Category: Free Essays

Each Chid has his own ways and rates of development, growing and learning: physically, emotionally, socially and intellectually .children have different strengths and vulnerabilities so each one needs different kinds of support to meet his individual need, For that each child is unique individual, parents and practitioners must understand and respect their children needs.

As well as when treating children individually you must understand and respect their personalities, t abilities, culture or religion, home language, family background, learning difficulties, disabilities or gender.

The benefits for children when their individual needs are met will as followed:

– Helping each child to improve his talents and abilities and support him to progress and reach his goals in learning and development to meet the Early Years Foundation Stage guidance.

-child will get the opportunity to improve his own capabilities develop a healthy self-esteem and develop a positive attitude

-Child built his own personality which makes him more responsible on his choices and actions which reflect his individuality.

-Discovering each child strengths and weakness.

-Give all children the opportunity and support to develop and learn to become successful adult useful and helpful for his/her country and community

Question 2:

Describe how the principles of anti-discriminatory practice can be applied to practice

Discrimination is the way of treat an individual more or less favourably than others, or because of prejudice children and their family before you know them due to their backgrounds, class, gender, disability, race and culture.

It is important to practice anti -discrimination to ensure that every child has the opportunity to fully access any areas of learning within the framework. Providing an inclusive environment for children enables them to develop self esteem and confidence. Providing them an equal opportunity to learn to show them that they are valued and respected as unique individuals regardless of any additional needs, family and ethnic background.

The Nursery and practitioner are committed to:

Providing a friendly and welcome environment for children and their families

Providing books and songs in different language.

Set a celebration calendar for the different multicultural festivals.

A wide selection of toys of different gender and culture, and encourage children to choose their toys.

Inviting parents to join the nursery in some activities.

Encourage children to talk about their culture in their language about( Numbers, colour and country).

Question 3:

Describe why it is important to plan activities that meet the individual needs of children.

Before we going to plan activities we discuss the observation done for each child that so it give us information about each child current levels support he needs, and his interest which will be our base to plan our activities that will help the child to assesses the progress and achieve the aspect of his own learning and development stage .

When we plan activities that meet the individual needs of children we are:

*Children will get opportunity to progress in their learning and development stages; we will support their weakness and develop their talents and abilities

*Supporting them and help them to develop and learn by enjoyable playful learning ways by planning activities that are high on pleasure, and achievements

*Give the perfect support and opportunity for children with learning difficulties or disabilities to achieve their goals as any other children by planning activities according to their interest and abilities

*When planning activities that we observe it is related to their interest and needs we will achieve good ovulations and achieve the aspect of areas of learning and development goals of this activities

*Children will have self steam and self confidence since they will find them self in a good position where their interest and things they good at which make this activity more challenging which encourage them to be more creative and imaginative

*When planning good activities that promote progress we form apositive relationships with parents and with the children.

*Promote anti discriminations practice by planning activities covers different needs and interest irrespective of ethnicity, culture or religion, home language, background, learning difficulties, disabilities or gender.

Question 4:

Explain how the practitioner can promote children’s physical and emotional well-being within an early years setting.

In this point i would like to explain how and what role the practitioner can promote for children within an early years setting which is very important and positively affect the children life physically, emotionally and psychological health from the experience they gained during the early years from the physical and emotional activities provided to them by the practitioner.

The role of the practitioner in supporting children’s physical well-being.

To provide a balanced programme of activities to support the physical development

To provide sufficient space (indoors and outdoors)

Providing the suitable material and equipment for children to improve their skills .

Providing other activities such as cooking, sewing, woodwork and planting to increase the hand-eye coordination.

To provide time, opportunity and support for children with special needs to develop their physical skills, working in coordination with the special education need coordinator(SENCO).

The role of the practitioner in supporting children’s emotional well-being.

The practitioner need to understand the children feelings, respect and listen carefully to them to be able to manage their feeling and control the way they behave to help them build a good relationships with friends and family .Understanding the children feelings and needs help the practitioner to provide for them the appropriate planning and activities which meet their needs to improve them emotionally and physically.

In order to support children’s emotion the practitioner must:

Communicate with parents

Help the children to understand their feeling by using books, board games, puppets etc…….

Make them feel valued.

Giving them the time and the attention

Observe the children’s behaviour

Communicate with children and encourage them to decide the way to solve their problem

Give them the time and the opportunity to talk.

The activities should include:

– Drawing , painting and creative activities.

– Group games involving running, jumping and hopping.

– Group games involving movement followed by stopping.

– Balancing activities

– Giving the children the opportunity to create their own spaces (e.g. tent from blankets)

– Encourage games and activities that involve sharing resources with other children.

– Discussions about body parts.

– Singing action songs (e.g. Head, shoulders, knees and toes).

– Discussions about keeping safe, fit and healthy and encourage them to talk about health

– Discussions about eating a healthy diet.

– Encouraging children to make decisions by choosing between different types of food.

– Making and eating food from a range of cultures.

Identifying the beliefs of Children’s Learning, Development, and the Social Influences that shaped them. A child’s learning and development begins from the moment they are born, the early years from birth to five are an important milestone in a person’s life, what a child experiences in the early years has a major impact on their future chances in life. A safe, secure and happy childhood is important in its own right. We can shape a child’s learning from an early age, children learn through experience and adult involvement, therefore interaction with babies and young children is fundamentally important, it helps to build ideas, creates thinking and helps them develop as learners. Babies are born with an interest in people and a drive to find out about their world. Observing and assessing babies and young children is an important basis in their learning and development. ‘Watching children learn can open our eyes to the capacity of how they learn’ (Pugh, 2001, p. 66), and this shows us the importance of these first few years in a child’s life.

Over the decade’s early education, policies and practices have seen significant changes. We still use many of the earlier theories and methods through the Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) in our early education settings today. The EYFS is part of a ten year Childcare Strategy introduced in 2008, it relates to the Childcare Act 2006, and its aim is to give young children the best start in life, it sets standards to enable early year’s providers to implement the rich and personalised experience many parents give their children at home. It provides legal requirements relating to learning, development, assessments and welfare. The EYFS principles which guide all practitioners consists of four themes; a Unique Child, Positive Relationships, Enabling Environments, Learning And Development. It implies that all children from birth to five will acquire the same skills and knowledge in preparation for school while at the same time recognising that all children are individuals that require individual learning strategies. The construction of early education and care of children and young people dates back many years, as early as the 17th century. Friedrich Froebel a major theorist was born in 1782 in Thuringia what is now Germany and was well known for saying “play is a child’s work”, he formulated the idea of kindergarten meaning ‘children’s garden’ as a means of educating young children. Play and the outdoor environment were important in Froebelian kindergartens. His approach emphasized that children are able to develop their capacity for learning through play, and that active learning is essential with guidance and appropriate direction. He believed that training of workers within the early years was essential, and the importance of parents as partners in the education of young children. The influence of Froebel’s methods are well established in early years settings to date, his work was one of the theories that made the basis of early education. Many recent theorists based their work on these early findings, and say, he was ahead of his time as one of the EYFS themes and commitments, of today states active learning. Active learning it is implemented through the learning and development principle of the EYFS, it provides physical and mental involvement, decision-making and personalised learning, and it occurs when children are keen to learn and are interested in finding things out for themselves. Play is a dynamic process that develops and changes, it provides children with opportunities for developing cognitive, social, emotional and physical skills. ‘Froebelian kindergartens were seen to be middle class; despite this his methods were adapted for use with disadvantaged children and families’ within developing 20th century nursery and infant schools. (Pound, 2008, p. 16).

The first nursery school opened in Scotland in1816 by Robert Owen(1771-1858), he was a mill owner who refused to employ children less than 10 years of age, he believed that education should be a common right for all children, and that children are passive, contrived and by due preparation and accurate attention can be formed into any human character. He managed their behaviour through kindness, which in the19th century was unusual, children as young as 2 years attended his school. The opening of his nursery school influenced changing attitudes on child labour, and set the basis of early education for young children. The start of the curriculum method was one of Owens’s ideas, his vision on education-inspired generations of activist; he recognised the link between social welfare and early education this is an important part of practice in modern day settings. ‘His commitments to education were radical as were his ideas on the importance of equality, although his policies were a bold step forward, he was criticised as being rooted in his desire for profit. (Pound, 2008, p. 13)’

‘In the UK the development of early education was very slow compared to Europe, it was In 1870 that publicly funded education became compulsory for children age 5, the need to understand these early childhood services is important as they laid down the foundations of our education system (Pugh, 2001, p. 8)’

During the 1960’s the voluntary playgroup movement emerged. A letter sent to the Guardian by Belle Tutaev, a young mother of a four-year-old expressing concern to the lack of appropriate nursery provision within our education system. For many years the main means of early education was state primary schools, and this was aimed at children over 5 years, after campaigning to the authorities to no avail she opened her own playgroup, this progressed and by the seventies playgroups became a recognised form of pre-school provision.

Over the next 2 decade’s the changing family patterns and employment patterns meant early years provision were a much needed source, this saw the growth of private nurseries. Only after a review in 1988 on early childhood and education services, (The Education Reform Act) did the government realise there was a growing problem. It found flaws, in uncoordinated services, which varied between different parts of the country, compared to the rest of Europe there were low levels of public funding. It had different services ran by a diversity of different organisations, this meant a wide range of clients used them, all with different aims and purposes. The education system needed the government to intervene. A number of national reports was to be published, one of them the Rumbold report published in 1990, expressed concerns about education and the lack of access to Early Years services. It highlighted the need for the development of good quality provision in the early years, and ‘believed it to be vital that all that work, or are involved with young children recognise the importance of their educational role and fulfil it. She urged those who make provision recognise the growing demand for and the expansion of high quality services to meet children and parents needs (rumbold, 1990). The report also highlighted the way in which young children learn are as important as what they learn, and argued against the introduction of formal learning. At the time, this report was ignored but it is now used as a basis for best practice in today’s Early Years settings.

‘The establishment of the Early Childhood Education forum in 1993 meant bringing together all national agencies working in the field,’ (Pugh, 2001, p. 11) it clarified that an early year’s policy is needed, and an expansion in services, the forum gathered strength with over 45 national organisations by 1998. Its aims were to champion children’s rights and entitlements, support the training development and education of early childhood practitioners, and all those who work with children and their families. The government took action and in 1995, funding for the education of 4 year olds was introduced this was in the form of vouchers that could be redeemed in private, voluntary, or local authority nurseries, the vouchers were extremely criticised at the time and was abolished in 1997 when Labour Government was elected.

The election of the Labour Government brought big changes in the way our whole Education System was run, especially Early Education; its key issue is to eradicate child poverty, and provide more family friendly policies and children’s centres. The Sure Start initiative, launched in 1999 under the National Childcare Strategy plays a major role in doing this, by helping families in local communities of need with children under 4years old. The government pledged 1.4 billion pounds over 6 years. This meant that parents had access to a multi agency of services within the Sure Start Children’s Centres. They are now a key influence within our communities helping children, families and society, by learning and developing life skills in the early years so that young children grow up to be happy, healthy and are able to achieve their goals in life. The centres are at the Heart of the Every Child Matters Change for Children 2004.

