse. Most horsemen use terms like Training or Breaking. Breaking is an old fashioned term used to describe the way trainers push horses to teach them what the trainer wants them to know.

Techniques like R+ (positive reinforcement) and pressure and release are used as a means to push and reward the horse for learning the behavior. Gentling is a different technique in which the human builds a bond with a foundation of trust with the horse. Once the trust is established the horse will be willing to learn and at that point the training can begin.This not only teaches the horse but by working to grow a bond of trust the inmates learn patience and empathy. 

80% of offenders will be arrested again after release within the first year, however only 1% of inmates that complete WHIP reoffend. What does that mean? That the program works.

Other correctional institutions have seen similar success by having inmates train shelter dogs in preparation for adoption. The statistics prove that these programs work and if they work to rehabilitate men that have already offended then won’t common sense tell us that they will work to prevent at risk teens from becoming offenders? 

So...

What’s the problem then?

The problem is that schools are underfunded, understaffed and not equipped to deal with students that need the extra help. School staff is trained to send kids to detention or suspend them when they become too hard to handle. 

What happens when you suspend one of these problem kids?

They spend x amount of days at home, most likely unsupervised. They miss school assignments, explanations, or tests. They fall further behind in their class work and aren’t able to ask questions to better understand the subject matter. Not only that, most of these kids have parents that fall into one of two categories

1. They work more than one job to provide so they aren’t home to supervise the child.

2. They just don’t care.

Suspension is not a punishment. It’s a scapegoat for teachers to get rid of kids they don’t want to deal with and a reward for kids that don’t want to be in school to begin with. 

So what can we do?

Most if not all counties in every state have at least one animal shelter and what’s referred to as “alternative school”. Alternative school is a separate placement for kids that are not welcome to return to school preceding a suspension or as an “alternative” to expulsion. Alternative schools are designed to educate students who have not been successful in regular schools, often because of behavior, disciplinary and safety concerns.

These schools tend to have a lower student to teacher ratio and since extracurricular activities are not an option teachers are able to focus fully on education.

However, another major draw back to alternative schools is if the teen is there for behavior problems its seen as a punishment, therefor the fun elective courses are not an option. That means that student is only there for the four(ish) hours it takes to complete basic course work. What do they do the rest of the time? Go home to the unsupervised, unsafe, generally lacking environment that caused the behavioral problem in the first place.

However… If there is one thing that shelters need, it’s volunteers. The simplest solution is for schools to partner with animal shelters to have at risk teens work with shelter animals similar to the way prisons do with inmates.  

Doctors agree that animals have a calming effect on the body and mind. Petting an animal has been proven to reduce blood pressure and increase focus. Students placed in alternative schools can be assigned a shelter dog that has been passed up for adoption or was surrendered due to behavioral issues like  jumping, leash pulling and displaced energy.

Many shelter dogs are surrendered because the owner bought a cute little puppy and didn’t bother to consider the fact that, like children, dogs need to be taught boundaries and your expectations. These untaught puppies grow up to be disrespectful dogs that just don’t understand that their behavior is unwanted. Once the cuteness of puppy-hood is gone the dog becomes unwanted and is surrendered to the shelter or worse, abandoned on some back street and picked up as a stray.

Shelters, like schools, are understaffed and rely on donations and volunteers to maintain operations. That means that like these “bad kids” these “bad” dogs aren’t given the individual attention, rehabilitation and training they desperately need so they end up being passed up for adoption and when all attempts at finding the dog a home fail, the staff give up and the dog is put on a list to be euthanized. 

So, to get the point…

Public schools partner with animal shelters to pair “bad kids” with “bad dogs” in an alternative school. The kids go to school for the same amount of hours as a regular school but instead of electives taking up the remaining time the students are given adequate breaks between classes to care for and train their shelter dog under the supervision of a shelter volunteer or volunteer dog trainer.

Quick note: Dog trainers are dog people and dog people want to see empty shelters. Finding a qualified dog trainer to volunteer their time to help k9s get the training they need for placement is as easy as a Facebook post.

Having the time to care for the dogs between classes gives the students a chance to processes and decompress. They go into their next class relaxed and stress free. A relaxed mind is a receptive mind. Caring for the dogs will also teach them compassion for others and provide the student a since of responsibility and allow them to work towards an achievable short term goal, for example teaching the dog to sit on command. 

Giving students a goal to work towards gives them the opportunity to feel successful. When they feel successful they want to succeed. When they want to succeed they work towards success.  

As Benjamin Franklin once said, “if you fail to prepare you prepare to fail” and by sitting back and doing nothing when an entire generation is struggling we are preparing our youth for failure. Without the next generation the world be nothing. Why give up when there are options?

Authors Note: As you can tell from reading this article, helping at risk teens and rescuing animals are two passions of mine. I recently was made aware of the fact that my local shelter is at capacity and has no more room. Every cage is full. All of the dogs currently at the shelter are adult dogs with minor behavioral issues and majority need to be spayed or neutered before being able to be placed in a foster or permanent home. I am selling shirts and coffee mugs on my online store to raise funds to assist in the transportation and veterinary costs of getting these dogs ready for their out of shelter placements. If you feel led to help you can find the shirt and coffee mugs at the links bellow.

adoption
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About the Creator

DC Hope

I am a mother, a wife and all the things that comes in that pretty package. i have a passion for romantic and paranormal fiction and psychology. i write for my own sanity and to give a little bit of an escape to those that want to get lost.

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