Peer Pressure

Peer Pressure, It is funny just how close minded we can be. We use nature/science to our advantage in thousands of ways which, in fact, is the corner stone of our technology yet when it comes to behavior science, behavior problems, we try to ram our way of thinking like pushing butter up a straw with a hot needle.. We figured out that you can clean water of contaminants simply by letting it flow through plant roots; the way nature does it, wetlands they call it, (now we are undoing years of Corp of Engineers work to restore the ‘natural’) we amplify electronic signals by taking advantage of electron valance bonds in atoms and we release tremendous amounts of energy by breaking atoms apart or putting them together, this and millions of other things by simply taking advantage of the way things work, the way things are. But when it comes to human behavior problems particularly in our youth, it is like growing corn by pulling the plant from the seed with pliers, we try to force our will without taking advantage of a single natural characteristics. It is like we are afraid to ‘think’ because indeed that is what we are trying to correct. The reason or the excuse many parents give today for their children’s behavioral problems is ‘peer pressure.’ “He or she is a good kid; they just got in with a bad crowd.” Peer pressure. I say it again. It is true, peer pressure means a lot to all of us, it means we either get accepted or don’t. Go against the masses and you’re left out They call it "saving face" in China and you can get killed over it, wars can be started over it. Peer pressure, it’s real. Politicians must be careful not to 'embarrass the Chinese’ and the wise politician finds a way to make it work in his favor. So, just what is it we are doing with behavior problems, with regards to our children? We do everything in our power to be sure there is no ‘peer pressure’ applied when someone is doing something wrong. You can’t publish the names or pictures of minors or even say their name on the radio, you certainly can’t put a dunce cap on somebody and set them in the corner and now you can’t even publish the names of the people that are good because that means if your not on the list, your bad or under achieving. So when peer pressure has the most effect, it is against the law to use it. When a minor turns 18 their past is sealed, doesn’t count, cannot even be a factor in future court proceedings. Do you think they don’t know that? The delinquents are taking advantage of it, organized crime takes advantage of it, pedophiles & other davits take advantage of it, so why don’t we? We have tens of thousands of people that will tell you what will and won’t work, but they pretty much come from two areas of thinking. The first are the people that have been ‘trained’ in taking care of adolescent problems (and that’s working out well, isn’t it [sic]). They have been taught this is the way to fix things and now they are the court certified “experts” and there is just no changing their minds. Send just about anyone to school on a particular subject for 8 years and they will come back repeating what the learned. Then there are the parents. They have no training only their own and use their personal ‘gut’ feeling on how you should treat a behavior problem. They don’t want their child labeled something and have the child and/or the parent will be embarrassed PEER PRESSURE if the child has a criminal record. We should make peer pressure work for us and not against us for a change and I would be willing to wager that I’m right; it has always been the smart thing to do, it worked with everything else, I don’t know why this would be any different. The problem is some politician is afraid he won’t be elected when people find out it is his kid that has been doing the mischief in the neighborhood which is often the case. I say if you break the law plaster their name and picture all over the place. That makes peer pressure work for you. Most won’t do it twice.