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One of the great things about being young is that you have, or should have, so much to look forward to: Career, independence, love, family. Okay, it doesn't turn out that way for everyone; I, too, have had disappointments. There are times when one needs self-care and self-sustenance.
But a statistic I read the other day, from an important article in the Green Bay Press-Gazette (as reprinted in a Door County paper), shook me pretty hard. The first sentence will do: "One in 10 Wisconsin teenagers have attempted suicide over the last three years."
One in 10. Ten percent. The high school in which I taught had, with few exceptions, at least a thousand students each year, in a town not very big. In a school of a thousand kids, in the scope of three-fourths of their high school experience, a hundred of those kids would have attempted suicide, or about four classrooms full. The report did not say what percentage of that percentage succeeded.
By any measurement, that is staggering. Let's go on with the same paragraph: "More than one-third of high schoolers feel sad or hopeless." In that same school of a thousand kids, more than three hundred of them don't think the future holds much hope.
End of paragraph: "Half of Wisconsin youths have been diagnosed with depression, anxiety or behavior problems." Half. In a school of a thousand students, five hundred.
The Wisconsin Office of Children's Mental Health, an agency of the Department of Health Service, made that report. You can guess what weighs on kids' minds nowadays for them to conclude that hope has disappeared into a big, black hole:
- Academic pressures
- Widespread gun violence
- Racism and discrimination (especially with respect to anti-LGBTQ policies)
- Political divisiveness
- Climate change
And some stressors that broadly impact families:
- Lack of child care options
- Financial insecurity
- Food insecurity
- Housing instability
How have the kids coped? They've grasped at the first things to allow them to escape, like vaping and their cell phones. The report says that kids average three hours a day in looking at screens unconnected to their schoolwork; it's true of three-fourths of them.
As one might expect, the rural kids are in the most trouble. Resources for them to deal with their issues are largely unavailable; they make up 70% of those who live in a child care desert. Where do they turn?
Of course, this doesn't stop when the kids become older. Nearly 40% of all Wisconsin adults aged 18 to 25 are experiencing mental illness. The report says that fewer of them went through school without an adult they could trust; they didn't have a sense of belonging in their schools; and there aren't enough school counselors to handle this overload. Kids may go to school to learn things, but they take their personal issues with them.
The article goes on to suggest what you might guess: More help, encouragement, more and better sleep. And good news: Teenage drinking and pregnancy and bullying rates are down; peer-led wellness programs are up. But taking on the issues above are daunting. Their relentless onslaught can't be defeated without recognizing their source--the adults who've caused them. Otherwise, it's like getting a new pair of mittens for the recent cold snap we've had; they'll work for a while, but frigid is frigid. One needs to get indoors. One needs to be safe.
Safety: We say we want that for kids. But how can we provide it in the depths of their minds when they know that things are contrary? How can they manufacture hope when the adults have let them down so much and so often?
This is beyond mere boosting where we've neglected it. Kids aren't stupid. They grow into their circumstances. We are leaving behind a world that is far more challenging than anything we've experienced--when it should be far less. Our generation, the boomers, have created a world that looks more and more not as a potential shangri-la, but a trap.
No wonder. We should be lucky the number's just ten percent (6% eight years ago; that's bad enough). We have work to do before our time is up: Serious, complicated work that will have to involve cooperation and a sense of community, which these kids sorely lack. Only then will the world around them look positive enough, and have enough hope for them to look past ending it rather than take it on. How sad to want to escape it. How tragic.
Be well. Be careful. With some luck, I'll see you down the road.
Mister Mark
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