Teen Help Needed for Summertime Blues
Teen help is a long time coming when it is in the hands of the bureaucrats.
“If drug dealers can organize kids to pick up and drop off drugs on their bikes, can bureaucrats not get their act together?”
Such is the frustrated remark of a Canadian columnist lamenting the lack of attention paid to where teenagers are to spend their time in the summer.
“There’s nowhere for these kids to go. Nobody wants them. They’ve been shooed out of the plazas, shooed from the street corners. People cross the street if they see two or three kids on a corner.
“They’re pariahs. We have a NIMBY (Not in my backyard) attitude towards our youth. They can’t even play basketball at midnight because no neighbourhood wants the noise of kids having a good time in the playground.”
The writer rightly points out that when our kids were young we filled their every waking moment with activities, from pre-school, to soccer, to dance class. Then right when they fall into the teens at risk category we give them very little and bemoan their inability to use their time well.
Why bother with it. Because of the little problem with teen age drug abuse which, unfortunately, can become the pastime of choice for a bored teen.
“I grew up in a tough area in Scarborough,” Hicks says, “and there were two choices — either smoke dope and break into houses or get out of here.
“My Dad registered me for every team going and I didn’t have time to do anything else but go to school, do my stuff and sleep. That’s where I learned about leadership. That made the difference for me.”
What are your teens doing this summer?
Relevant Tags:drug abuse, idle time, teen age drug abuse, teens at risk, teen age, teen help
