Categories: uncategorized
Date: 01 June 2008 10:09:38
Today was going to be a post about today being the start of 4 months of intense beginnings and endings, starting with the baptism. However, the BBC is leading on this story about government plans to deal with the growing problem of alcohol misuse amongst young people and I feel the need to go off on one.
Apparently they want to go down the route of criminalising parents if they can't keep their children under control and stop them congregating in large groups, consuming too much alcohol, and if that fails call in the professionals to help.
Now on one level this is v. sensible. Parents should and must take responsibility for their teenagers and do their best to stop them being a public nusience. However, in the measures that the government are proposing they fail to look at the bigger picture and the reality for many parents of teenagers. This solution is also failing to deal with the far wider problems which need addressing and dealing with.
Here is my perspective, as a mother of a younger teenager and teacher of slightly older teenagers.
This policy is firstly suggesting that many parents don't care. That is simply not true, we do care but in the modern society the sanctions we can use against our children are significantly reduced, we can't rule with fear in the way many parents of the past did. Child protection means that the threat of physical violence which parents used against their children in the past is not an option today. This has to be seen as a positive thing, but does mean that one of the some effective deterents of the past, (having listened to many of the older generation), are no longer acceptable. Groundings and so forth can work to some extent, but if a teenager is determined to leave the house practically you can't stop them.
Secondly despite the fact we live in a society where there are growing amounts of leisure opportunities there is infact precious little for young people to do in many of our towns, particularly if they don't have much money. Young people congregate on the beach,in shopping centres and other public spaces simply because they have no where else to go. Somebody needs to throw Ms Smith a copy of Matza's Drift theory to read.
Thirdly whether we like it or not family is changing. There are an increasing number of single parents and step-families and this does present it's own issues with parenting and the self-esteem of children. As a society we need to learn how to strengthen community and alternative family structures to ensure that these parents are getting the support they need to reinforce what they are saying if their children won't listen.
Forthly, in terms of the professional services providing the backup. This provision already exists, but the services are completely over stretched. As one professional put it to me due to the lack of funding which exists it is easier to walk on water than get a CAMS referral these days. I am aware of parents who have had their children referred by a G.P. and ended up with a Connexions advisor on the phone offering less than the schools can. This solution is not going to work without an overhaul and proper investment into the services (which includes but goes beyond money).
Also we need to understand the effect of modelling on our young people. As adults if we want young people to drink less we need to take the lead and not use alcohol to self-medicate in our homes.
Let's also remember that young people congregating and being "delinquent" is not a new problem. It occured in Victorian England, it happened in the 60's (Mods and Rockers) and it happened when I was a young person. The difference now is that in our culture it is increasingly recorded.
Finally, I think we need to recognise that another part of the problem is how little self-worth our children and young people have. As a society we need to move from knocking them the whole time to building them up and recognising how much good they do do. The result of our current approach of just focusing, as a society, on their failings is it makes them cynical. In Third Party's testimony for this evening she says the biggest difference being Christian has made in her life is she is now far more positive about life. We need to find out the reasons for that cynicism and deal with those root causes.