Ed. Note: Peter Benson, Ph.D.*, gave the Underwood Lecture at the University of
Houston on April 21, 2000, on the present status of children in America. A reader attended
the lecture and submitted the following notes.
Benson’s presentation centered on his belief
that children succeed as fully functioning human beings only when supported by the
community in which they are growing up. He presented a number of anecdotes and
statistics, which suggest that today’s children are growing up in isolation
from the community.
Quotation from Lillian Katz:
"The welfare of our children and grandchildren is
intimately connected with the welfare of all children. . . If they have a heart
attack someone else’s child will be their doctor; if they are the victim of a crime,
someone else’s child will be the perpetrator."
Statistic:
64% of youth (ages 12 – 18) engage in high risk behavior (alcohol, drugs,
sex, etc.)
Key belief:
Culture is transmitted to a new generation by embedding children in
relationships.
Noted about our culture:
We are the most age-segregated culture ever. Most American kids do not
have relationships with adults (other than immediate family) that last longer than a year.
Children are raised by their peers and the media in towns and cities of all sizes in
America.
Anecdote:
An eighth grader speaking to Dr. Benson was asked what the most important event in
her development had been. She replied, "It happened just a few weeks ago. My
fourth grade teacher saw me in the mall and called me by name." Dr. Benson
thinks that knowing youth well enough to speak with them and call them by name is very
unusual for most adults.
Georgetown experiment:
The principal of a middle school posted the names of all 900 students on cards around the
walls of the gym. He gave each of the 100 staff members (half were teachers) 10 gold
stars. He asked each staff member to put a star on the card of a student whom they knew
well enough to speak to by name if they saw them in the mall. One-fourth of the students
got most of the stars. One-fourth more had one or two stars. The remaining 50
percent, 450 students, got NO stars, which means none of the staff knew them by name.
Another key to understanding American culture:
Americans tend to frame things in the negative (what’s wrong with instead of what is
good about). This leads to disengagement. We accept that something is wrong, we don’t
attempt to do anything positive about it. Let’s change the language.
Yes, let’s reduce the risks to our children. But
let’s also increase the availability of asset-building factors.
Statistic:
Benson has a list of what he calls "assets," activities and situations
which help children grow and develop. The LEAST common asset which children had access to,
he found, was the one which he describes as: "Engages in creative activity at least 3
hours per week." Only 19% of children surveyed did this. Further, young males are
much less likely to do so than females.
Statistic:
The average number of the 40 assets in Dr. Benson’s paradigm for the typical 6
through 12th grader is 18. Girls have 19, Boys 17. Small towns are no better
than big cities in providing assets to their young.
Neighborhood today are organized such the residents
do not know children growing up in the neighborhood. Since even our faith communities are
age segregated, they do not provide an alternative to the neighborhood.
END
*Peter Benson is director of the Searth
Institute, a research organization in Minneapolis devoted to children's issues. You can
find out more here.
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