Helping difficult children

Mar 11, 2016 Editorial, Features / Columnists

In Guyana, as in almost all other countries, children are considered the most precious gifts to parents and society as a whole. They are welcome in every culture as a continuance of the human race. But the realistic and deep-rooted determinants do play their part from the early years and later in life.
Some are born into wealth while others know only abject poverty. Several children are born difficult, many have become difficult, and countless just have difficulties thrust upon them by the trappings of society.
Every parent or guardian of children knows that it can be a tough and sometimes unrewarding job to raise a child to become a good human being. As such, everyone should have some sympathy for parents who have found it very difficult to raise their offspring.
This is where the extended family can help to teach and support parents and guardians who have shortcomings, on how to raise a child properly. Be that as it may, every parent wants to raise their children to be decent and productive in society.
The fact that children do not grow or develop themselves means that adults and society must accept responsibility for a lot of what children become as they turn young adults. Parenting in general requires great skills, but most of all it requires the ability to love and to care for children.
Not all parents can do either of these things because of their own life experiences or state of mental, emotional or physical health. The damage inflicted on one generation of children, because of parental ineptitude can be reproduced through following generations as the result of a long process of the lack of care for children. This may well be part of what the society is currently experiencing from some youths in terms of violence and crime.
Society, and not just teachers, must recognize difficult children and make space for them within the educational and social systems. Almost every adult who has seen the increasing problem that society has with young people has advocated tough penalties for them such as imprisonment, instead of pressuring the State to help them by providing more services. Every generation has its own style of dress code and how to behave and conduct themselves in society. Therefore, society should not abandon this generation.
Schools are the learning centres of children, and while the difficult child does not necessarily emerge out of the schooling process, the education children receive may very well contribute to their frustrations. Education should not only be formal but also sufficiently creative, given that the rapid changes in society which, to a large extent, are dictated by technological advances should be integrated into the education system as they occur.
There is always a lag between what children are taught and what they learn, and that is to be expected, since most of the public schools are experiencing a shortage of qualified and trained teachers. It is imperative for the government to hasten to revolutionize the educational system into a 21st century one for school-aged children and the post-school aged people.
Schools must harness the volumes of information and life experiences that are instantly available in the social media and the Internet. More importantly, teachers must make learning more attractive to the difficult child. However, many public schools seem to be way behind the technological changes that would help educate the difficult child. Public schools should have supplementary programmes for difficult children, and cultural programmes should be made part of the curricula in order to strengthen and support difficult children as they progress.
It is hard for difficult children to transition into adulthood without the proper parental guidance and schooling to support their career ambitions. The education system in Guyana is still somewhat outdated; it has to be much more holistic to help the difficult children cope in society. This is long overdue, it cannot be delayed.

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Helping difficult children

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