Why aren't our kids staying in school?

What an interesting question. I'm currently exploring what it takes to KEEP our children hungry for the place in which they spend 35-50 hours a week. The place they call school.

My daughter is a straight A student at a wonderful public school in Decatur, GA.  Yet, last year she came home distraught after a fellow second grader called her "a big fat b*tch."  We don't use those terms in our home, so I was bit appalled to say the least.  Yet, as a practical mother, I simply told her to walk away.  She did, but not without injury.

Then in April of 2009, my child's cry for help finally hit me when I read the news about the two 11-year old bullycide victims.  Their untimely deaths woke me up and forced me to open my eyes to the fact that children do not know how to control their words by osmosis. They need to be trained not to verbally abuse.

Why? Contrary to popular opinion, sticks and stones break bones, but words kill their spirit.  If a child is heavy-laden with foul words in his/her pysche, the lesson will most certainly be lost.  Children don't stay in school because schools in many instances can't always protect children from verbal abuse.

I decided to create an innovative solution to reversing this curse of verbal abuse by helping children understand the power of words and putting the onus on them to use their words without malice.  I created a classroom management system for camps, churches, and schools entitled: The Power of Words (POW).  POW teaches children how their words empower (and imprison) both their recipient and their deliverer.   In this system,  one child's insult affects the whole class; therefore children become more cognizant of their words choices in an effort to achieve group success.

The YMCA in Decatur, GA has requested this presentation on four different occasions within the last seven days.  The program director emailed me saying that the children who attended my POW session were greatly influenced.  I smiled because their own words changed them, not me.

How do we keep in children in school?

Children want nurturing.  Words are food to them. We  desperately need to train them how to use their words without malice and then teach them how to build self-esteem by rejecting insults.  It is then and only then that they will not  be able to get enough of school or of learning how to feed themselves...healthy words.

For more information, go to:

www.lifesportsmatrix.com