The green paper Every Child Matters was published in 2003, in response to a report by Lord Laming in 2001, into the death of Victoria Climbie. Victoria was a young girl who was horrifically abused, tortured and killed by her great aunt, Marie-Therese Kouao and partner Carl Manning; they were the people who were supposed to be caring for her. Shameful failings within a number of systems meant on 12 occasions over 10 months the chances to save Victoria were missed. Evidence from this Inquiry demonstrated the dangers of staff from different agencies not fulfilling their separate and distinctive responsibilities. The death of Victoria showed a fundamental need for an integrated service that would be part of a political agenda for many years, despite the Children Act 1989 provisions, child protection strategies and services stayed within the social service system, and the level of communication and co-operation between these and other services in health and education were variable. The Every Child Matters agenda is recognised by five outcomes; be healthy, stay safe, enjoy and achieve, make a positive contribution, and achieve economic wellbeing; these outcomes are a universal ambition for the government, and form a strong basis for the EYFS curriculum used in Early Education Settings to date.

The transfer of responsibility for children under 8-years-old were made from the Department of Health, to the Department of Education and Skills and from 2001, an integrated inspection service was introduced, bringing together all the services, enabling multi-agency working, which was an important step forward. The Early Years Development and Childcare Partnership in local authorities were also introduced, helping to increase levels of provision in Childcare. Working in partnership with the Local Education Authority, each authority completed an audit, with a plan to reach the government’s targets for early education places for all 3- and-4year-olds. This was made easier in the change of policy earlier, that allowed non maintained sectors to apply for nursery grants, ‘children in private day nurseries, pre-schools and some childminders could now access their free half-day nursery provision. In this way the strategy started to tackle the long-term split between Early Years education services and the childcare services.’ (Macelod- Brundenell,and Kay 2nd edition 2008 pg 352 ).

It has been without doubt that Early Education has come a long way since Froebel in the 17th century, and the opening of Owen’s nursery school in 1816, but not many things have changed, it was evident then that children learn through play and exploration, and early learning is important in the first five years. Maybe many generations of children have missed out the chances given to young children of today.

The EYFS has been an important milestone for early education and young children, and is now the way forward in preparing a child for school, but its existance is still in the primary stages, and many small nursery settings may find adapting to these changes and sustaining them quiet difficult as the standards and welfare requirements set are extremly high.

The object of research is to determine how things are as compared to how things might be. Children and young people spend a considerable amount of time between the ages of three and sixteen in school. Therefore, school is a place to send out constant messages on healthy eating. This exploration aims to evaluate health promotion in a primary school. It will focus on the aspect of healthy eating as part of health promotion in schools. The Irish heart foundation (2011) state that one in four primary school children are overweight or obese and this is why this research is relevant. They also state that knowledge on healthy eating can be considered as one of many factors that influence eating habits. This investigation also aims to explore children’s knowledge on healthy eating in line with the curriculum and the Food Standards Agency (equivalent in Ireland). This investigation will show children’s knowledge of healthy eating by conducting a focus group. Adequate nutrition and physical activity in childhood is fundamentally important for growth, development and long-term health in adulthood (Sheppard, 2008).

The author completed three weeks in a primary school on work experience. The researcher noticed that there was a lack of knowledge on healthy eating and it would be a relevant topic for a dissertation. The researcher asked the children aged eleven and twelve; what vegetables did you eat for dinner yesterday? One of the answers was ‘rice’ which suggested a lack of knowledge of different food groups. Promotion of healthy heating in schools is one of the most important opportunities to ensure that children can choose a healthy diet now and later in life (Health promotion department, 2005). Exploring factors of childhood ability to understand the impact of nutrition will be basis to this study. Evaluating health promotion within the school will also be key. The national council for curriculum and assessment (NCCA) states that Developing health-promoting practices through his/her time in school can encourage the child to take increasing control over his/her own health and help to establish and maintain healthy behaviour from an early age. Healthy eating promotion ought to be taken serious in schools as children and young people are not in school forever and it can have a major impact on their lifestyles. One seeks to find out if the children know what they are eating is healthy and how different foods fall into different food groups. The Irish Heart Foundation (2011) State that maintaining a healthy weight involves balancing the energy taken into the body (food) with the energy used by the body (activity). Energy balance means that the amount of energy consumed is equivalent to the amount of energy expended and there is no storage or depletion of the body’s reserves (Bouchard, 2000). Children should know about good fats and bad fats in food to get a steady energy balance. It has been evidenced through research that following a healthy diet can significantly reduce the perceived health risks amongst children. A healthy diet will positively influence a child’s current and future health status, reducing the risk of many chronic diseases and conditions such as cardiovascular disease and diabetes (The department of Public Health, 2011). Food Standards Agency UK has set out a framework for food competences on core skills and knowledge children for young people. It states that children of a certain age should have certain skills and certain knowledge on nutrition. One will find the equivalent in Ireland and put the selected focus group to the test to see if they have adequate knowledge on healthy eating.

Health Behaviour in school-aged (HBSC, 2006) report has shown that many young people have poor eating habits. Food and drink are a vital part of our daily lives. They play the essential role in the development of the human being (Healthy food for all 2012). For young people to achieve their full potential, it is necessary that they eat healthily. There are many factors that can affect future health status in children and young people. During the mid-1980s the school as a health promoting situation was a somewhat under-developed idea in Ireland. Schools lay the foundations for children to carry lifestyles into adult life. Initially led by the health sector, a partnership approach between health and education has enabled the more widespread acceptance of school-based approaches to health maintenance and improvement (Gabhainn, O’Higgins & Barry 2010). Ireland was one of the first to adopt the Health Promoting Schools (HPS) approach. Schools remain one of the few places where children are reasonably protected for commercial interests. (NCCA) set out the curriculum for primary schools in Ireland in 1999. A compulsory subject known as social, personal and health education (SPHE) was introduced. It is designed to run with the whole school approach to health promotion (Department of education and science, 2000). The curriculum is presented in six subject strands comprising of 11 subjects. One of strands is called (SPHE). SPHE provides particular opportunities to foster the health and well-being of a child. Through the SPHE programme children can develop a sense of personal responsibility for their own health and for the decisions and the choices they make. The Irish Governments National Health Promotion Strategy was set in place between 2000 and 2005. Its aim was for every school to promote healthy eating habits and a healthy body image among school-going children and young people. Every school had to facilitate the implementation of health education and health promotion programs.

Food Dudes is one of the many programs which schools got in partnership with. It was developed by the food & activity research unit at Bangor University, Wales, to encourage children to eat more fruit and vegetables both in school and at home. Eating habits throughout life are established at a young age. Therefore, learning to choose and enjoy different foods in childhood provides the foundation for healthy food choices in childhood (Department of health and children, 2011). As children are in school thirty seven weeks of the year, schools have the potential to play a significant role in promoting healthy eating habits amongst children.

The researcher will use children aged eleven and twelve because they are about to make the transition from primary school to secondary school and as per key stages 2 in Wales and The Food Standards Agency UK, they should have sufficient nutritional knowledge. The researcher will take the approach of a qualitative method. A focus group is a group interview with four to twelve people (O’Leary, 2010). Focus groups will be considered to conduct the investigation. Questionnaires will also be considered but a focus group would get more of and in-depth knowledge from the participants. One of the advantages of a focus group is that it can develop its own dynamics, and will explore an issue with minimum intervention from the researcher (Oliver, 2010). The aim of the focus group is to use rich discussion draw out depth of opinion and knowledge that probably would not occur from direct interviews. Children at the age of eleven and twelve will be selected at random to for the group. The researcher will then ask questions to get an idea of the children’s knowledge for the grounding of the study. Probes will then be used to elaborate on some of the answers. The researcher will stimulate the discussion and will use some food as focus materials to help the group focus on the topic of study. The Meeting will be recorded for further observation. It allows for non verbal as well as verbal data. It deals not with what people say but what they actually do to the extent that their behaviour is open to observation (Gillham, 2008).

The researcher will collect data by taking records. One will also observe and analyse the recorded video of the session. First of all, the recorded text will have to be read. Secondly, the researcher will watch and listen to the tape recording many times. As the researcher observes the tape one will make note of any impressions that maybe useful at a later stage. One will focus on the information given in many ways as there will be different individual or group reaction on different questions and topics. The data will be organised by question to look across all answers so the researcher can identify consistencies and differences. All data from each question will be put together. The researcher will set specific categories in advance and then observe for the data in these categories. The categories should provide a path on where the researcher wants to go. Connections between the categories and within the categories should start to take place. One will count how many times a topic comes up as this should show which categories are the most important. With this all done the researcher will use topics and connections to explain findings. A hard copy and an electronic copy of all information will be kept. By having an electronic copy, text can be moved around very easy and one may wish to copy information onto excel for tables for example.

While many people consider babies as their blessing from the God, but there are others still consider them as burden and a shame. The abandoned baby’s cases are become more serious in our country. Besides that, the situation has reached a worrying state where babies are abandoned in the most unbelievable manner by their mothers in rivers, rubbish dumps, doorstep, bas stop and even mosques. Some newborns make it and some die while others are killed before being dumped.

Whether we admit it or not, nowadays many women lose their virginity a very young age. This is because human relationship are began to deteriorate. Teenager’s lack of family care or attention from their families may cause them out look for spiritual comfort. It will cause them far away from their families and started affect by their “soul mate”.

The rise in teenage pregnancies is becoming a disturbing trend. From January to April this year, 111 such cases were reported to the Welfare Department, compared with 131 cases last year and 107 cases in 2008.According to MCA Public Services and Complaints Department head Datuk Michael Chong, the statistics provided by the Welfare Department may only be the tip of the iceberg. Such incidents are a sign of deterioration in moral values and, if not addressed urgently, will lead to the destruction of society’s moral fabric. Everyone must be held responsible for this – the parents, youth and teenagers, the authorities and society. The National Registration Department registered some 257,000 births between 2000 and July 2008 without the names of parents, which translated into 2,500 babies born out of wedlock monthly or 84 cases daily.

We cannot allow teenagers and others to kill innocent babies born out of wedlock. But we also cannot allow babies to be born out of wedlock without people taking responsibility for their actions. Young people get pregnant because of having the unprotected sex. Besides that, they did not fully realize what the true meaning of sex and pregnancy is. A girl may get pregnant not just because of you touch her hand or you kiss her face but it is because a in depth kind of relationship. Due to lack of knowledge about this relevant topic may cause many young people did not aware about the seriousness of this problem. If they are knowledgeable and educated, they can at least avoid the most unpleasant consequences.

Besides that, apart from that many career women living in cities oblige their boyfriends request when they are asked to watch pornographic VCD and then engage in sexual activities out of wedlock. When the girl gets pregnant, the boyfriend will do a vanishing act to absolve himself of all responsibilities. The unfortunate girl is left alone with the baby. The fear of their secrets being discovered by their families makes them resort to the unthinkable and so that may cause them just abandoned the newborn.

