I was teaching a lesson on ecosystems. One of the questions from the book was: How do you interact with other organisms in your ecosystem? This is a word for word response from one of my students.
"The way I interact with other organisms is different everyday. One day I'm a very nice person. Another day I'm very selfish and mad. You never know how I'll feel. This is called mood swings."
I have to admit, when I first read it I laughed. This is a sixth grade boy who can be challenging, but is interesting to know. Something about his answer, though, made me uncomfortable (for lack of a better description). His answer sounded like something taken from a psychology book. He's eleven years old. He had a very bad experience with his biological mother at two years of age. An experience that he may have been able to forget or move past with, but because his family doesn't allow him to forget, he uses those 'memories' as motivation for his actions. He goes to counseling. He tells me he has ADHD, "which is why he gets mad and can't concentrate." I have had other students tell me their diagnoses. They have autism, oppositional defiant disorder. They are bipolar. These are elementary school children. Do they really need to know this information? Are we telling children too much information without the necessary emotional skills and maturity level that they need to process and understand the information? What seeds are we planting?
That reminded me of something my daughter told me when she was in her eating disorder. She said that they had seen a video in health class in high school on eating disorders (they show a similar video the the sixth graders, now). At the time, this was something she had never thought of. Did planting that seed offer a more dangerous solution to her problem that ushered in her eating disorder before more healthy solutions could have been offered? I remember we used to have a program called DARE in our schools. A local police officer would come in and instruct the children on the dangers of drugs, in elementary school. The officer had a brief case that when it was opened, an assortment of colorful pills were attached inside to show what the different drugs looked like. They looked like candy. In addition to the visuals, the children were told how the various paraphernalia was to be used. Of all of the information that could have been taught during that time period, to those children, was that the best subject choice? Did we give our young children too much information?
Last night, I was listening to the radio, some talk show, trying to fall asleep. There was a featured author of a book (can't remember the name right now) but the subject was about how detrimental always working in groups is. The author said that creative thinking is best when you're alone and in quiet. Brain storming sessions, with other people, according to him, have the least creative results. He said that people who work in offices with open floors, where people don't have individual offices but are all in the same space, show higher levels of anxiety and stress. We are becoming too used to 'group think' and losing the value and power of individual, personal think. It made me think of Facebook and Twitter. Cell phones that now seem to be attached to people's ears. It seems as though non one is allowed to be alone, anymore. There is always noise, or the need to tell everyone what you're doing. The need for 'friends.' I hear stories about people being friended on Facebook (I don't have a Facebook page). Who really has 300 friends? Do they really know what a friend is?
Anyway, I am always trying to figure out how so many people have become enslaved by addiction. It isolates them. Is that what they're craving, some 'alone time' but conflicted because of a need to feel like part of a group? Did we expose our young, immature children to too much information too soon without giving them the emotional tools and wisdom to hand that information? I'm not sure, but it is something I'm thinking about.
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