An Observation on Youth
Submitted by Joe Liccar on May 18, 2009 - 10:19pm
Before I throw out my observation....my last blog had a trivia question I need to answer for you.
Which brothers combined for the most Home runs in Major league baseball?
The Answer: The Aaron brothers. 768 home runs Henry hit 755 and Tommie 13. Interestingly Tommie was in the big leagues from '62 - 71 and 8 of those homers were in one season. When I first heard this question I thought it was either the Dimaggios (Joe and Dom) or the Alou Brothers (Matty, Felipe and Jesus).
OBSERVATION:
This past Sunday at mass, a 9 year old boy and his Mom were in the pew in front of me. The boy was engaged in an activity book most of the service that required drawing in it. I couldn't help but notice on the pages were, draw your own tribal mask, draw places you'd like to go, design your own tattoo.
Not to be judgemental of this parent, but I got to thinking. is this the type of thing that helps promote and nurture Attention Defecit Disorder (A.D.D.) which seems to be so prevelant today in our kids? One hour a week to go church and maybe learn something or become inspired and this kid is encouraged to multi-task?
What are the bloggers thoughts on this?
- Joe Liccar's blog
- Login or register to post comments
Filed under:
Comments
I have 5 kids and a wife. 1 of my sons and my wife have ADD and another son has ADHD. After seeing everything that they have gone through as well as the doctor's visits, this isn't something that you can learn, it's a chemical imbalance issue.
I was with you about the ADD for a couple of years, but after trying everything and it's grandma, of which nothing worked, I realized that I couldn't force or coerce them into doing what everybody else considers "normal". My wife would be just fine if we had a 36 hour day. She would sleep for 12-15 hours, then spend the rest of that time awake. Unfortuntaely, everybody else doesn't work like that.
I wouldn't say that ADD is any more prevalent today than it was a 100 years ago, but look at what was going on a 100 years ago. You got up and worked all day. You didn't sit in a cubicle all day staring at screens. In fact, you didn't stare at a screen period. When you went somewhere, there was lots of time to look around and see stuff. Everything now is fast fast fast get it done.
Anyway, just thought I would throw that out there. If that kid was still doing that at the age of 12 or so I would think something was up, but if the kid was under 10, I'm not seeing any kind of issue with it. I have yet to see a 9 year old inspired by much.
Normal
0
Being a person who has stood at the podium and tried to deliver a meaningful message to the ADULTS in the room who are NOT paying attention. I was always relieved when parent would provide the appreate distraction for their child so I could deliver my message.
We always had a junior church for our kids and after announcements and awards etc. we would excuse them to junior church. I also taught junior church and U go about getting them a message in and entirely different manor. So Don’t be to hard on the parent they were doing the speaker a favor…
Perhaps, but they were not doing the child any favors. Polite attention to the speaker can be a learned trait and is required of some "orators". A church "cry room" is for infants who can't be expected to be quite, it is not for older children who can and should be taught the mores of society.
Normal
0
Yes but I have prepared sermons for various groups of all ages and what I present to the lady’s group is not what I prepare for the men’s retreat week-end talk on Sat night,
I can preach on Jonah to adults and to youth & kids and it’s an entirely different talk.
If we want to make the most of a persons time in church we have learned over the years to Taylor the message to the group, That way everyone get s the most out of what is said.
It works and everyone seems to like it better. Besides if the young person was sitting there drawing who is to say he wasn’t hearing what was being said? Muilty tasking???
There are some highly intelligent "gifted" kids and those with short attention spans, that literally need to multi task or bounce their legs to learn. Research into ADHD and ADD and other issues. These kids may also simply be evolving to conform by necessity, we did not grow up with 800 channels or computers bleeping all around us, our streets were safe to play on, and technology had not yet thoroughly emerged in our day to day lives.
Realize that todays kids will have much more flashing around them and going on than we could ever imagine. With the numbers of these "issues" on the rise, I can't help but to look at it as a change in our species to be able to manage the world as adults.
An excellent book on this matter is Right Brained Children in a left brained world. They tend to be much more visual learners, and need that extra bounce to stimulate their thinking. They actually see "deeper" into things, a word to them seems multi dimensional. There is nothing wrong with a right hemisphere thinker, it's the world that will ultimately have to bend to make room for them. Just as those left handed were once yelled at to hold their pens in their right hand, right brained kids are often ostracized simply for not being like the others.
Simply put, these children's nueral pathways are adapting and changing to their world, and they are equally as adept as other children with text, with images. Some times, more adept.
www.gifteddevelopment.com/Visual_Spatial_Learner/articles.htm
You could be right. ADD may in some cases be a trained response to boredom. It is the parents responsibility to teach the child that some things require our attention even if the activity has little interest to us. Giving a child a means of diversion, simply because it is easier on the parent than to insist on the child's attention, teaches inattention and leads to a life of escapism, always looking for other avenues of amusement and, in a sense, direliction of duty.