"Stressors On Children In Korea"

I read an article that discussed how stressful children were in Korea.  The article brought up the notion that these children were stressed because the parents and government are more focused on education rather than children being children and having fun.  In the article, it stated that "The average child attends not only regular school but private after school academies."  As a child, I can't fathom the idea of going to school and then leaving to be shuffled off to another school.  The article mentions that going to school at 11 p.m. has been deemed illegal, yet the children must attend.  As adults, we tend to think that a child's life is happy and filled with excitement all the time but we see that this is not true.  Some children have taken on the same responsibility as adults and no one asked them how they felt about it; the responsibilities were just thrown on them.  The article continued to expound upon the cruelty inflicted upon this nation's children by saying that "Psychologists blame this culture for all manner of ills, from poor social skills to the nation's unacceptably high rate of youth suicide, which is now the leading cause of death among those aged 15-24."

After reading this, I think about what I have always heard over the years as a teenager.  People say that Asian children are extremely smart.  I don't doubt that they are but the article helped me to realize that these young children are being pushed too far in order to compete in today's society.  I am all for getting an education but I think that this is harsh and a bit extreme.



Refer to this website to read further: http://www.economist.com/

"My Stressor As A Child"

From the list presented on the course home page, the stressor that I can most identify with would be chaos.  Many people probably looked at that list and thought that the stressor that causes the most problems would be the one that is most mentioned by individuals but the fact of the matter is that stress can be caused by the smallest thing.  I didn't have a utopian type of household.  It was a battle field everyday but it had some problems.  Chaos within the home can cause a child to become a negative individual and in my case, it caused me to become a passive aggressive person.  I would never confront my problems or face my fears.  I held everything in all the time and within any given moment, I would explode.

I dealt with chaotic situations by ignoring them or trying to ignore them by putting on my head phones and listening to my music.  While at home, I sometimes would build me a fort and read a book--try to envision myself as the character so that I could escape.  As an adult, I don't like to argue and have been called antisocial.  I like to socialize but I find myself not wanting to be around dramatic people.  I try to control my world by eliminating any type of negativity.  So far, it has worked out for me.

Malnutrition in Africa

I went to a website that contained interesting facts about the lack of food and nutrition in Africa.  Below are some of the facts found:

1. Over 20% of post birth maternal deaths in Africa are due to iron-deficiency anemia.
2. In sub-Saharan Africa, every third child is underweight while two out of five are stunted in growth.
3. In 2006, about 9.7 million children died before they reached their fifth birthday.
4. Africa and Asia are the two regions that also suffer from the highest rates of hunger and malnutrtion.

The article also stated that "Globally, over 2 billion people have fallen victim to malnutrition."

In my opinion, that is too much.  As Americans, I know that we have to start looking out for each other regardless of the color of our skin or other differences that we may have with each other.  I have no answers nor do I know where to begin as far as combating the problem but I do know for certain that doing nothing is not benefitting anyone at the present time.

My Insight on Malnutrition

Malnutrition and starvation are topics that many people do not want to discuss because of the seriousness of it and may be because of the guilt that some may feel that they are indirectly affecting those who are malnourished.  I can't say that I know the pains of being malnourished because I have never been placed within that situation but I am empathetic to the needs of those children who are malnourished.  Within my blog, I am going to add information about other countries and their bout with starvation but for right now, I would like to voice my opinion about the malnourished children that we see right here in the United States--in cities in which we live.  It hurts me to throw out food knowing that someone else can eat it.  Even now, I give my leftovers away to friends and people in the community who may be hungry.  Often times, our kids feed off of the things that they see us doing.  Being a teacher, I have seen children throw food in the trash while other children were asking for it.  I think that ,we as people, need to be more conscious of our actions and try to make better decisions when it comes to the feeding of people who actually need it.