Honey’s Story

Post-Gazette.com

Here’s a good story for you. Honey was a shelter dog, described as black and white, who gave birth to a litter of 6 pups. She was splashed over dozens of print and through other media as she stepped up, or the shelter offered her up, to serve as a surrogate to nine African painted dog pups at the Pittsburgh Zoo, when their own mother died while giving birth.

Go honey go! I imagine she is quite tired after serving two families.

What a wonderful story. Not just for Honey. But, for shelter dogs everywhere. And, for us. It doesn’t matter your pedigree nor your social status in the way you can give- and be recognized. We should all heed this call.

Can you imagine how many people now want to adopt Honey? You see when someone, or something, is brought to the limelight we pay more attention. When people, or in this case Honey, does a good deed- we watch and applaud.

What “Honey-like” thing have you done lately? How have you served others, those unrelated to you?

Let’s all be like Honey. No matter where we came from. No matter what our current status. Let’s stand up, do something wonderful and welcome the recognition. It could change our world.

For more on the story see: http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/09308/1010601-455.stm

Failed Systems and Positive Reinforcement

I was really appalled by the tragic story of a young woman being attacked at her high school dance in Richmond California the other week. As a psychologist I am familiar with, although do not condone, the social workings of individuals in groups who watch crimes but do not report them nor help the victim. It was such a heinous crime with so many opportunities for people to do the right thing, and they all failed. I applaud the young woman who finally notified authorities when she heard people talking about the crime. She did the right thing.

But, as I was reading about the case a few statistics popped out at me. According to a report from CBS News (linked in this blog title), Richmond High School has a truancy rate of 69% AND had 19 student murders last year. You can read that again if you need to. It bears re-reading.

Now, if this isn’t a “failed state” or entity I haven’t yet seen one. This is a broken system. The billion dollar question is what do you do with a poor system?

What would you do if your business was broke? Your family wasn’t working? I am hoping the answer is to realign the priorities and make sure the members are on board. Bring in the experts to fix the problem. Who the experts are is a matter for another book, let alone blog.

The answer is NOT to positively reinforce school failure with dances and other unnecessary social elements when the basics of education are not being met. We do not need to throw gold stars at failing systems. I was sickened to read one school official quoted as saying the “dance was a success”. Ask the victim if she agrees with that.

(If I were Queen for a day) I would recommend this school be taken over immediately, by some entity- we can argue which one- that can instill order and ensure that students are afforded the basic necessities of a good education: safety, books and materials, teachers, counselors, discipline and order, respect, a learning environment, etc… All other elements are unnecessary.

Wow. You might be saying. You’re tough! I am. I am also the product of an alternative school. My high school had only the necessary elements listed above. We didn’t have dances. We didn’t have sports teams and mascots. We didn’t have elements that set people up for failure (including events that attract drinking and trespassers). We had books, teachers, and a whole lot of learning. We all chose to be there for 3 to 6 hours a day and then most of us went to work somewhere for the remainder of the day. If you missed 3 days (without a medical excuse) you were out. Out. You couldn’t come back. Yes, this was a public school.

Don’t reward failed states, failed systems. It’s adding fuel to the fire. Get control of what you can. Find others to do what you can’t.

Know your numbers. 69% truancy is not something to be proud of.