When the mother abandon the newborn is consider as murder. Government should seriously look upon this issue rather than just concentrate on other issues such as corruption, cronyism, nepotism or wasteful expenditure. We need to nip this problem in the bud in order to prevent the problem getting worse and until it out of control.

Plenty of effort we can done in many aspect to stop this problem spread. Besides of parent, government and society also should be responsible upon this issue. On the other hands, religious and belief also play an important role on this problem. If the young people are a devout believer, at least they may think twice before they want to engage in sexual activities.

Government should enforce the law to stop the mother from abandoning the baby. Example government can fine the mother who had abandoned their baby. For more serious, the government can also put the mother into prison or ask them to do public service as a punishment. To make this more effective, the head of police should allocate more police to patrol at night. Other than this, government can fixed some camera at the place or lane that is no people pass by and also the place where people normally abandon their baby. By doing this, it will help the government in taking action on the mother who abandoned their baby because when the mother abandon their baby, the camera may capture the whole process or one of the police may saw it during patrol, then the mother will be get arrested.

Other than this, the government should also set a higher age limit for a person to have sex with someone. For example, as we know in Malaysia the age limit for a person to have sex is 16 years old and now the government should increase the age limit to 21 years old. On the other hand government should also increase the penalty for the people who have sex with a person when they are still under age and also increase the penalty for the people who have sex with a person who is under age, so that they will think twice when they want to do so. By doing this, it can help in solving the issues of abandon baby because as we know normally the mother who abandon her baby is the mother which is not mature enough and under age. So, if our government increases the age limit of having sex and also the penalty, it will cause people not dare to have a sexual relationship with someone who is under age and what will happen is the number of people having baby when they are not mature enough will decrease and it will definitely reduce the problem of abandon baby.

Besides that, government should have a baby hatch system. This baby hatch system had implemented in several country such as Pakistan, Germany, and Japan. Baby Hatch is actually a place where the parent can left their child there anonymously. In order to implement this system, government should provide several small spaces for a person to put the baby in the provided locations. The small space must have a door, a soft bed, and a sensor on the bed so that it will alert the staffs to let them know there is a baby inside the small space. Basically the whole idea of baby hatch is trying to rescue the abandoned baby. If the government does not have this kind of system the parent will just abandon their baby at the road side or anywhere else and the baby will be very pity. So, if our government has this kind of system, the parents can donate their baby to the government, so that the government can help to take care of the babies and help the baby to find a suitable family. This is better than abandon the baby beside the road. Having a baby hatch system may help to reduce the number of abandoned babies dramatically and the rate of infant mortality will decrease because the government is taking good care of the baby and the baby will not die because of hungry, sick or any other reason.

Nowadays, the curiosity of teenagers or even though young adult about the sex is gradually increased due to the drama or the movie they watched. The number of teenage pregnancies also on the rise. So, the sex education is necessary to implement in school, colleges, universities to enhancing their knowledge, attitude and behaviour about sex and the consequences of having sex before marriage. A student who doing well in school is very promising, however, it does not mean that he or she will be a responsible adult in future. Therefore, sex education is important now to get children and teenagers to learn the proper social skill especially sex in order to let them know the responsibility when they choose to have sexual relationship but not to teach them how to do.

Sex education is the process of acquiring information about sex, sexual identity and sexual relationship. Beside that, sex education also can help teenagers to protect themselves against abuse or unintended pregnancies, prevent unsafe abortion or abandoned babies and the transmission of the infection. The purpose of sex education is to reduce the risk of negative outcomes from sexual behaviour such as unwanted or unplanned pregnancies.

Besides that, sex education is also to provide accurate information about the risk of having sexual relationship before marriage, information about birth control and the contraception. Sex education also finds out what the teenagers already know and correcting any incorrect information that they may have. Through the sex education, it can increase the knowledge of teenagers about sexuality. Teenagers who had received the sex education will have lower risk of intended pregnancy and less likely to having sex relationship at early age.

In addition, sex education programme can also promote the safer sex practise. Safer sex practise is the practise that the people take precaution when having sex relationship to protect themselves against the transmission of HIV and AIDS. Safer sex can reduce the risk of getting the HIV or AIDS when having the sex relationship. Safer sex practise can get through by using condom when having sex relationship with partner. By using condom can reduce the risk to get the HIV and AIDS, unintended pregnancy. This can reduce the number of abortion and abandoned babies issues.

Beginning the sex education at an early age is very important. By giving some basic information about sex to children such as how was a people grow and change over time, how a baby came from. For those teenagers, teacher can give more complex information on sex such as the transmission of HIV and AIDS, the consequences of having sexual relationship before marriage. However, sex education at early age does not mean that encourages teenagers to have sex but is to let teenagers to store up information provided for a time when they need it in the future.

Sex education not only can get through school but also can take place through various people. Different people have the different responsibility to provide sex education to teenagers and children. As a parents, they can face-to-face discuss with their children on specific issues or question on sex. Besides that, parents should educate their children about self-respect, moral values and self-protection. Some parents (In Asia) are reluctant to talk about sex issues to their children due to shy or do not know how to begin the topic about sex. Parents should not avoid this subject if not their children may relying on incorrect information they get and it will put them on risk of unwanted sex, unintended pregnancies. Therefore, the discussion between parents and their children is important because the discussion, the parents may know more what their children’s thinking is. The good communication between parents and their children about sexual matter can lead to their children have more awareness to the seriousness of having sex before marriage.

Besides that, teachers also have the responsibility to provide sex education to teenagers. The teachers who are going to provide sex education must be well trained so the teachers will not feel shy to provide the sex education. Beside that, a well trained teacher can provide more accurate information about sex matter to teenagers. Teacher should also educate students the danger of premarital sex and the consequences of premarital sex. Cases of child abandonment usually results from unwanted pregnancies. In most cases, it involves teenage girls who became pregnant outside wedlock and are compelled to commit the act in desperation and fear of the consequences.

So what are the main reasons for abortion? Many women and teens worry about their future plans. Some women and teens do not feel they can afford a child. Deciding what to do about an unplanned pregnancy can be difficult. Furthermore, even having a family member at hand does not provide an environment that encourages a pregnant teen to openly seek help. Shame, fear of blame from parents or health staff and the presence of traditional religious and conservative norms make it difficult. There for, a family member must accompany teens seeking counselling. This is because they need someone who can support them, because their condition is very unstable.

As the parent of a pregnant teen, you may be feeling many of the same emotions as your daughter such as shock, anger, fear or uncertainty. Maybe your teen was scared to tell you about her pregnancy, or maybe she came to you right away. In either case, your child will need to learn on you for support as she makes decisions that will affect the rest of her life. Parents may play a very important role in a pregnant teen’s decision. Pregnant teens often need the support and help of their closest family and friends as well.

Besides, the pregnant teens can go for an option counselor. An option counselor can help both women and girls with this decision. They will not make the decision or try to convince you to choose a particular course of action. Rather, they help all women decide for themselves. They will find a best way to help you to solve the problems and helps you to learn better social skills. As a role of schools, it is possible to implement programs to assist pregnant teenagers during and after their pregnancies ant this is specifically for only pregnant teens and young mothers. It can provide child care, parenting courses and a high school curriculum to make it as easy as possible for the students to attend school.

On the other hand, with support from state and private sources, the government can implement some prevention campaign like adolescent Pregnancy Program and health care program to those pregnant teens. The program is to give teenage parents and their children access to health care. The program links with community-based services for teenaged parents and provides much-needed immunizations, parenting education and physical checkups for parents and their children. Furthermore, Media can be the way to pregnant teens to seek for the information. There are many websites, forums and online communities are available on the Internet. These sites are places where pregnant teens can go to learn more about their condition and to talk to others in a similar situation. Some are designed to offer support and to provide information to pregnant teens.

As we can see, television is playing a very big role in our life. Television has its good side. It can be entertaining and educational, and can open up new worlds for children, giving them a chance to travel the globe, learn about different cultures, and gain exposure to ideas they may never encounter in their own community. However, parents need to understand the negative influence of children’s TV, even children’s programming, because children are likely to learn things from TV that parents don’t want them to learn. Television can affect children’s health, school work and behavior in negative ways.

Excess television viewing can influence children’s physical and mental health. On one hand, it could affect badly children’s physical health. It is easy for children to be myopic if they watch TV more than two hours in a day. Children will spend less time on sports and TV time also takes away from participating in sports, music, art or other activities that require practice to become skillful. And they may have high caloric intake if they are watching TV at dinner. A person would burn fewer calories while watching TV than when just sitting quietly, doing nothing (Langholt, 2010). So it may contribute to obesity problems. Children who watch more TV are more likely to be overweight. TV is a bigger factor than diet. Estimates of risk indicate that more 60% of overweight incidence in this population can be linked to excess television viewing time (Dietz, 1996). Many TV ads encourage unhealthy eating habits. Two-thirds of the 20,000 TV ads an average child sees each year are for food and most are for high-sugar foods. After-school TV ads target children with ads for unhealthy foods and beverages, like fast food and sugary drinks. On the other hand, watching TV has bad influence on children’s mental health, too. Children who are addicted to TV are hard to communicate with their family members and classmates. One study found that TV viewing before age three slightly hurt several measures of later brain development. Before the age of three, children’s brain develops rapidly, forming connections and pathways that will assist with learning later in life. Studies indicate that exposure to television, with its fast-moving images and rapid actions, actually rewires children’s brain to crave this hyperactive stimulation. The benefits of parent-child interactions are proven, and under age three, talking, singing, reading, listening, to music or playing are far more important to children’s development than any TV show. The American Academy of Pediatrics strongly recommends that parents keep their kids away from all TV until after the age of two (Bushman, 2010). Children under age eight can’t tell the difference between reality in our lives and fantasy on TV. In this case, children may be frightened or upset by TV stories easily, and the symptoms include bad dreams, anxious feelings, being afraid of being alone, withdrawing from friends, and missing school.

TV viewing may replace activities that we know help with school work, such as reading, doing homework, pursuing hobbies, and getting enough sleep. First, it makes children read fewer books and have lower grades in school. Watching TV at age four is one factor to be associated with bulling in grade school. Second, children may become more seeing than thinking. It may prevent children from the development of their imagination and creativity. Finally, one research study found that TV’s effects on education are long term. The study found that watching TV as a child affected educational achievement at age 26. Watching more TV in childhood increases chances of dropping out of school and decreased chances of getting a college, even after controlling for confounding factors (Bushman, 2010).

