ONLINE NOTIFICATIONS
Educational Consultants helping parents and professionals since 1989.
Online since 1995.
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Poll Results:
Many thanks to all those who participated in the July 2005 Struggling Teens poll asking if ?there is a higher percentage of teens needing intervention now than there were in previous generations??
The current poll for August 2005 asks if there ??should be a national regulatory system over private schools and programs for struggling teens?? This has been a hot topic on several discussion groups devoted to this industry lately, with the advocates for developing a new federal regulatory system claiming it would increase accountability and safety, and opponents claiming it could destroy the creativity and flexibility necessary to properly meet these children?s needs. To register your opinion, please go to
http://www.strugglingteens.com/news/polls.html.
Already this month there has been 33 votes, with an almost even distribution between those for a national regulatory system and those against it. I encourage everybody that uses Strugglingteens.com to participate since the larger the numbers, the more meaning the results will have.
In the July poll, asking if ?there is a higher percentage of teens needing intervention now than there were in previous generations??, we had more than 100 participants, who were overwhelming of the opinion that yes, more modern teens need intervention. 83 said yes, while only 13 said things were about the same, and only 2 felt A Lesser Percentage needed intervention, and only 2 were unsure. At first blush, it sounds like virtually everybody feels teens are worse off with more negative behaviors than there were in the past, and that things are getting worse.
However, we have to be cautious in that there always is a tendency for adults in every age throughout history to be critical of their young, and to fear that young people will never live up to their potential. For example, the ancient Greek philosopher Socrates, as quoted by Plato in about the Fifth Century B. C. is quoted as saying, ?Children today are tyrants. They contradict their parents, gobble their food, and tyrannize their teachers.? This could be a quote we would read in today?s newspapers, and would suggest that young people are probably not as bad off as their elders think, or that it?s just a normal phase all young people go through and nothing to be too concerned about.
Even though this might suggest that adult fears about young people are misplaced, there is some evidence to suggest the voters in the poll are more accurate than those who have been critical of young people in the past. There is a significant amount of social science research that says, yes, modern young people are more negative than past generations of young people. Daniel Goleman, author of the influential 1995 book Emotional Intelligence? concludes that ?Perhaps the most disturbing single piece of data in this book comes from a massive survey of parents and teachers and shows a world wide trend for the present generation of children to be more troubled emotionally, more lonely, depressed, angry and unruly, nervous, prone to worry, impulsive and aggressive.?
So, perhaps the participants in the StrugglingTeens.com poll are not just doing a typical adult criticism of young people, but are seeing in their lives what Daniel Goleman is talking about.
Please vote in the August poll at
http://www.strugglingteens.com/news/polls.html to help all of us learn what people think about developing a national regulatory system over private schools and programs for struggling teens.
Lon Woodbury IECA
Certified Educational Planner
Places for Struggling Teens
http://www.strugglingteens.comlon@woodbury.com ----------------------------------------------
~Insights~
"Children like to be able to predict events. It gives them a sense of control." -Mary Pipher-
