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Monday, August 11, 2008
Learn from the mistakes of others
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Our children, from every corner of the county, are apparently not being taught - or not getting the message - about making the right choices in life.
Growing up, one thing I more or less mastered was learning from other’s mistakes. I also learned (sometimes the hard way) not to repeat my own mistakes a second time.
I think the problem with many children today is… exposure and the costly effect of bad choices.
The AJC Gwinnett News recently reported a whole host of issues in various middle and high schools, including students’ arrests for crimes ranging from drugs and alcohol to weapons charges to reckless and disorderly conduct.
I remember, it was either first or second grade, we took a class trip to the Orange County Jail in Orlando for a tour. We got the typical be “good or else” talk, but what they did at the end was what left a lasting impression. They took my class down into the jail itself, opened up one of their larger cells with a few beds, a toilet out in the open and a bench, shut the door and walked away for a good 30 minutes with true inmates just a few cells down from ours.
The message was you act up and this is where you’ll end up. I’ve never been arrested.
Every student should be required to make such a trip, every year if necessary.
In a 2006 entry, I wrote about AID Gwinnett and mentioned how two 15 year olds had tested positive for HIV about two months prior to my report. Many young people do not even know they are carriers of the disease.
Those cases, and hundreds more like them across the US, could have been avoided through real sex education beyond teaching abstinence. Teens need to see the true results of risky sexual behavior and not the fallacy of Abercrombie and Fitch type models that adorn some drug companies’ advertisements.
I have seen the impact that HIV/AIDS can have on a person. I’ve lost friends to the disease.
They told me how they got it, and went out of their way to make sure I didn’t repeat their mistakes. I listened.
Our youth need exposure to all the harsh realities of life. So many parents and schools go out of their way to protect them from those realities when, really, by doing so, does them more harm than good.
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