When I Think of Child Development.....

"It is easier to build strong children than to repair broken men."
- Frederick Douglass

When does the building start? Where does the building start? Who does the building start with? How much does it cost to build?  When I read this quote, I was taken to the memory of my dear uncle.  My grandparents did the best they could with their youngest child but it wasn’t good enough.  Uncle Allen was the youngest of 10 children. He was spoiled by each of his sibling and parents –eventually, he was cultivated into a young tyrant.  In middle childhood, he did what he wanted when he wanted to. (He didn’t live by any of the values shared by his siblings.)   By this time, he had become a juvenile delinquent and a menace to society.  So when and where didn’t the building start? Unfortunately, Uncle Allen never had a chance a youngster.  I’d like to evaluate his beginning.  As a Kindergartener, he was at the top of his class.  Our fourth grade teacher, Mrs. Allen once told me that I should have been as smart as my uncle.  I assume he was at the top of his class then.  By the time he was in 5^th grade, he started to skip school.  He was given too many chances by the hometown judge and spent only one month in the detention center.  By 6^th grade, he avoided school altogether, ran away and became a drug addict.  Uncle Allen was not built correctly.  Why do I say this? He learned from a youth to take what you want and it is alright.  He was given his hearts desires without one requirement, he didn’t have to work for anything.  He didn’t so much as take out the garbage or clean the bath tub after he finished using it. All meals were served on the table and his dirty dishes were left for someone else to remove.  Who did the building? No one instilled a work ethic in him. The cost of the building was time.  No one cared enough to give him time.  Consequently, he was incarcerated most of his adult life and died with a drug needle in his arm.  I am grieved that he was built wrong and was never able to be repaired.  To all my classmates, as early childhood interventionists let’s make knowledge and the thirst thereof the core of our professional goal.  For we have the power to change a life and touch hearts by what we impart to our students today.