WHAT THE WORLD NEEDS NOW - Is Guidance.

I took a job at the front desk, of an agency that dealt with homelessness in the area. It was a simple front desk job, that turned into an eye-opening, unpleasant, painful, and short-lived experience.

Quite frankly I was unable to deal with the level of pain, anger, and dysfunction, that would inherently come from trying to help this many people in these kinds of stressful situations.

Teenagers with tiny children and no home, people living with infestation, people harassed, sexually abused, and lied to by their landlords, sick or unemployed people and others being evicted for some reason, people who were scammed and lost everything…. under-served mentally ill people, angry, neglected, and unable to cope; even criminals… all of them with unique and individual needs and dire circumstances that self-sufficient, law-abiding citizens don’t even think about.

What’s more, the numbers of people that felt no responsibility for their own well-being, would knock you to the ground!

I received calls from people that were quite comfortable directing mountains of anger at ME, because I wasn’t doing enough to help them.

It boggles my mind when talking to people in distress, what misguided notions they function under, or how confused they seem to be, or how they completely lack a simple knowledge base.

What’s worse, most of the children in my experience could NOT obtain an education, because they did not CARE.

Many of us lack the necessary drive and motivation it takes to obtain a substantial education. Drive and motivation is so important… it cannot be understated. It must also be taught.

I’m convinced that what people who are not self-sufficient are lacking, is the original guidance and discipline that we all need, that we are still not getting from our parents and our education system.

And it doesn’t take much to see…. as we are teaching less and less of the necessary stuff, our problems will likely get worse, as we try to convince ourselves that a truncated education system is not crippling our envisioned ideals, of what we want for our society and our world.

From gym class, to social etiquette and common courtesy, to financial management and planning, to civics and political science, to shop class, to critical thinking, to music and art, to mental and physical wellness, to parenting and child-rearing, to interpersonal communication…

If we don’t start teaching our people what they need to know in order to survive successfully, more of us will have jobs trying to help people that basically cannot be helped.

And more of our money will be wasted trying to fix, what we should be smart enough to prevent.

All of this can be fixed… all of this can be taught.

The prevention of poverty is key. Education is the only answer.

Let’s advocate for the education of every single child. Full education. From age zero to age 18. Or 22. Or more.

And training for all parents - like pre-cana for child-rearing.

Free, unencumbered, and practically mandatory.

Whatever it takes, to create the Great Society about which we really only talk.