DEVELOP YOUR TALENTS

I read the speech President Obama gave to the nation’s schoolchildren yesterday. I thought it was a very good speech that every school child should have listened to. There was absolutely no reason why parents should have been concerned about letting their children listen to the president’s speech.

Unfortunately, the White House initially included a suggested lesson plan which called for the students to write to the president and tell him how they could help him achieve his goals. That was a stupid move on the part of the White House and led to a shit-storm of protests, not about the lesson plan, but about the speech itself.

The White House quickly eliminated the questionable lesson plan. But that did not stop the protests which continued to be fuelled by a number of Republican party leaders and by Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity and other far-right talking heads, much to their discredit. As someone who disagrees with many of Obama’s policies, especially those concerning Israel, I am appalled at those who are so quick to oppose anything Obama does, even when he seems to be right.

A couple of passages from Obama’s speech – "Every single one of you has something you’re good at" and "We need every single one of you to develop your talents, skills ….." – reminded me of something I heard a prominent child psychologist utter some 40 years ago.

My boss and I were ordered to represent the state’s parole system at a special seminar conducted by this psychologist at the University of Southern California.

Why? Beats me - we dealt only with adult parolees. Almost everyone else in the audience of several hundred was a social worker. That’s why we chose to sit at the back of the auditorium.

To give you some idea about what kind of a jerk this psychologist was, let me start off by describing what she did in front of the hundreds in attendance. I can’t remember why she did it but I do remember what happened. This psychologist had a single mother on welfare and her three or four little children appear on stage. She questioned the children about their mother’s lifestyle and got them to tell us about all the different "boyfriends" their mother was sleeping with.

The mother was utterly humiliated and brought to tears. My boss and I looked at each other in amazement and deliberately gagged out loud, causing dozens of social workers within earshot to give us their version of "if looks could kill" reaction.

During another part of the seminar, this psychologist gave us a lesson on how to deal with juveniles who had committed a crime. She emphasized that we should never berate the little shits for their wrongdoings. Instead, she told us to compliment them for their unlawful skills and suggest they channel them into legitimate endeavors.

She advocated complimenting a car thief for his hot-wiring skills and suggest he use those skills to become an auto mechanic. She also advocated complimenting a car burglar for his skills in ripping off car radios and suggest he use those skills to become an electronics technician.

That woman must wake up in a new world every morning. The adult parolees we were dealing with were the ones she wanted complimented for their criminal skills when they were juveniles. When we laughed at her ridiculous suggestions, we received more of those "if looks could kill" reactions.

Now back to Obama’s passages - "Every single one of you has something you’re good at" and "We need every single one of you to develop your talents, skills ….." Unfortunately, in the nation’s inner-city schools, the only talents many students are interested in are those associated with crime.

We still have lots of juvenile car thieves. Schoolchildren still burglarize cars to rip off stereos, GPS units, lap-top computers and cell phones. Many of them are very skillful drug dealers. Others are quite talented in car jackings, home invasions, convenience store robberies, drive-by shootings, muggings, burglaries and whatever.

Do we want these schoolchildren to develop those talents that they’re so good at? I don’t think so! And I don't think for one minute that the president's speech will get those schoolchildren to channel their unlawful talents into legitimate endeavors.