Children who watch more sensitive TV may have behavior problems. First of all, they will imitate the violence they see on TV. Programs designed for children more often contain violence than adult TV. Young children may even try to emulate the things they see on TV, not realizing that they risk injuring themselves or others. According to the AAP, Extensive research evidence indicates that media violence can contribute to aggressive behavior, desensitization to violence (Bushman, 2010). Watching violent shows is also linked with having less empathy toward others. A university of Michigan researcher demonstrated that watching violent media can affect willingness to help others in need (Bushman, 2010). What’s more, alcohol advertising, including TV ads, contributes to an increase in drinking among youth. TV ads are a major factor in normalizing alcohol use in the minds of children, adolescents and college students. Alcohol has damaging effects on young people’s developing brains-and the damage can be permanent. Children who watch TV are more likely to smoke. Even though tobacco ads are banned on TV, young people still see people smoking on programs and movies shown on television. Recent research has shown that exposure to smoking in movie characters increases the likelihood that viewers will associate themselves with smoking (Langholt, 2010). Kids who watch more TV start smoking at an earlier age. The relationship between television viewing and age of starting smoking is stronger than that of peer smoking, parental smoking, and gender. Finally, children get lots of information about sexuality from television. Because most parents don’t talk to their kids about sex and most school don’t offer complete sex education programs, they get much information about sex from TV. However, watching sex on TV increases the chances that a teen will have sex, and may cause teens to start having sex at younger ages (Bushman, 2010).

In summary, television viewing affects children’s physical and mental health, school performance and behavior in negative ways. Therefore, children should replace TV time with creative and physical activities, reading and playing games with positive values and educational content.

Compare and contrast how two named health care systems deal with one specific health issues. The aim of this assignment is to choose two countries, and compare and contrast how these two countries deal one specific health issue. One country has to have a good rate of the health issues and the other one has to have a bad rate of the same health issue. The two countries that this assignment chooses to about talk are the United Kingdom and the Netherlands, and the health issue that is going to be concentrated on is teenage pregnancy. This assignment will focus on comparing how both countries are tackling teenage pregnancy, the assignment will also talk about the amount of money both countries spend on sex education, also if teenage pregnancy has always been a problem, if both countries raise effective awareness on conceptions and etc, furthermore this essay will discuss about why teenage pregnancy is good in Holland and why the rates of teenage pregnancy keeps on going up in the United Kingdom.

Introduction

The reason why this topic is being explored is because the United Kingdom always seems to have a high rate in teenage pregnancy in Europe, and in countries like Netherlands teenage pregnancy always seems to be low. Therefore it will be good to compare these two countries and see why one country has a good rate of teenage pregnancy and why the other one has a terrible rate of teenage pregnancy, this can help understand where the united kingdom is going wrong for them to be always having a high rate in teenage pregnancy, and maybe they can see what the Netherlander do to prevent having such high rates of teenage pregnancy.

Teenage pregnancy is a contemporary health issue because the cost of teenage pregnancy is shocking. Teenagers who end up getting pregnant are less likely to complete secondary school, they are also less likely to get married, and also they normally end up going on benefits, when their children are born they don’t really have a good health, their cognitive development is normally slow, and they always tend to have behavioural problems.

Being a teenage parent sometimes comes with its own consequences such experiencing mental health problems, sometimes if the teenage mother is not getting any support from family and friends, they feel isolated and they always tend to find it hard to cope, so they start getting stressed out, having a low self – esteem, feeling anxiety and depressed which can lead to mental health. Teenage mothers that end up getting pregnant always tend to come from a lower working class, and living in deprived areas, and they always tend to have their second child quickly, this causes more stress on their well being, because they might be struggling with finance.

Main body

The United Kingdom has one of the highest rates of teenage pregnancy across Europe, and whereas the Netherlands have one of the lowest teenage pregnancy rate. The reasons why the Netherland have such a low rate of teenage pregnancy could be because they are more opened to talk about sex with their children then parents and schools in the United Kingdom. The Netherland have a low rate of teenage pregnancy because they do sex education in schools, and parents normally have open talk sex with children, and adverts on televisions on how to prevent getting pregnant.

The United Kingdom and the Netherlanders sex education are similar, but there are also differences between the two countries on how and what they teach about sex education. The reason why the Netherlands sex education is more effective than the United Kingdom’s one is that, the Netherlander tell there children how to protect themselves from STI’s and unwanted pregnancy and how to avoid risky sexual behaviour, and when and how to use contraceptives. Whereas in the United Kingdom instead of teaching teenagers how to protect themselves from sexually transmitted infections and how to prevent pregnancy, they promote more on how they should not be having sex.

Sex education in the UK is called (PSHE) and in Netherland they call it (CARE). (Hardy, J.B. and Zabin L.S. 1991) believe that sex education is less controversial in the Netherlands, mainly at political level, and there society is more open when it comes to issues about sex, but people sometimes tend to mistake their openness for permissiveness’. Studies believe that there is a political opposition to sex education from the smaller Christian parties in Netherlands; Politicians have the tendency to pass the issue over to professional sex educators, whereas in the United Kingdom the politics of sex education have been unfavourable, with major discussions about taking place over legislation passed in 1986, 1988, and 2000. Some politicians and families believe that sex education in schools is too explicit and it promotes homosexuality, and doing sex education in schools causes teenage pregnancy rather than prevent it. This can be argued that having sex education in school does not promote or encourage teenagers to get pregnant, because by having sex education in school, teachers are informing teens how to avoid risky sexual behaviour and they are also teaching them how to use contraceptives correctly, and also by teaching them about sex they will know how to protect themselves, also they will be aware of the consequences of having one or more children at a young age.

Teenagers who get pregnant at an early age tend to come from poorer backgrounds and from areas that are high with unemployment rates, daughters of teenager mothers, which always ends up being a vicious circle, and also young people that are in care.

Being under age and pregnant cost the British government ?166,000 to raise a child until they reach their 21st birthday. 90 per cent of teenage mothers rely on benefits in order for them to survive. The British public fund course that cost around ?100,000 that allows young teenage mothers as young as 14 to take these courses, this course is about helping them to be writing things up like CV, and teaching them the dangers of smoking whilst pregnant, and by them attending these courses they get paid ?30 a week, and if they finish the 16 week course without missing any lessons they get ?100 bonus. This could be argued that all the money that they are spending on these young mothers to do these courses could go towards trying to reduce the rate of teenage pregnancy.

The British government are working towards their target of reducing the rate of teenage pregnancy by 2010. Their aim is to make sex education compulsory in all schools both in primary and secondary schools like in Netherlands, and to be going more in details about sex education, this will include teachers talking about contraception and relationship issues. The British government seems to be following the Netherlands footsteps in the way they approach sex education, with openness about sex from a younger age.

The reason why the British government wants to follow the Netherlands approach is because the Dutch children get taught about relationships from an early age, so they get comfortable as time goes by with talking about sex and contraception, so by the time that they are ready to be having sexual intercourse with the opposite they will know how to use contraception in order to avoid pregnancy and STI’s, and this will have a good impact on the country, because they will be a low rate of teenage pregnancy, so if the British government following these approaches, it could work for them also by having a low rate of teenage pregnancy across Europe. Although this kind of approach could be argue that it is encouraging young people to have sex, but statistics in Netherlands stated that there are fewer teenage pregnancies and the age that most young people in Netherland first have sex is higher than in most other developed countries.

Another way the British government is trying to tackle with teenage pregnancy is adverting young people to be responsible about sex and contraception on televisions, radios, internets and billboards. These kinds of promotions can be a good thing, because some young people might feel comfortable to be talking about sex amongst their peers, and these advertisements may even encourage some teenagers to talk about sex issues with their parents. Even though some people might argue that advertising sex and contraception will not solve teenage pregnancy, but it can be argued that it will not make the situation any worse, and these advertisements could be a break through towards teenage pregnancy, because some young people might think about their actions and use contraception more sensibly, because they have a knowledge of what the consequences are of not using contraception can lead to.

As we already know the United Kingdom has one of the highest rates of teenage pregnancy across Europe. Figures have shown that during 1996 there were 44,000

that gave birth below the age of 20, which signified around 7 per cent of all births

in Britain. The birth rate was 29.8 per 1000 women aged 15 to 19 years,

compare with 65.5 per 1000 for women aged 20-24 years. This could be argued

That in order to reduce such figures government should concentrate more on sex

education in schools.

Teenage pregnancy in Britain is usually identified as a problem for society,

According to (Peckham, S.1993) stated that reports of “medical, financial and

social problems for mothers and children following teenage pregnancy, is linked

with sex and education, and suggest how they should both be improved.

teenage pregnancy rates in the Netherlands have always being low due to the high

quality, explicit and early sex education in both primary and secondary schools. (Dr

Loon 2003) believes that sex education in the Netherlands starts at younger age then

The UK, it’s also more explicit, he also stated that the Netherlands are more

Independent than the United Kingdom and parents and the government in the

Netherlands have more power over what is being taught at school and also their

Influence of church helps a lot. This can be argued that there is a huge difference in

A way both countries approach sex education overall.

The awareness of teenage pregnancy is more effective in the Netherlands, than the United Kingdom, because they start talking to children about sex at the age of 11, parents talk to the children about as well, so from a young age they know about sex, and they know what they consequences are of having sex are, and even if they are ready to be having sexual intercourse they know how to protect themselves from getting pregnant and STI’s because they have being teaching them how to use contraception from schools, parents and media. Whereas the message is not really effective in the United Kingdom, even though the kind of messages that both countries is kind of similar, but one is more out there than the other, that why works more.

The UK provide the correct information about the risks associated with sexual

activity the also talk about contraception and birth control, and how to avoid

Intercourse, they also focus on reducing specific risky behaviours. They don’t really promote safe sex on televisions as much as the Netherlands does, or start sex education at an early age. But recently the UK has started advertising safe sex on televisions and radios. Research have shown that “about 93 per of young people in the Netherlands use contraception, whereas in the UK 53 per cent of young people use contraception”. This could be because in Netherland they give out the message more about safe sex in schools, homes, and media than in Britain. Studies shown that teenagers in both countries found that boys and girls in the Netherlands gave love to each other, as one of the main reasons of losing their virginity, and boys in the UK do it because they are getting peer pressure.

Teenagers in the Netherlands are obviously doing it for the right reason and they are having sexual intercourse they probably feel they are ready, but they are being responsible by taking the percussions needed, because adults like teachers and parents have being telling them about safe sex from an early age, and they understand the consequences of what will happen if they don’t take the right percussions needed. And some teenagers in Britain don’t know or understand the consequences of safe sex, because they don’t talk about sex at home, and at school the message that they send the most in sex education is don’t have sex, and obliviously by telling young people not to have sex, they are more likely to do it, so it’s better off telling them what percussions to take when they feel like they need to starts having sexual intercourse with opposite sex.

Conclusion

In conclusion this essay has found out why The United Kingdom has a bad rate of teenage pregnancy and why the Netherlands have a good rate of teenage pregnancy. They reason why the UK has a bad rate of teenage pregnancy, it’s because they don’t really talk about sex and contraction, you see they don’t feel comfortable talking to their children and student about sex and contraception, so in order for them not to talk about it they just tell the young people not to have sex, instead of telling them about it and how to use contractions and where to go and get it from. They just promote by telling them they are not allow to have sex, whereas in the Netherlands they are more open about telling their children about sex and contraception, and also there children are taught sex education at an early age, unlike in the United Kingdom.

