Silencio

I was thinking back to when I was in 7th grade. My family had just moved to Perry, Michigan from Saginaw, Michigan. My father was a pastor in the Church of the Nazarene, so we moved around quite a bit. We only lived in Saginaw for about a year and had lived in our previous home in Bradford, Ohio for a mere 8 months.

I remember sitting in my 7th grade math class for two days thinking to myself, "this stuff is easy, do I really belong in this class?" It took another day or so to work up the courage to talk to my teacher after class. I don't remember exactly how that conversation went, but I made her know that I probably shouldn't be in this class. I was transferred to the pre-Algebra class where I felt much more challenged and where I also met my best friend in middle school.

I was relating this story to my work, thinking about all of the kids that don't have a voice or the courage to tell someone they are where they don't belong. I remember working at Indian Oaks Academy in Manteno, Illinois--a residential treatment facility for teenage sex offenders. So many of those kids were so hurt and so doped up that even if they wanted to tell you something, they couldn't. All that came out was a "Fuck you mothafucka," and then a fist or thrown desk.

How many of our children get lost in this system?

What's easier than actually talking to our children about what's going on, helping them learn how to talk about why they're cursing and throwing things and hitting people? Well it's so much easier to prescribe Wellbutrin, Adderrall, Zyprexa, Lexapro, Ridalin, etc.--the miracle drugs of our time that help our children behave. So that instead of teaching healthy ways of coping with anger, depression, anxiety, stress, we are creating a generation of chemically dependent kids.

Will this not be a health crisis some day? Is this not a health crisis right now? Have our children lost their voice? Have we ever tried to give them one? Or is it easier just to silence them?