By Quentin Gordon-Smith
Family stability and how it affects students in school. I feel like this is a big problem in schools today. As a person who experienced it and as a person who is currently seeing it from other students, it is a big problem. A couple years ago, my mom and dad split up and I was really going through it. I was angry, I was sad, I was confused, but mostly I was hurt. I was so used to seeing them together and all of a sudden, they split so it felt unreal. When I went into school I didn’t want to be bothered. I'd always have my head down and not do anything and if someone touched me I would flip and try to fight them all because of my anger and frustration at home. Eventually I got over it but at the time it was rough. My little brother is also affected by this. Our parent’s divorce broke him, and now he rarely talks to his dad and rarely sees his dad. He lacks a father figure, after the breakup he didn’t really communicate with his dad. He was influenced by the negativity around him and that led him to go down the wrong path. His grades dropped, he isolated himself, he only came out of his room when he was hungry and when he had to use the bathroom. This is a problem that happens every day and everywhere. We really don’t know what people are going through. That's why people should be kind to one another. I speak about this now because it’s really affecting students. I see kids skipping class at my school, smoking in the bathrooms, and fighting with frustration and anger. Who knows, maybe that’s their way of showing they need help. Family stability really does play a huge role in how students act in school. All those people need is someone to talk to, a person by their side that they can trust and talk to freely without being judged. That is the cure. Andre Smith, a social worker East said, “Yes, it is a big issue. Most students I speak with have family stability issues that they are dealing with.” He also said, “What we normally end up doing is processing situations and circumstances. Solutions can vary. Sometimes it might be putting services in place, but more often we talk about how to make the best of situations that can’t be changed right now and deal with them in the healthiest possible way. It definitely varies depending on the student and situation. Often students need someone to listen and that alone seems to help a lot.”
1 Comment
Daniel Hart
3/31/2023 07:12:56 am
It takes a lot of bravery and vulnerability to be willing to share a story like this, Quentin. Thank you for honoring us and helping us understand with your story. I can empathize; my parents are also divorced. It was really weird for me because they had been together 35 years and I was a full adult before it ended up happening. There are jarring realities we face when things like that happen, and it is a specific kind of pain that we get better at dealing with over time. I'm glad you're there for your brother. I wonder if this article is something you think would be helpful to share with your folks, not to blame or accuse, but just to help them understand the impact it had on you both.
Reply
Leave a Reply. |
Archives
February 2024
Categories
All
|