|  You
obviously have a great empathy for kids who are in the junior-high
years -- especially those who are rejected and ridiculed by their
peers. Have you always felt that way about that age group?
My concern for early adolescents dates back to the years I spent
teaching in junior high school. I was only 25 years old at the time,
and I fell in love with 250 science and math students. The day I
left to accept other responsibilities I fought back the tears. Some
of the kids were hurting badly, and I developed a keen sensitivity
to their plight. Let me illustrate how I saw them.
Years
later, I was sitting in my car at a fast-food restaurant. I happened
to look in the rearview mirror and saw the most pitiful, scrawny,
dirty little kitten on a ledge behind my car. I was so touched by
how hungry she looked that I got out, tore off a piece of my hamburger
and tossed it to her. But before this kitten could reach it, a huge
gray tomcat sprang out of the bushes, grabbed the morsel and gobbled
it down. I felt sorry for the kitten, who turned and ran back into
the shadows, still hungry and frightened.
I
was immediately reminded of those kids I used to teach. They were
just as needy, just as deprived, just as lost as that little kitten.
It wasnąt food that they required; it was love and attention and
respect that they needed, and they were desperate for it. And just
when they opened up and revealed the pain inside, one of the more
popular kids would abuse and ridicule them, sending them scurrying
back into the shadows.
We,
as adults, must never forget the pain of trying to grow up and of
the competitive world in which many adolescents live today. Taking
a moment to listen, to care and to direct such a youngster may be
the best investment of a lifetime.
o
Dr.
James Dobson is founder and chairman of the board of the nonprofit
organization Focus on the Family in Colorado Springs; or www.family.org.
Questions and answers are excerpted from The Complete Marriage and
Family Home Reference Guide and Bringing Up Boys, both published
by Tyndale House.
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