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Invisible Children
Mike Tikkanen’s book, INVISIBLE CHILDREN is an urgent call to action which describes, in plain, heart-wrenching terms how our institutions act as enablers of child abuse. He outlines how America’s current strategies and institutions are being overwhelmed by the magnitude and severity of the problem of child abuse. I would take it a step further and say that his book is an indictment of the very institutions we have established to protect the weakest among our children. It is not teachers, school administrators, social workers, police, or therapists causing the problems in our schools, communities, and prisons. These hard-working, well-intentioned professionals are not to blame. As he correctly points out, they are doing the best they can within the framework of laws, regulations and policies. The issue he brings to light is much broader and much deeper. This is not an issue of blame - of “right versus wrong”, this is an issue of “right versus right” - the very definition of tragedy. In 1994 I completed a study extending over five years and concluded that certain human service agencies and law enforcement services designed to solve such problems as crime, illiteracy, child abuse, drug addiction, poverty and homelessness actually operate within a hidden inherent logic to perpetuate and exacerbate the very conditions they were designed to cure. Put differently, the purpose of any system is what is does. What the Child Protection System does is produce victims and future inmates for the criminal justice system. Generation after generation, these abused children fill our prisons, overwhelm our schools, and make our cities unsafe for the people who must live in them. Our current policies ensure more crime and prisons, failing schools, and a growing number of neighborhoods unfit for human habitation. There are no simple answers to these problems. However, this I know. These problems cannot be solved within the framework of the current system that created them. More programs, new laws and additional regulations will only produce a temporary remission before there is a rebound and escalation of the original problem. This is a hard hitting, often uncomfortable book about an enormous, complicated and painful problem. Mike Tikkanen has taken a courageous stand to open our eyes and expose the truth. It is now up to all of us to confront the truth and begin this essential dialogue. Kathleen S. Long, PhD
April, 2005
April, 2005
208 pages, Paperback
First published July 1, 2005
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December 4, 2015
The author is a GAL, in MN.
First, "States will also discover that investing in children pays big dividends for better schools, safer streets, and happier communities."
This is the real problem:
"Because so many of us accept snippets of TV coverage of complex stories as the story, we are unable to understand and evaluate what needs to be done to solve the problem that caused it. We don’t take the time to investigate, and it’s easier to assign blame than to solve complex problems."
Actionable take-home message:
1. "Draw attention to the importance of adequate mental health services for abused and neglected children in your community."
2. "It is only learned coping skills and behavior modification that will keep children out of the Criminal Justice System, not medications without therapy."
and
3. "Let your political leaders know you expect them to provide mental health services in your schools and for abused and neglected children."
Note: "we would rather build prisons than libraries or playgrounds" yet "countries with the lowest rates of poverty and illiteracy have the lowest crime rates."
KARA founder presents evidence of what has always been obvious to abused kids:
"Our standards for success in dealing with abused and neglected children are too low. Small achievements seem to warrant a stamp of success. Too soon the state decides: that’s enough of the state’s resources for that one. "
but
"Pre-school programs are affordable, well run, and common throughout the rest of the industrialized world. Only the U.S. makes early childhood learning and day care unaffordable to poor people."
Result(s):
"UNICEF found that the teen pregnancy rate in America is twice that of the industrialized nations."
Children need far stronger community protections, partly because:
"unless a parent kills them, a care-giving perpetrator is not likely to suffer any consequences"
yet:
"If you look, you will see that children are protected, cared for, and educated better in the rest of the industrialized world. ... Our systems are not functioning to solve these problems. Many of our institutional policies exacerbate the problems. A lack of resources leads to poorly trained providers and inadequate services. To ignore the inter-relatedness of the issues is to guarantee continued failure"
and on race, see: "Minnesota Spokesman Recorder, “Special Ed: The New Segregation,” Rosi Tavf, February 12, 2004)." and "a convict in China makes about twelve cents an hour compared to eleven cents an hour paid to a Minnesota convict. About 50 percent of the prison population is African-American, while African-Americans make up under 13 percent of the general population."
and on poverty: "Americans have agreed (by voting) that incarcerating vast numbers of poverty stricken uneducated people, mostly for non-violent offenses, is a better alternative than anything else we can think of."
Let's think of better.
This is a book that all citizens, particularly of the USA, need to read. Then, do your part to support early and continuous learning for All, please.
Check it out on Worldcat:
https://www.worldcat.org/title/invisi...
In Solidarity with All Kind People,
Peace via Cooperation and Non-Cooperation,
ShiraDest
4th of December,
12015 HE
First, "States will also discover that investing in children pays big dividends for better schools, safer streets, and happier communities."
This is the real problem:
"Because so many of us accept snippets of TV coverage of complex stories as the story, we are unable to understand and evaluate what needs to be done to solve the problem that caused it. We don’t take the time to investigate, and it’s easier to assign blame than to solve complex problems."
Actionable take-home message:
1. "Draw attention to the importance of adequate mental health services for abused and neglected children in your community."
2. "It is only learned coping skills and behavior modification that will keep children out of the Criminal Justice System, not medications without therapy."
and
3. "Let your political leaders know you expect them to provide mental health services in your schools and for abused and neglected children."
Note: "we would rather build prisons than libraries or playgrounds" yet "countries with the lowest rates of poverty and illiteracy have the lowest crime rates."
KARA founder presents evidence of what has always been obvious to abused kids:
"Our standards for success in dealing with abused and neglected children are too low. Small achievements seem to warrant a stamp of success. Too soon the state decides: that’s enough of the state’s resources for that one. "
but
"Pre-school programs are affordable, well run, and common throughout the rest of the industrialized world. Only the U.S. makes early childhood learning and day care unaffordable to poor people."
Result(s):
"UNICEF found that the teen pregnancy rate in America is twice that of the industrialized nations."
Children need far stronger community protections, partly because:
"unless a parent kills them, a care-giving perpetrator is not likely to suffer any consequences"
yet:
"If you look, you will see that children are protected, cared for, and educated better in the rest of the industrialized world. ... Our systems are not functioning to solve these problems. Many of our institutional policies exacerbate the problems. A lack of resources leads to poorly trained providers and inadequate services. To ignore the inter-relatedness of the issues is to guarantee continued failure"
and on race, see: "Minnesota Spokesman Recorder, “Special Ed: The New Segregation,” Rosi Tavf, February 12, 2004)." and "a convict in China makes about twelve cents an hour compared to eleven cents an hour paid to a Minnesota convict. About 50 percent of the prison population is African-American, while African-Americans make up under 13 percent of the general population."
and on poverty: "Americans have agreed (by voting) that incarcerating vast numbers of poverty stricken uneducated people, mostly for non-violent offenses, is a better alternative than anything else we can think of."
Let's think of better.
This is a book that all citizens, particularly of the USA, need to read. Then, do your part to support early and continuous learning for All, please.
Check it out on Worldcat:
https://www.worldcat.org/title/invisi...
In Solidarity with All Kind People,
Peace via Cooperation and Non-Cooperation,
ShiraDest
4th of December,
12015 HE
Displaying 1 of 1 review