The UK is working towards halving the teenage pregnancy rate by 2010, by following the approaches that the Netherlands use, by starting sex education at an early age, obliviously at age that they feel is right for the children, talking about sex and using contraception more, than promoting young people not to be having sex, also promoting using contraception’s on television, radio’s, internet, and on billboards. By doing is it can eventually make a change towards teenage pregnancy rate in the United Kingdom.

Word Count
2, 464

THESIS OUTLINE

Young people using illegal drugs.
Reasons for why teens use drugs.
Enhance pleasure.
Instant gratification.
Lack of confidence.
Common risk factors associated with drugs.
Family history.
Mental or behavioral disorder.
Impulse control problems.
Risk of accidents and deaths due to drug overdose.
Poison deaths.
Statistics about drug misuse.
Increase in road accidents.
Drug affects family relationships.
How drugs affect parents and siblings.
Destructive behavior of parents.
Effects of drugs on Academics.
Statistics and facts of teen use drugs and alcohol in colleges.
Drop out from schools.
Maintain gangs.
Peer pressure.
Prevention tips.
Build emotional ties.
Confront problems quickly.

TEENAGE ILLEGAL DRUG USE

THESIS STATEMENT:

Teenage illegal drug use is a problem in the world today, using drugs increases risk of accidents, ruin family relationships, job prospects and academic failure.

TEENS USE ILLEGAL DRUGS:

Teenage illegal drug use is common in today’s world. Not every teen uses drugs; there are several risks by using drugs, which include an increase in accidents, ruining family relationships and academic failure. Drug addiction or use is highest among teens and late 20’s, according to the national survey by national survey on drug use and health NSDUH (2013), the drug usage among teenagers varied in people aged between 12-18, most of them are using illegal drugs. Teens are addicted to drugs to enhance pleasure, fun, self-medication, lack of confidence, to vary their conscious experience, relive pain, to promote and enhance social collaboration by Larsen, (n.d). From the book, drug abuse sourcebook (2013), teens take drugs to maintain gang, to escape or relax, to relive boredom, rebel and peer pressure. Illegal drugs are very hazardous used by teens (p.100). According to Dasha (2014), 60% of Canada teenagers use illegal drugs between ages 15 to 24. Teenagers also use drugs on an occasional basis and used as a part of a social life that can include parties and dating. In India, teenagers few teenagers are addicted to drugs, in villages most of them use marijuana. Europe has less number of teenagers compared with American teenagers. Drugs can affect very quickly and without knowing them, the length of time that it effects varies, it depends on how much quantity of drug taken, some drugs are legal when lawfully used for medical purposes. However, that does not mean drugs are safe. As per the survey UNODC in 2014 countries like Australia, United States of America, Spain, Urban Afghanistan and Pakistan, the illicit use of drugs is more common among the men and women.

The most common risk factors associated with drugs in teenage are family history, mental or behavioral disorders and impulse control problems. Mostly, the problem starts from family history. Especially when teen parents are having drug problem, this affects the child has or teen behavior and can increase the risk to try drugs (NIDA, 2012). Depression and anxiety or deficit hyperactivity disorders in teenage can increase more risk with the use of drugs. Those who are addicted to drugs would likely going to have mental disorder problems; they suffer often from mood and anxiety disorder. This may cause physical illness or disability, brain damage. The most common factor that teens affected by impulse control disorders, this involves chronic problems in one’s ability his or her emotions and behaviors. Due to lack of self-control, teens suffer from these disorders and experience disruptions in social, personal, family and academic aspects. Using drugs, exposure to violence, family history are most common risk factors faced by teens.

Parents should take care of the children’s health and behavioral problems; they should be vigilant on drug use. In the article “Young people and illegal drugs” the Australian government (2013), parents can make children healthy and safe role model, teach them how to make good decisions-get the facts, find out the risks and plan family events they can take part in. they have to keep eye on behavior and feelings. Sometimes young people who are depressed or have mental illness use drugs to help them cope with feeling bad, as per south Australian government (2013). Teens might be unusual behavior, silence, anger towards, change of friends and change in physical appearance in teens who use drugs by Australian government in the article young people and illegal drugs (2013).

RISK OF ACCIDENTS AND DEATHS DUE TO DRUG OVERDOSE:

The majority of the accidents and deaths in teenage are caused due to drug overdose. From the book drug abuse Larsen, (n.d.), explained about the risk of accidents and deaths are due to drug over dose. Every drug is a poison; a large amount of drug can kill the person due to accidents and poison. The legal and illegal drugs root the vast majority of poisoning deaths; According to the 2013, national survey on drug and health (NSDUH) and NIDA (2014), an approximate 9.9 million-teenager aged 12 or older are driving under the influence of illicit drugs during the year prior. This is the lower compared with 2012 by National Highway Traffic Safety and Administration (NHTSA). Vehicle accidents are lead to cause poisoning deaths from injuries among the young people between ages 16 to 19 statement by (NIDA) Drug driving; nearly 9 out of 10 deaths caused by illegal drug usage; in past four decades the motor vehicle traffic deaths increased due to poisoning by drug uses that are unintentional, suicides, undetermined intent. The comparison between boys and girls, the ratio is 2:3 compared from 1999. According to international statistics in 2005, over 4.4 million teenagers in the US admitted taking prescription painkillers and almost 50% of teens believe that prescription drugs are much safer than illegal street drugs. Up to 60 percent to 70 percent of prescription drugs used as source of drug for teenagers by drug free world by Goldberg, C. (2013, April 22). According to the World drug report (2013), few countries as Iran, Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan are the mostly affected in Asia related deaths using illicit drugs. In Africa, around 17,500 numbers of people including teenagers are drug related deaths (WHO, 2012).

Overall, drugs can increase to accidents risk regardless of the presence of alcohol; the contribution of drugs was significantly higher than that produced by alcohol. Use of drugs while driving tends to fatal and serious injuries.

DRUG AFFECTS FAMILY RELATIONSHIPS:

When a child gets addicted to drugs, the entire family unit suffers of physical and mental health (Beth Covelli, 2014). According to American government survey, one in 10 teenagers between 12 and 17 years of age are illicit drugs (2009).

Parents and siblings have a key role in modeling and the reinforcement of drug use by teens. Most of the Drug abuse has a lot of stress on parents and siblings declined in their health related to stress of living with the child’s drug problem by Laura (n.d). Drug use can compact parent-child relationships to prevent drug use and the family conflicts might increase, when teen take drugs they may forget because their focus is on getting and taking drugs and they may lie or steal money to purchase drugs by Nefer, B. (2005). The teen drug user might do anything that upsets neighbors and friends and make the family ashamed. Some teens who are addicted are out of control and do not see about the problems causing by themselves in drug facts by NIDA. Younger siblings of drug users can identified as at increased risk of drug exposure and intention. If the parents or brothers who addicted to drugs they may spoil the relationships in family. Most of the siblings exposed to drugs because they share the same room or house (Larsen, n.d). Drug use has a major impact on relationships; it effects the emotional, financial and psychological of the entire family and friends.

The drug use tends to blame on others in families, the situations may cause negative effects on younger siblings.

EFFECTS OF DRUGS USE ON ACADEMICS:

Drug use on campuses is universal. According to Health study, 90% of teens have used drugs and many of their classmates are using illegal drugs stated by co-students in the schools and colleges. Students usually dropout from schools or colleges due to illegal drugs, about 17 percent of students, 2.8 million are abusing drugs in school days in United States of America. Most of the schools are like hubs for drug activity with 44 percent of high school students who sells and use drugs by Reinberg, S. (2011, November 7). Private school students reported 54 percent of drugs available in schools and 61 percent of students are drug infected in public schools. In the article, “Effects of drugs and alcohol on Academic life”, 95% of the college campus violence related to drugs, over 60 percent of all college women intoxicated using drugs.

Teenagers feel pressured to use drugs at parties and social gathering; they use drugs to get relieved from work related stress, financial worries or relationship problems and for feeling of shyness. Illicit drug use among dropouts was higher than for those in school (31.4 percent vs. 18.2 percent). Teenagers who use drug are more likely than non-users to drop out of school and less likely than non-users to graduate from high school. According to research at Colorado State University, teen drug abuse increases the risk of failure at schools. Poor academic performance can lead to increase truancy and dropout rates. The drugs are the main factor for teen violence; students with violent tendencies are likely to resist authority by (university of Illinois).

Drug use can cause teenagers more vulnerable to depression and suicidal behavior. The symptoms of depression can manifest themselves in the form of being late to class and unable to complete assignments and other activities (Turner, 2009). Most of the teenagers maintain gangs to protect themselves (Lares, n.d). Some youth attend schools where violence is all too familiar and physical fighting is frequent relied upon to settle disputes (OSWALT, 2011) in Exposure to Violence.

The influence of social media and electronic media can be negatively affecting the young people in many ways like exposing them to violence, reinforcing the importance of money. A staggering three quarters of teens between ages of 12 and 17 years old admitted that seeing photos of fellow classmates using drugs on social media encouraged them to do the same from the article “The influence of social media and teen drug use”. They are exposing them to extreme violence, which can desensitize them to reality, reinforcing the importance if money, consumerism and status symbol in Australia (2015). The main reason for the gang violence are the use and sale of drugs in campus, disputes over gang territory, gang rivalries and fights among members of the other gang.

PREVENTION TIPS:

The best know fact about prevention about the illegal drug use is “Not to take drugs”. To live a healthy life and drug free life there are few prevention tips for parents, faculty and teenagers:

Parents have to keep time for kids to know about the kid’s schedule of the day. They should be vigilant about their children’s, make family dinner as often, spend time, and share the views, know about the friends. This can build emotional ties between parents and children’s (Phoenix house, 2012). Students will experience freedom and this may result with drug use, the use of illegal drugs is always dangerous. Faculty and university should change behavior of the student even he refuse your help and they should interact with students to avoid the drug culture.

CONCLUSION:

To conclude, illegal drug use will be impact on the teenagers and increase the risk factors including accidents, crimes, academic failure. All of these issues are very significant to the individual teen, the family and society. Teenagers should know the facts and knowledge about the drug use and its effects and they can live drug free life.

