September 11th, 2007 Toasted
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Social anxiety is an ever-increasing problem, especially with Internet technology making it easier and easier to talk to someone that you’ll likely never, ever see face-to-face. This has resulted in people that are better adjusted to social situations where they will not be hindered by their social anxiety. While social anxiety is a major problem, particularly because quite a bit of professional success in today’s world requires a bit of social adaptation, most people don’t really worry about social anxiety as long as it doesn’t give the family status anxiety.
The Japanese, probably due to cultural differences, tend to draw their social anxiety inwards. This is best exemplified by the otaku and hikikomori phenomenon there, though these “conditions” have started to manifest in societies outside of the Far East. This can be interpreted to mean that more and more people are withdrawing socially, as society and modern civilization puts more and more pressure on them. After all, even if they are engaging in socially deviant behavior, they’re not really harming anyone but themselves. For most people, as long as those with social anxiety are not capable of doing any harm to anyone, then they can either just be ignored or be bullied by their social “superiors.”
However, what happens when that social anxiety builds, the stress compounds, and it has no other place to go but out? In theory, social anxiety alone is not going to result in someone lashing out violently, but it can play a major role in such an event.
Take the Columbine School Shooting, as perpetrated by Dylan Klebold and Eric Harris. The two of them were reported to have been socially ostracized and made fun of by their more sociable peers. While certainly not the only factor that served as motivation for their bloody assault on their fellow students, the fact that they intended to target their social tormentors is a telling sign of just how big a factor their social status in the school was. The sheer violence of their act has sometimes been interpreted as a reaction to the unfair treatment that they received in comparison to the “jocks” of the school. The fact that their lack of athletic ability, their introverted personalities, and their attempts to seek help from school administrators to stop the bullying were ignored likely just aggravated them. In fact, despite the incident, there are reports that the same bullies who pushed Klebold and Harris over the edge are still continuing their bullying ways, with school authorities turning a blind eye to the infractions of their “star players.”
Stress and anxiety can also play a factor when someone lashes out violently against the people around them. Dealing with bureaucracy in the workplace, problems at home, or even just a really bad day at work can cause someone to snap, find the nearest available weapon, and start trying to kill the people around him. This can be made worse by social anxiety, as this condition prevents him from truly connecting to people and forming meaningful relationships, which can help alleviate a person’s stress and worries. Without any means of alleviating their stress and anxiety, disgruntled employees can just show up one day with a submachine gun in hand and start killing the people that they work with each day. Some say this lethal concoction of factors led to Patrick Sherrill to shoot several co-workers in the US Postal Service before shooting himself back in 1986.
No one is safe from the dangers of someone whose mind can no longer take the pressure and lashes out violently. There are some jobs and cultures where such acts are less likely to occur, but there will always be that small chance. There is no definite formula to see if a particular employee will snap or if a certain company is more likely to experience such violence. The fact is, the very specific and “snap” nature of such events can make it nearly impossible to detect the people likely to do this. For school shootings, the events have a tendency to be planned ahead by the perpetrators, but there is no such “warning sign” for the office environment. Often, the stress and anxiety just builds to a level where the only way to relieve it, in the person’s mind, is to commit extreme violence.
Social anxiety typically makes people turn inwards, containing their problems and their worries within themselves. However, there are certain times when the pressure has built up too much, and all that anger and fear has nowhere to go but out. In the worst of cases, these outbursts are violent.
Article Source: ABC Article Directory
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September 10th, 2007 Toasted
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The cry for more youth program opportunities can be heard clear across America. Each year, advocates point out the growing needs of youth and young adults and the lack of programs and services to meet those needs. I, too, am guilty. My call of foul at the 250,000 federally funded program slots for the 5.4 million out-of-school youth is a staple of my presentations to policymakers across the U.S.
“How can we expect any progress in reducing gang violence and youth unemployment, or expect to quell the dropout rate if we only have enough program slots to serve 3% of the 14-21 year old eligible population!” Many echo my outcry, and I usually continue by addressing the real crux of the problem. “We don’t have a gang problem in the United States; we have a youth opportunity problem!” I have touted this cry from boardrooms in Seattle to the hoods in South Florida, always receiving a response of thunderous applause.
