Sunday, July 9, 2006

Smile, Goddammit!

LONDON (AFP) - Some 2,000 pupils at English state schools are to have special classes in happiness under a pilot scheme aimed at cutting depression, self-harm and anti-social behavior. "The move comes as experts warn that record numbers of young people are on the verge of mental breakdown as a result of family break-up, exam pressures and growing inability to cope with the pressures of modern life," the report said.
OK, kids ... Lesson number 1 ... It doesn't get any easier. Families will still break-up, exam pressures are replaced by work pressures and the pressures of modern life don't change much once you become an adult. If it takes a breathing lesson or a role-playing exercise to get you through it, more power to you. To me, it sounds like turning the radio up when you hear a noise in your car. A symptom is treated while the disease goes merrily onward.
What is really sad is that kids are feeling the pressures of modern life. I don't remember going through any of that, so maybe the world is changing after all. There is a limited amount of time in our lives where we can relax and let the world revolve around us, and that time draws to a close once we get near adulthood. One aspect of modern life piles on top of the other, until sometimes the pressure gets too much to bear for even the strongest.
A lifetime of work is followed by the promise of severe government-funded poverty in our "Golden Years". Drive past a gas station, look at your property tax bill, pay for cable TV, cell phones and other such modern necessities and the whole "modern life" scenario looks less and less appealing. To see that children are having trouble coping now doesn't bode well for the rest of their lives.
Coping with societal-induced depression is a noble cause, but I have to wonder why it is necessary at all. Perhaps the children aren't the ones who need to change.
Not very funny today. Sorry.

3 comments:

Pam said...

"Perhaps the children aren't the ones who need to change."

EXACTLY!!

Kate Michele said...

What the need is a class for all the mean snoby kids that push normal kids over the edge!!!

When I was in school it was more the rich snoby kids that said mean things and who would have their parents "fix" things if their grades were to low to play their sport or if they got caught drinking at the sport game they were playing in!!!

Their group made more kids' lives hell than any family breakup!!

But I do agree with you that its us that needs to change, but more over its the society we live in, we're conforming to it to get by.

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