REFERENCE:

(AMERICAN PSYCOLOGICAL ASSOCIATION)

BARNARD, M. (2005, April 27). Drugs in the family: The impact on parents and siblings | Joseph Rowntree Foundation. Retrieved May 3, 2015, from http://www.jrf.org.uk/publications/drugs-family-impact-parents-and-siblings

DrugFacts: Drugged Driving. (2014, December 1). Retrieved April 26, 2015, from http://www.drugabuse.gov/publications/drugfacts/drugged-driving

Drugs – teenagers – Better Health Channel. (n.d.). Retrieved May 3, 2015, from http://www.betterhealth.vic.gov.au/bhcv2/bhcarticles.Nsf/pages/Drugs_teenagers?open

Goldberg, C. (2013, April 22). National Study: Teen Misuse and Abuse of Prescription Drugs Up 33 Percent Since 2008, Stimulants Contributing to Sustained Rx Epidemic – Partnership for Drug-Free Kids. Retrieved May 3, 2015, from http://www.drugfree.org/newsroom/national-study-teen-misuse-and-abuse-of-prescription-drugs-up-33-percent-since-2008-stimulants-contributing-to-sustained-rx-epidemic/

Larsen, L. (2014). Drug abuse sourcebook: Basic consumer health information about the abuse of cocaine, club drugs, marijuana, inhalants, heroin, hallucinogens, and other illicit substances and the misuse of prescription and over-the-counter medications; along with facts and statistics about drug use and addiction, treatment and recovery, drug testing, drug abuse prevention and intervention, glossaries of related terms, and directories of resources for additional help and information (4^th ed.). OMNIGRAPHICS.

MANAGING YOUR HEALTH. (2011, November 7). Retrieved April 27, 2015, from http://health.usnews.com/health-news/managing-your-healthcare/articles/2011/11/07/more-than-a-third-of-teens-turning-to-alcohol-drugs-study.

National Institute on Drug Abuse. Drugged Driving Retrieved from http://www.drugabuse.gov/publications/drugfacts/drugged-driving on April 22, 2015

Nefer, B. (2005). Drug abuse and relationships. AMERICAN JOURNAL OF PUBLIC HEALTH. Retrieved January 7, 2015, from http://www.livestrong.com/article/195062-drug-abuse-relationships/

Parenting and Child Health – Health Topics -. (2013, October 10). Retrieved May 3, 2015, from http://www.cyh.com/HealthTopics/HealthTopicDetails.aspx?p=114&np=141&id=1747.

Simple Methods to Prevent Your Teen from Using Drugs or Alcohol. (2012, September 19). Retrieved April 30, 2015, from http://www.phoenixhouse.org/news-and-views/news-and-events/simple-methods-to-prevent-your-teen-from-using-drugs-or-alcohol/

THE EFFECT OF DRUG AND alcohol on academic life. (n.d.). Retrieved April 25, 2015, from https://www.fit.edu/caps/documents/effects of drugs.pdf

The Effects of Drugs and Alcohol on Academic Life. (2011, September 21). Retrieved May 2, 2015, from http://sobercollege.com/2011/the-effects-of-drugs-and-alcohol-on-academic-life/

WORLD DRUG REPORT 2014. (2014, June 1). Retrieved May 5, 2015, from http://www.unodc.org/documents/data-and-analysis/WDR2014/World_Drug_Report_2014_web.pdf

In my opinion, that I believe the most pressing problems in our country is the teenager social problem. That affects our country, because teenagers are the hope of country in future. After that, the letter write to local education authority is about compulsory school uniform for all pupils. Pupil wears school uniform that is more advantage for them in the school life.

This assignment has three sections that are introduction, content and conclusions and recommendations.

The teenager problem can prevent by parent, counselor, doctor and police. When our teenager is in a problem they cannot settle, parent must give enough concern, confidence, believe what they say and find the solution to fix the problem together or give recommendation to then. The society must feel tolerance to teenager, because they are growing in grey area between childhood and adulthood. It many advantange if all of pupil wear school uniform . Wearing school uniform mean everyone is the same , no one can set fashion or teased for wearing weird or out of fashion clothes . Also, it can avoid some bullying cases because of wear school uniform.

Teenager and parent need to have a good communicate, parent give good enough love and support, teens are feel themselves is very important. Pupils have to compulsory wears school uniform because it can show more discipline and look smart. Therefore, school uniform is very important to pupil.

1.0 Introduction

The teenagers are very important for development of one nation. But now, we can heard that students damages discipline teacher’s car, inject drug .The increasing rate of student bully and drug abuse among youths is indeed of great concern. The causes of problems came from various factors. The main problem arises from teenager’s parent. The parent is a main character for their child, sometimes parents didn’t know about their children ability, that’s because the teenagers feel stress and tense. Sometimes, some parents put high expectations on their children like gets the excellence in their study or become high achiever in their school. By the same time their parent too control on their activities. Therefore, teenagers feel burden with their parent’s hope and aim on them. When they cannot achieve their friend’s level their self-esteem become low and they think they are not accepted in school’s society. The solution is, they find another community that can accept them. The society expressly blame on the teenagers when they making mistake. This kind of pressure from society put teenager in stress. The societies are not aware why does teenager react like that. Moreover the society doesn’t give them chance to change their behavior and feel they are the worst people in society. Adults sometime act in poor manner for example drunken parents or drug addict parents. They become the most important cause to what have happen on teenagers.

Teenage Bullying

Bullying includes a wide variety of behaviors, but all involve a person or a group repeatedly trying to harm someone who is weaker. It can involve direct attacks such as hitting, and stealing or damaging belongings, indirect attacks such as spreading rumors or encouraging others to reject or exclude someone. Bullying can start at any age and can continue through high school. Most of teenager bullying cases happen in school, because the people who bully and the victim both of them are lack of social problem solving skill. There are many problem solving skill to prevent bullying. Parents are should try sitting down with teenager and brainstorming some solution to the situation. And parents are also can discuss about what they have tried before in similar situations, and what outcomes they experienced. If a child ask to parent he is a victim of school bullying, parent are cannot ignore about this, because it is very serious case. First, believe and listen what the child say, this is very important step to make child believe you can help him. Second, most children are deal with bullying behavior, so let the child know he is not alone in this situation. Third, if the child being threatened psychic or illegal way in school, don’t complicate report to school or police. Even the child do not want to do this, but bullying is cannot be tolerate. Fourth, teach the child courage say “NO” if being bully. The school counselor and teachers have responsibility to prevent the school bullying, they should always take a look on student who has unusual behavior in school. The discipline teacher must increase the punishment on bullying cases.

Teenage Drug Abuse

Drugs and Teenagers Drug use is the increasing problem among teenagers in today’s high schools. Most drug use begins in the preteen and teenage years. Why the reason teens are drug? There are many causes about teenager have a contact with drug. Family problem is one of the cause of teenager drug abuse, may be in family member who are the drug abuser, so teenager will influence by family member. Friends also is a reason of contact with drug. If a friend in the social group use drugs , the person may be offered to try drugs, which is direct pressure. Indirect pressure is when someone sees everyone around him using drugs and he might think that there is nothing wrong with using drugs. Even if a person had no intentions of using drugs one might do it just to be considered “cool” by his friends. Here is a personal example of drug use from a teenager, “When I started using, was only on weekends, at parties. I used drugs ‘recreationally’ and therefore thought I had no addiction problem. I used drugs like nicotine, marijuana or LSD to be happy or to have fun. I needed drugs. I kept using drugs, I used drugs like marijuana to fit socially. I had problems in my life, emotionally, that drugs only seemed to solve. Drugs made my problems worse. I started snorting cocaine. I injected heroin into my veins. I almost died. I was addicted.” Therefore drug is very harmful to everyone, especially teenager. Drug can destroy the teenager future or everything. The overcome method is parent must take some time to give enough concern to their children for avoid them from drugs. The school should hire a lecture to give a talk to teenager, let them know how about the drugs destroy our body and disadvantages of drug. The society must cooperate with police fight against drug dealer, without drug dealer, there are no drug to deal with buyer.

Teenage Suicide Problem

Teenage are caught in grey area between childhood and adulthood. Therefore, they experience strong feelings of stress , confusion , self-doubt , pressure to succeed , and other fears while growing up . For some teens , suicide may appear to be a solution to their problems and stress. Most of teenage are suicide because of unsettle problem, such as breakup relationship, pressure of homework , worry about their future and making a serious mistake they feel cannot settle , these are the reason of teenager suicide. Teenage suicide making many problem and this is an alert to society. When the teens are thinking about suicide they have some unusual behavior. They will always talking about suicide or death, feeling hopeless, give hints to people around his life he might not be around anymore . After that , teen also lose their interest in school or sport, and pull away from friend and family . What adult can do when their teen think about suicide? Parent must keep a close eye on teen want to suicide , understanding depression in teens is very important since it can look different about depression . Try to keep the lines communication open and express concern , support , and love. If teen doesn’t feel comfortable talking with parent, suggest more neutral person , such as school counselor, or a doctor.

Conclusion

The role of parents is crucial in giving serious attention to their children. Parents must consider the movements or the movement of their children. Parents should always know and identify the problems faced by their children and are willing to take the time to solve the problem. After that, establishing legal system in the school, student must more discipline and responsibility. Counseling at school level is important in helping teenagers overcome their problem too . Parents and Teachers Association (PTA) should play an important role . More frequent meetings between parents , guardians and teachers should be held especially for students that influenced in social problems . Parents should discuss students problem with teacher and get ready to receive an advice from a teacher with an open and positive attitude. Teenagers also need the attitude of change , if the teenagers can change their attitudes by selecting a good friend , they will not be trapped in social problems.

2.0 Introduction

School uniforms should be compulsory for all students at all grade levels . There are many reasons, which justify this including discipline , discrimination and to give the students a sense of identity .

If all students at a particular school didn’t wear school uniforms , there would be discrimination between the financially advantaged people and the disadvantaged people . The wealthier people would tend to look down the poorer people as it gives them a chance to flaunt their wealth .

When students wear school uniforms , it shows the similarities between them , and not the differences . Each school has their own rule of law and based on that , students need to obey on that law and respect . When student wears a uniform , it shows a sign of dignity and it means that that student has confirmed the school expectations and that student feels that he or she belongs to that school . School uniforms also indicate what degree or grade the students are in , and what kind of school they go to . School uniforms are good because some children would become bullied if they did not wear the most up to date fashions . A school uniform makes it easier for the school authorities to recognize students belonging to their school . So everyone wearing the same uniform everyday that type of degrading is avoided . In short , wearing school uniform is very important and bring a lot of advantage to student .

2.1 Letter

22, Jalan Cempaka,

Taman Gemilang,

31450 Ipoh,

Perak .

Head Of Education Authority

1, Jalan Raja,

Taman Cemerlang,

30100 Ipoh,

Perak. 1 June 2012

Dear Sir,

Compulsory School Uniform To All Pupils

I am writing this letter is to attract your attention to the above title. As the representative of the community, I am calling to tell you that many parent are claim for their children to wear a formal school uniform . There are many reason and advantages for all pupil if they wear uniform .

2. There are many disadvantage if pupil are not wearing school uniform . Teenager will wearing a expensive brand name to school to show that he or she has much money to spend on these clothes . Many of teenage feel that without wearing uniform and wearing follow own stlye is individuality and self-expression , this is a wrong concept to teenage , they never know school uniform is very important to them . Recently , there are two gang of pupil fighting on street after

school time , but they are not wearing school uniform , so the people who saw the pupil fighting on the street , they cannot identify which school the pupil came from .

