Community
Educational Opportunities
OPERATION RESPECT
Cultivating Kindness
Operation Respect: Don't Laugh at Me!
We know what happens to some kids when they are persistently ridiculed. Ask their parents or, better yet, ask the kids themselves, but this time, listen and trust what they say.
Operation Respect, founded by Peter Yarrow of the folk group Peter, Paul & Mary, works to transform places where kids are into more compassionate, safe and respectful environments. “Don't Laugh at Me” is a free, curriculum for grades 2-5, 6-8 and for summer and after-school activities.
The curriculum fits with the country's call for more interactive, energized instruction in the classrooms by using video, music, role playing, and games to teach the value of caring and the pain of cruelty. It's a gateway to broad scale adoption of school-based character education as well as social and emotional learning. You can download it at the web site: www.dontlaugh.org
Focus on children & teen mental health.
Last June, the National Institute of Mental Health published the results of its National Comorbidity Survey Replication. According to the Survey, mental illnesses are the chronic illnesses of youth. Half of all lifetime cases of mental illnesses begin by age 14. Three-fourths of all lifetime cases start by age 24. Despite the availability of effective treatments, there are long delays—sometimes decades—between first onset of symptoms and when individuals seek and receive treatment.
The consequences of untreated illnesses can be physical health problems, unemployment, homelessness, incarceration, separation from families and friends, premature death, and suicide. These consequences are too heavy a toll for our children and our society to pay. Each of us bears some responsibility—some accountability—for resolving this national mental health crisis…and for protecting and promoting the health of this and future generations.
Remarks by Crystal R. Blyler, Ph.D., Science Analyst, Center for Mental Health Services
