I love Jenga, ® a game of strategy where you pile small blocks up like a house of cards, then remove the blocks one at a time. With each removal, the tower becomes more unstable. If the tower falls on your turn, you lose the game.
How is the development of Florida’s children like a game of Jenga®? Build a strong tower – or it’s going to fall down. We lose.
RESILIENCY is the “ordinary magic” that builds child success, and most children are resilient, as Ann Masten of the University of Minnesota wrote in 2001. Research tells us what our children need, to handle life as it comes: a network of supportive relationships beginning with someone who loves them most of all. This is Mom, but Dad, Grandma, several loved ones, and foster or adoptive parents can provide the same sense of safety. When attachment fails in the family, some children are adept at recruiting other adults – people like teachers, scoutmasters, coaches, youth leaders. Every love adds strength. A secure base makes it possible for children to stand tall.
HOME is built on a foundation of relationships. Home means food, shelter, clean air and water, shared purpose, a certain calm in life, and a fundamental belief that all will be well. Most often, faith plays a part in home. Jobs for parents really help build a home.
EDUCATION is crucial. Our children need to be safe and love each other, and they must also work hard and learn well. Children must be educated without fear, so they can grow mentally, spiritually and physically, and this requires our investment. A safe, high quality school system is home to many children at risk, and a free, developmentally appropriate, public education is the solid foundation of our democracy. In good schools, terrific teachers nurture natural curiosity as they pass down our American values of equality, hard work, and solving problems together. Children also need physical activity, fun, and adventures, and hope in the future to become responsible adults.
If the Jenga ® tower that supports a happy childhood falls, then watch out, America – your safe society is the next to go. So how’s our Florida “game” going? In my Rollins College course, The State of Florida’s Children, students report our near-bottom national rankings in every solid measure of children’s well being. We’ve cut jobs, prenatal and early maternal care, In-home interventions, help for childcare for single working parents, access to therapy for children, child maltreatment prevention programs, seen an increase in high school dropout and school violence, and cut our public education budget for all of Florida’s children. More than half of our children can’t read at a 10th grade level by graduation. Our juvenile courts are more crowded than our colleges. We are undermining the basic protective systems of relationships, home, and education.
Our Jenga ® tower is teetering, citizens. Build for the future. Support Florida’s children.