3. It many advantange if all of pupil wear school uniform . Wearing school uniform mean everyone is the same , no one can set fashion or teased for wearing weird or out of fashion clothes . If pupil wear school uniform , pupil can be identify by the public . If they need to make complain , public will know which school are the pupil come from . Often makes kids behave better as they’re in uniform linked to work not casual clothes they use for socializing . Also , wearing school uniform can promotes good discipline of a school . This naturally reduces incidents of violence . Pupil can come to school without worrying about personal safety . Teachers don’t have to double as guards, and can concentrate on teaching .

4. Wearing a uniform gets the pupil ready for the job market , because at a job they might have to wear a uniform or dress up and this gets them accustomed to this . Also , they see their parents dress clothes for work and may take learning more seriously. Pearent don’t have to spend a lot of money for new and fashion clothes to their child everytime . A school uniform apparently also saves students from putting their fashion tastes . When they don’t have to spend time wondering what to wear and how to make a fashion statement , they can spend more time to getting an education . Also , pupil saves time in the morning because they already know what they are wearing to school .

5. Therefore , there are most advantage then disadvantage to wear school uniform to schoo l. Pupil can focus on education without spending time to wear fashion clothes . If pupil wear uniform , they are more save because the guard can easy identify pupil and stranger not in school .

Parent also can save money to buy clothes to pupil . When a student wears a shirt with the school’s symbol, everyone knows where the student studies .

6. Finally, I hope sir will quickly establish a new school uniform to all of pupil . Thank you .

Yours faithfully ,

(VOO JI HEN)

2.2 Conclusion

To conclude , in the point of the above , school uniform has more advantages than disadvantages. I strongly believe that the school uniform is important and has benefits . However , I think that each school should design its school uniform from time to time and let pupils decide on it . School uniform is not expensive , most of parent can pay for school uniform, if the uniform in good quality , can buy it once a year only . If pupils are not wearing school uniform to school , there are many problem to society . The pupil in rich will bully classmate who poor , because of the poor pupil didn’t wear a brand name clothes . In short , pupils are wear school uniform is good for them , school uniform is very important and has advantages .

3.0 Referrence

Unknown (n.d) conclusion of school uniform [online] Available at:

http://www.oppapers.com/subjects/conclusion-on-school-uniforms-page1.html

Unknown (n.d) advantages of wear school uniform [online] Availaible at:

http://www.oppapers.com/essays/Why-School-Uniforms-Should-Be-Required/680461

Unknown (n.d) advantages of wear school uniform [online] Available at:

http://www.ask.com/questions-about/Advantages-of-School-Uniforms

Unknown (n.d) advantages and disadvantages of wear school uniform[online] Available at:

http://www.greatschools.org/find-a-school/defining-your-ideal/121-school-uniforms.gs

Unknown (n.d) causes of teenage suicide [online] Available at:

http://kidshealth.org/teen/your_mind/mental_health/suicide.html

Unknown (n.d) Teen Suicide Warning Signs Main Source Material [online] Available at:

http://www.teensuicide.us/articles2.html

Unknown (n.d) Sign of teen drug abuse [online] Available at:

http://www.newportacademy.com/teen-drug-abuse/

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Bullying and Problem Solving

Unknown (n.d) Social problem among teenager [online] Available at:

http://www.studymode.com/subjects/social-problem-among-teenagers-in-malaysia-page1.html

In this paper I reflect on my ability as an early years practitioner in supporting children as active learners. In addition I will analyse my observations and illustrate how support was provided for children in their active learning.

The objective of my role was to support children as active learners and contribute to the nursery’s combined approach of organising and evaluating children’s learning. I took part in regular routines of arranged activities, observations and planning meetings and used approaches that enabled the children’s learning to be taken forward.

I also used Building the Curriculum 2 Active Learning in the Early Years as guidance for my personal reflection. These guidelines support practitioners in their approach to learning and deliverance of high quality learning experiences for children’s active learning. Using the guidelines enabled me to evaluate my use of appropriate resources, review my teaching and helped me to plan for change.

Building the Curriculum 2 Active Learning in the Early Years emphasises the importance of active learning and defines active learning as:

Active learning is learning which engages and challenges children’s thinking using real-life and imaginary situations. It takes full advantage of the opportunities for learning presented by: spontaneous play, planned, purposeful play, investigating and exploring, events and life experiences, focused learning and teaching supported when necessary through sensitive intervention to support or extend learning. All areas of the curriculum can be enriched and developed through play.

It works within Curriculum for Excellence which is about the enjoyment of education that produces learning activities which have real meaning for children in their own lives. Early years and Primary 1 have been combined to create the new early level in Curriculum for Excellence and the challenge for practitioners is to maintain the feeling of play whilst ensuring that children experience the whole of the curriculum. In addition, it emphasises the importance of active play as a curricular approach.

Active learning involves the child being at the centre of their learning so practitioners must listen to them and by using resources like a floor book or mind map, the child’s interests can be documented and acted on. Article 12 of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the child states “Children have the right to express a view about things that affect them” and one of the principles of The Children (Scotland) Act 1995 includes the right to be heard too.

Another efficient way of listening is by observing children as this helps practitioners to understand the children’s stage of development. Documented assessments influence what staff can do to improve the quality of learning for children and it is done by generating focused learning and providing activities.

This information about children’s interest and further learning has come directly from the children themselves enabling the children to be put at the centre of their learning. By identifying the learning needs of the child staff are meeting and implementing the requirements of the provision of early education as stated by The Child at the Centre, 5.3 Meeting learning needs.

During my three weeks in placement I used observations to influence me in the provision of support I could offer to the children in their learning and I have spoke briefly about them and evaluated how this support helped children in their active learning.

Children learn about their world through play with active learning and the greater the variety of experiences the more stimulating their engagement and learning will be. They are seen as participants in their own learning, are independent in their own actions in everything they do and are able to make connections in their learning. However, when their independent learning requires support, they become co-constructors of learning. Adult intervention can help children construct their knowledge by building on the knowledge that the child already has.

This theory relates to social constructivist Jerome Bruner where he indicates how adults can “scaffold” what the child already knows by building on their prior knowledge enabling them to learn and develop and I used this theory in providing support in two observations.

In observation 1, during group time, the keyworker asks the children to share the knowledge they have about fireworks. I built on this knowledge by creating an expressive arts activity for the children and they were able to their thoughts and interests in a creative way. This observation also relates to the theory of active learning by providing activities and learning that have real meaning in the lives of children helps them to make sense of the world. (Observation 2)

In observation I used my judgement in deciding when to sensitively intervene or interact when the children were involved in self-directed or free flow play to enable them to build on their knowledge.

I knew that S was trying to get my attention and took the right moment to interact with him and give him the support to build on his knowledge of “putting on a show” and continue in his play. By listening to him and then interacting with him, I provided him with support to develop his language and communication and optimise his learning potential. Moreover, this observation allowed me to tune into S and assess his stage of development and provided me with an insight into what his interests, knowledge and experiences were.

This activity also shows how Piaget’s theory of cognitive development evolves. S used maracas to represent his microphone and according to Beaver M et al, Piaget’s theory implies that S is in the pre-conceptual stage of his cognitive development and this stage enables him to develop his language more rapidly. I had already planned to provide a role play activity for the children and this planned activity would continue S’s active learning and language development. (Observation 1 and )

In her explanation of free flow play, Bruce T (2006 page 470) implies that there are 3 stages in the development of free flow play. As children enter the 3rd stage called more elaborate play, they have already begun to pretend and develop impulsive creative and imaginative play. The third skill requires more skill and includes social interaction, props and stories. She also agrees with Beaver. M (et al) page 174, that this type of free flow play is very important for the child’s overall development. I believe that S had already entered the 3rd stage of free flow play.

In the fruit and vegetable shop activity I observed two different types of play and learning. In the first observation, a group of three boys were content to be involved in their own solitary play but the second observation showed how role play can promote learning and encourage social interactions. Standard 5 of the National Care standard states that children and young people will have opportunities to exercise choice and the first observation showed that these boys were exercising their choice to play alone.

The afternoon observation showed social interaction between the boys and this role play gave them the chance to use their imaginations to explore, discover and organise their thoughts in order to make sense of their world. This activity also allowed them to develop their language and social development. By creating this activity I provided the next step in their active learning and according to Beaver. M (et al) page 174 “an important step part in their all-round development.”

Active learning has been establish in my nursery for a number of years and the nursery works within Building the Curriculum 2, guidelines. It provides a general idea of active learning and shows the relation of the four capacities in Curriculum for Excellence to what we already know about children. I visited the nursery prior to starting and discussed the play feature in the nursery with the nursery teacher. We spoke about how the children experience their free flow play but there is also structured play and focused learning for some children to give them support in their overall development.

Appendix 1

In addition to providing activities that would provide support for the children in their active learning, I suggested to my mentor that we could create a wall display to share and celebrate the children’s learning. Our display carried pictures and photographs of the children’s work and also included printed text relating to some of the learned outcomes and experiences from Curriculum for Excellence. This “making learning visible” which was inspired by Reggio Emilia, Northern Italy, enabled the children to continue in their learning and share it with other children, parents and staff with a sense of pride and confidence.

The struggle of the Canadian aboriginal people is based in education. The struggle is for them to regain the control of their livelihood as communities and as nations. The aboriginal people’s population has been on the increase for the past decade. Their largest population lives in the main population centers of Canada. The overall education standards of aboriginal people lag behind the overall education standards of Canada. According to Levin, (2009), there are an estimated 40 % of aboriginal people that dropped out of secondary school as compared to 20% of the total population of Canada. For the 20 years, the attainment of education among aboriginal people has improved though still quite low. The growth in numbers of aboriginal people with completed high school in the past decade led to the improvement of their public image. Despite the improvements, aboriginal education is still not much successful (Levin, 2009).

Aboriginal education and obstacles to understanding

The history of the aboriginal people and the non-aboriginal people dates back many years ago. The non- aboriginal people (Europeans) came to the aboriginal’s land. They started to coexist with the aboriginal people teaching the non-aboriginal people so many things for effective coexistence. Friendship and peace treaties enabled them to stay peacefully. With the royal proclamation of 1963, the distinction was made between the need for land and the need for the protection of the aboriginal people’s rights. As time moved on, more Europeans arrived outnumbering the native aboriginal people which was characterized by poverty and diseases. With the British war of 1812-1814, the aboriginal people were declined of their position as the allies to the military. This implanted into their heads the idea that the British people were superior than they were. This explains the dominion and assimilation by the non-aboriginals (Levin, 2009).

