Student Counseling
The Governor or Rhode Island in her State of the State yesterday said that students have far too many mental health challenges, due to the complexity and speed of our times. She wants to spend money on attending to these somehow.
When I was of the age she’s alluding to now, I faced:
• The Viet Nam War
• The Cuban Missile Crisis
• Bullying without any intervention options
• Woodstock
• The first moon landing
• Assassination of John Kennedy
• Assassination of Martin Luther King
• Assassination of Robert Kennedy
• Urban riots and flames in major cities
I did not have:
• A cell phone
• My own car
• Parents protesting too much homework
• Effective guidance counseling (these were teachers just looking to make more money, one suggesting to my wife, in ignorance, that she apply to a traditionally black university)
• The ACLU representing every grievance I might have, including someone uttering a religious phrase
• Crisis counselors
We don’t have students trying to deal with more complexity and disruption today, we have students who are coddled, protected, and told they should feel comfortable being self-centered and self-absorbed, never have to respect the flag, and free to mock religion. We have students being told that academic excellence doesn’t matter, and that the valedictorian should be eliminated, that they all should be rewarded for just showing up.
Of course, then those students hit real-world, competitive capitalism, and THEN they need mental counseling, and for good reason.
© Alan Weiss 2019
