Our Greatest Asset

When we think about wealth, immediately we think in terms of money, investments, savings and those who are wealthy. When I hear reports of school shootings, children being tried and incarcerated for murder, drugs and a barrage of other crimes, it is apparent that what has become lost amongst the things we have considered to bring wealth, is our most valuable asset, our children. I found some disturbing statistics from many experts on children and child develop. The comments and statistics that I’ve found were:

"Students ages 12-18 were victims of about 2 million nonfatal crimes of violence or theft at school in 2001. Over the 5 year period from 1997 through 2001 teachers were victims of approximately 1.3 million nonfatal crimes at school, including 817,000 thefts and 473,000 violence crimes... It was also reported that “9 percent of all elementary and secondary schools teacher were threatened with an injury by a student, and 4 percent were physically attacked by a student.” The US National Center for Education Statistics.

"More than a third of American Children experience their parents divorce before reaching 18. … In general children who have recently experienced a family dissolution have a more difficult time with academic and social expectations at school than children from intact families or established single parent or blended families.” The Journal of Instructional Psychology

"57% of expulsions for bringing firearms to school involved high school students. 33% involved junior/middle schools, and 10% involved elementary school students. (Gun-Free Schools Act Report: School Year 1998-1999, U.S. Department of Education, October 2002)

These are only a few of the frighting incidences of what is happening to our children. These tragic events are affecting all of our children in some aspect of their lives. What have experts found to be the causes of such disturbing events?

Lack of Discipline

Media producing violent movies, television shows and games.

Lack of family communication

Lack of times by parents to do things to bond with their children.

Lack of parental supervision on use of the internet.

These are the causes that have been linked by professionals to the serious problems of our children. By addressing these issues as parents we can protect our greatest asset.

Gloria Kaiser

www.fancybooks.com

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