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If you were looking for oddities, you came to the right place. I'm an unschooling mom and writer living on the Canadian prairies.
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wild (but not uncultivated) musings of a Canadian unschool momHome | Archives | contact Expert Acknowledges Social Retardation in Teens....11:41 AM - Mar. 31, 2008 - Add to the Wildness
....But probably doesn't even notice what he's accepted as normative. New Canadian research indicates that high school is a time spent in fear of sexual and other physical predation. In the survey responses, teens admitted to fears about being abused in a variety of ways, or engaging in unwanted sexual behaviour in order to avoid extreme pressure towards even more unwanted behaviours. Perhaps more frightening was the article's simple statement about the numbers of teens who admitted to perpetrating criminal and antisocial behaviour against others. The article writer(s) seemed more disturbed about so-called “homophobic” name-calling than admissions of having attempted to rape a peer. All that is old hat. We know this stuff; that's one of many reasons why we homeschool. But I responded aloud to the computer screen when I read the following: "This is a time of life when youth may first start to experiment with drug use and sex - which can be difficult especially when you consider that kids are just learning how to socialize with one another in a more mature context." Never mind the drugs and sex. Didja catch what the researcher just said about public school socialization? I just came back from the regional homeschooling conference, where the food stand was run by a highly professional pair of kids somewhere around ten years of age. They used professional language, eye contact, smiles, and a level of customer service rarely attained among most adults today. The keynote speaker, Apologia.com’s Dr. Jay Wile, talked about going into high schools as a prof and trying to engage teens to interest them in the university. They wouldn’t speak to him, because he wasn’t a member of their peer group. He then said that when he goes to homeschool conferences, he can’t get the kids to stop talking! My husband had said the same thing in my ear, specifically referring to our kids, just a second before. And here, we have a leading researcher plainly stating that most teens are in fact abnormally underdeveloped in their socialization. The report goes on from there to characterize the “everyday violence” in teen behaviour as something only slightly more socially advanced than your average three-year-old: “While some of these behaviours show a decline over the course of adolescence (such as hitting others), it is clear that students worry about their safety throughout high school.... It's never too early to start - many of these negative patterns begin in elementary school, and the long-term solution will involve education that teaches positive relationship skills and respect for others.” Next time somebody asks you the socialization question, point to the expert opinion. _________ Postscript from the researcher's bio info: "Dr. David Wolfe is a psychologist and author specializing in issues affecting children and youth - including how to form healthy relationships, and prevention of bullying, dating violence, unsafe sex, substance abuse and other consequences of unhealthy relationships. Dr. Wolfe is pioneering new approaches to preventing many societal problems. Educating children and adolescents about forming healthy relationships should be a public health priority, he says, and he has developed The Fourth "R", a grade nine curriculum on forming healthy relationships, which is currently being piloted in selected Ontario Schools. " [emphasis added] ---------------- © Copyright Cathi-Lyn Dyck 2005-2008
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Recent Entries~ Cross-Canada Trip Journal~~ Wondering What to Blog About? Me Too....~~ How Do Faith and Culture Connect for You?~~ Expert Acknowledges Social Retardation in Teens....~~ Attached Parenting after Toddlerhood~
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