Despite the strong audience affirmation, I still find myself walking away and feeling as though something is missing. Why? Many of us were part of the movement to bring positive youth development to youth workforce programs across the U.S., making sure we serve youth differently than adults, and taking into account their developmental needs, assets, and the different stages of their development. Surely there is no disputing the fact that there is a need for more programs and opportunities for young people to grow into healthy, positive adults. So, what is lacking? Where is the breakdown?
Despite our best efforts at incorporating positive youth development we forgot one thing: incorporating youth. The sad reality is that many of our youth development and youth workforce programs struggle to get youth in the doors. Yes, I know this is a subject that we do not like to discuss. However, it is a subject that must be raised in the research and policy agenda in order to reach a viable solution. Of the millions of youth who desperately need education and workforce development in their lives, few are turning to the programs and services that can lead to better lives and opportunities. Those that do come often don’t stay.
Now I know a few of you are crying foul. However, it is my experience that those of you who cry foul are able to offer youth $300 or more every two weeks for attending. In fact, engagement has translated to money, at least for some. In this fact lies our advocacy dilemma. Advocating for more money and resources in a system that cannot engage the youth it is intended to serve is a lesson in futility.
School Accountability: What about us?
If the educational system is forced to be more accountable, so should youth development and workforce programs. Let me break it down like a fraction - No Child Left Behind is exposing the incredible achievement gap that currently exists within the United States. The National Governors Association recommendation for states to recalculate dropout rates has exposed a national travesty: 50% of African-American and Latino youth drop out of high school.
The exposure doesn’t stop there however. The Beginning Post-secondary Students Longitudinal Study reported that only 31% of students who entered community college in 1995-1996 with the intention of earning a degree or certificate had met their goal six years later. For African-American and Latino students the rate is much lower.
As if that weren’t enough of a factor, Congress is trying to rescind 65 million of WIA funds partly because of unspent funds. While there are many excuses for why funds are unspent, the reality is that many programs have no youth to spend them on. It seems that despite the weeding out of those who are not serious, along with those who constantly whine or refuse to work with adjudicated youth, or youth in the foster care system, programs still can’t get it right. Once again, the question hangs out there-why?
Why?
Perhaps the most important program element is engagement. Without effective and consistent engagement efforts, programs can never meet expected outcomes. The primary challenge youth service providers face in implementing effective engagement strategies is to stop blaming engagement difficulties on young people’s deficiencies, but instead recognize that it is the deficiencies of the programs themselves. Building a youth engagement system in much different from incorporating positive youth development principles into program design.
A youth engagement system is a commitment to a set of principles and practices sustained by policy and sufficient resources, dedicated to creating an authentic and culturally competent service delivery system where young people feel valued as stakeholders and are compelled to invest in active and meaningful participation towards mutual goals. In short, we need a youth driven workforce preparation system, not an employer driven one– time and statistics have proven that’s not working!
In order to do this, organizations need to build and strengthen the routes (and in some cases open them) for young people to be fully engaged in the decisions, opportunities and challenges affecting their communities. One of the largest miscalculations that youth employment programs make is to attempt to provide services to the at-risk populations without first developing an intimate understanding of what truly motivates and interests this special group.
In The Silent Epidemic: Perspectives on High School Dropouts, Bill Gates tells us the most reported reason why youth are dropping out of school. They are bored with education! Sounds like something we could have figured out on our own, right? Probably, however that is only part of the story. What Mr. Microsoft failed to tell us is that they are not bored with education; they are just bored with the education and job training we subject them to. Youth are literally handing us the manual to how to help them become successful, but is anyone reading the pages? Not only is it time to realize that up until this point, the method used to increase youth engagement is not just flawed, it’s broken. If we want to make a change, it is we that must make changes, using their lead as a path to getting it right.
Youth advocate and expert, Edward DeJesus reveals how the drop-out problem is not only regulated to high schools. He gives advice on what must be done to help America effectively engage youth in education and work programs.
Article Source: ABC Article Directory
Edward DeJesus is one of the most sought after speakers on the issue of youth engagement and development. For the past 15 years, he has been helping organizations improve student recruitment, retention and engagement. To learn more about Ed, visit www.ydrf.com
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