Society and Government don't tend to like individuals because they tend to be trouble makers, they tend to be free spirits, they tend to speak their mind. No, our overlords much prefer the homogenous mass they hope they have created by forcing us through the sausage factory of compulsory education. The longer the better, sitting on uncomfortable chairs and even better if our parents are God fearing folk and then we get the double whammy from another institution. These two alone can breed enough fear, guilt, shame and resentment in us to ensure that we will never become a threat to the status quo. I am convinced that everybody is so shit scared of each other that it is better that we stay as well behaved, tax paying little adults who obey all the rules of the land that have been concocted by a well off ruling elite. I don't tend to go in for statistics in my blogs because I cannot be arsed to go and look them up and research them but you know that if you were bullied as a child at school that it has affected your mental health as an adult. I was neither bully nor bullied but I developed so much self loathing for myself because I perceived that I had got somebody else into big trouble. I perceived that I had betrayed them and therefore I was no longer worthy of the title human being and this was at the tender age of 13. I had been coerced into betrayal by adults who should have known better. The impact on my self esteem, my education and exam results was enormous. I became mentally, emotionally unwell and spiritually sick at the age of thirteen. Parents may love their children but they have no concept of understanding of what goes on in school halls and walls once they have dropped their beloved off or kicked them out of the door. We do not have a rights of passage. We leave the primary school as big fish in a little pond and then we become minnows in a huge lake with teenagers much older than ourselves. It is a real shock to the system. How many parents tell their children that the teenage years are going to be the toughest of their lives and that they need to be emotionally ready? Do you tell them that you will be with them every step of the way and that you are going to be there for them come what may or are you a disciple of the 'life's a bitch' philosophy and they need to learn independence and resilience? Whichever way there is no right way but I really think that we underestimate the power of overwhelming emotions in teenagers and if we as a society do not intervene to support and help them then it poses huge problems for societies of the future. This one is pretty disfunctional now and that is because we have been treated as 'one size fits all'. It is too expensive and too time consuming to support each individual so the thinking goes, that we do not bother at all. We let them swim along in a cesspit of self loathing and then we make them wait for two years for counselling when they get to be adults. Society is failing its young people. Educating them is not enough! Filling their heads with facts so that they can pass exams is NOT enough. Then when they get to adulthood, when they step out of line and break the law of the land because they cannot deal with their overwhelming emotions then they are sent to prison or young offenders institution. We are a society that is intent on punishing people. We are a sick, repressed society that has not overcome the Victorian obsession with the stiff upper lip. Talking about adolescent mental health is not enough. You have to have enough adults, parents, teachers, therapists, civil servants that care. You can throw money at it but the young people will pick up the money and burn it because that money has no value. That money has to be turned into time, quality therapeutic time so that fragile, vulnerable souls can be listened to. By the time they get to adulthood it is ostensibly too late. They can be healed but again at great expense. Don't break the child in the first place. One size does not fit all.
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