The aboriginal people make up many nations in Canada. These people have unique culture, beliefs and values. Within a specific region, there could be diverse number of people with different and diverse cultures. The Indian act of 1876 imposed oppression against the aboriginal people. The federal government controlled the schooling of aboriginals’ children (Antone, (2003). Through the system, the government did not educate the children but was rather transforming their minds (Battiste, (1995). The aboriginal children were exposed to forces of cognitive imperialism which are very distractive. This resulted into the children losing the world view, their language and their culture. This caused an upheaval in the aboriginal communities socially and psychologically. The major cultural aspects of the aboriginals were lost. They included the cultural aspects in relation to hunting, fishing, medicine and religion (Antone, (2003). According to Eileen and Tania (2005), the colonialism history disrupted the aboriginals’ way of transmitting knowledge. The effect is long-lasting. The original aboriginal education and literacy and the philosophies were historically passed down the lineage by oral means and they wee kept by the old men (elders). The non-aboriginal education programs are characterized by the radio, the TV, and the video games. All these have replaced the traditional aboriginal ways of passing knowledge from one generation to the other (Smith, 1999). The non-aboriginal systems of education have resulted in the loss of respect for the aboriginal traditions and elders and the language. Despite all these challenges that aboriginal education is facing, the elders are trying to find where they belong in the society as they try to bring reinstate the aboriginal culture (Eileen, & Tania, (2005).

The aboriginal education differs fro the non-aboriginal education in various ways. The literacy levels among the aborigines are quite low with many adults being illiterate. According to Richards (2008), the performance of aborigines in on-off-reserve schools is quite low. Richard (2008) reports findings from the census data that the non- aboriginal young people (under 45 yrs) have high education as compared to older Canadians. He adds that there is a universal demand for high school certificates. More so, there is an increased gap between aboriginal and non aboriginal high school education qualifiers with the gaps more being more pronounced at those levels that are beyond the secondary school (Richards, 2008).

The non-aboriginal education system does not uphold the aboriginal language and literacy. The system elevates the understanding of certain foreign competencies as it undermines the competencies of aboriginal education system. This has led to the feeling of low self esteem and inadequacy among aboriginal students hence high school dropout rates and the poor performance. Therefore, the non-aboriginal system of education dos not values the aboriginal’s language, culture and their traditions (Richards, 2008). The literacy system that is used is foreign and is one of the reasons as to why the aboriginals perform poorly in academic institutions. A holistic approach to this issue will go a great way in solving the aboriginal’s literacy. The literacy leaning process to be used should include all the aspect of the aboriginal’s culture including the language. To overcome the challenges, the aboriginal students should be taught by aboriginal teachers using their own modes of teaching like storytelling, observation and by the use of performed knowledge (Richards, 2008).

The implication of the low aboriginal high school education is seen in the productivity levels of Canada. It is also seen in poverty and the racial tension that exists. The fertility rate among aboriginal students is high thus characterized by many school dropouts (La Prairie, 1995).

Transition to urban environments

The aboriginal people underwent a lot of problems resulting from colonization. The children were forced to under a foreign literacy system that affected them by far. Through the non-aboriginal education system, the aboriginal children were taught in foreign language that they did not understand. They were also taught foreign cultures and alienated far away from their culture. Though the literacy system, they were taught that their culture is inferior. As a result of that, they suffered from colonialism, many of them suffering from low self esteem. They were characterized by poverty and poor lifestyles (Malatest, 2004).

According to Gallant, (2003), the poor aboriginal children were vulnerable to alienation from culture and their society. They also suffered from hopelessness. She argues that the children live in poverty and in a world that is full of violence and racism. The above problems that the aboriginal youth are susceptible to are accompanied by other social problems like high school drop out rates, high suicide rates, high crime rates and poverty rates. In her report, Galant (2003) finds a multitude of problems that the youth experience as they move from the poor rural areas to urban areas. These problems are as a result of colonialism. They include:

Problems of lack of identity: This is accompanied by the lack of culture and the native language. With this problem, the youth experience isolation and alienation which make involvement in gang and illegal activities very attractive for the aboriginal youths. These aboriginal youths face the challenge of trying to cope with the many different cultures of the non-aboriginal nature that are very hostile to the aboriginal culture (Galant, 2003).

Education: due to poor school attendance be cause of inadequate funding, there are high dropout rates among the aboriginal youths. They end up with low education levels and high unemployment t rates translating to job prospects that are poor hence increased poverty (HRSDC, 2009).

Parental care: given the poor settings of the aboriginal families, the parents are busy fending for their children as the children go to school. These parents rarely get enough time for the family. These families are dysfunctional with absentee parents (Evans, 1998).

Early maturity: the poor lifestyles hat the aboriginal children lead makes them mature faster since some of them are left to work and feed themselves at tender ages. This makes them mature faster resulting in becoming parents early with poor parental skills (Gallant, 2003).

Substance abuse: the aboriginal children who come from many rural places have little parental care. Due to low self esteem and alienation, many become victims of substance abuse. This they take believing that it will reduce the stress and the depression while boosting their morale (Gallant, 2003).

Poverty: these children are vulnerable to poverty because of the poor socialization process that they receive. Their parents are poor and are rarely there for them. They are rarely monitored and advised on the best way for the future. The low self esteem they gain frustrates them thus making them lead poor lives (Friedel, 1999).

Racism: this is accompanied by discrimination. It really lowers their self esteem and their confidence fostering hostility against their broader society (Smith, 1999). They feel alienated and marginalized.

The above problems that face the aboriginal youth require a solution. The solution is not definite. They need support by every body and is comprised of every element that touches the holistic approach to life like recreation, proper parenting skills, good literacy and education standards, readiness for the labor market, transition services in the urban settings, support from the family and the family and very strong backing of the community. Without these support, these young aboriginal people will find it hard to deal with the daily life challenges hence living low quality lives as compared to non-aboriginal youths (HRSDC, 2009).

Action plan

The transition period for the aboriginal youths is very crucial. This is because it determines the future of a person. What a person gains in his youth will either built on his future or destroy it completely. The urban aboriginal youth face many challenges as seen above ranging from poverty, racism, alienation to poor performance academically. The only solution to these problems can be done during their transition stage as they move from the rural setting to the urban setting. The following are some of the recommended action plans:

Establishing of urban centers for the aboriginal youths.

These are important because they help the aboriginal youth to come together in a more welcoming environment that is more comfortable than when they are left alone. The place should be free from alcohol and drugs. Gallant (2003) in her report argues that every urban center should have a youth centre that provides a sense of belonging for the desolate aboriginal youths. Through these centers they are able to share their personal experiences freely and have a sense of belonging. The many social-cultural dislocations that the youth have could be counteracted by the youth centers. The aboriginal youth centers act as an alternative to street life since they provide a forum where the aboriginal youths are in a position to interact with their fellow youths, their culture, elders and be in a position to explore the many opportunities that the urban life provides for them (Gallant, 2003).

Since the youth centers for the aboriginal youth are very helpful, the federal government should provide funding for their establishment and development. It should do this in collaboration with the respective aboriginal youth representatives together with the provincial counterparts of the government and the aboriginal youth development agencies. These centers should be located in easily accessible areas. This would be a step in helping the future generation of aboriginal youth (Smith, 1999).

Establishment of urban aboriginal youth transitional programs

Many aboriginal youths move to the city seeking to advance their studies among other reasons like seeking for reemployment. With the move to the city, they are culturally dislocated, powerless and incompetent. Despite the challenges, they are determined top make out a living and better their future. With insufficient t resources and inadequate education, many turn to alternative means of earning a living (Alberta Report, 2001). Accompanied by racism and discrimination, it becomes very difficult for the aboriginal youth to handle these situations in the urban settings. Gallant argues that there is nothing that is such devastating to a young person than the racist claim. The lack of knowledge on the original aboriginal culture together with racism and discrimination are the major aboriginal youth challenges in many urban settings. The effects of all these are manifested through isolation which leads to low self esteem (Smith, 1999).

Gallant (2008) argues that there has been scanty attention paid by the government to these problems that are facing the aboriginal youth in transition. Basing on the above problems that are faced by the aboriginal youth in transition, the government should take initiatives to establish major transition services in major Canadian urban centers. This will ensure that the aboriginal migrants to the city are positively supported and proper discretion towards organizations that are appropriate in dealing with transitional issues is given. Services to be provided should include houses, training, provision of literacy skill in English, guidance and counseling among many others. The supervision of the services should be linked to the specific communities that the youth originate. The establishment of the transitional services and centers by the government should be done in collaboration with the rural communities of the respective communities (Prochner, 2004).

Creating recreation in sports and arts for the aboriginal youth

A recreational ground provides a positive release of excess energy by the youth. Through sports and recreational activities, the youth can be relieved from boredom, drug abuse and drinking. Sports are made with creativity, discipline and team work that enhances the way the youth make goals. This has far reaching results on the future performance and life of the youths. With the many aboriginal youths that migrate to the cities, given their poor backgrounds and settings, there are no recreational facilities that they can afford. The government should increase its efforts in availing recreational facilities to the aboriginal youth in transition. This will lower the vulnerability of the youths’ dysfunction both physically and socially.

According to Gallant (2003), there is a strong relationship between the involvement in recreational activities and anti-social behavior. Lifelong bad behavior is as a result of lacking anything constructive to do. The youth gets more pressure from the peers to engage in harmful anti-social activities. The establishment of these facilities in schools is very essential because such skills are vital for equipping the students with lifelong skills like leadership skills, training and academic tutoring (Smith, 1999). Thus school attendance is mandatory. Through school programs that are fitted with recreational and sport facilities, the healthy behavior of students are enhanced.

The government should work close with other agencies in the provision of recreational and sports facilities to schools. In addition to that, in order to cater for the aboriginal youth in transition, the government should establish the recreational and sports centers together with the urban aboriginal youth centers (Gallant, 2003). The centers established by the federal government should be community based and should not have a short term perspective. The projects should be sustainable in the long run and it should be designed for the offering of instructions to the aboriginal youths accompanied by the offering of leadership and training in life skills. Through these programs, the aboriginal youths will be able to overcome racism and discrimination hence building on their self esteem. This will go along way down the life of the young aboriginal people (Alberta Report, 2001).

Health and sexuality program for aboriginal teens.

Aboriginal homes lack good quality sex education. With the parents rarely at home and not involved in their children affairs, aboriginal youths are experience high rates of pregnancy which also contributes to high school drop out rates. In addition to that, aboriginal youths experience involvement in drug and substance abuse (Alberta Report, 2001). This contributes to the high pregnancy levels and school drop out and poor academic performance. Due to this, the federal government should initiate programs that alleviate the effects of drug and alcohol abuse. This will lower the number of children borne with fatal alcohol syndrome. The government’s initiative should both be in rural and urban settings so the aboriginal children in rural and urban areas benefit. The federal government should also increase federal funding towards the initiative to reduce fetal alcohol syndrome among aboriginal youths (Alberta Report, 2001).

In addition to the above, it is observed that there is very little use of contraceptives among aboriginal youths. This can also explain the high pregnancy rates which translates to high poverty rates. All these are accompanied by high unemployment rates among aboriginal teens. The federal government through its health minister and community based organizations for aboriginal youths should implement a public awareness policy that targets aboriginal teens. This policy should target to address the problems of sexual health of aboriginal teens hence promoting sexual practices that re healthy. The federal government should also set aside sustainable funding for the programs (Gallant, 2003).

Gang life: coming up with better alternatives.

Given the poor background setting for the aboriginal youths, as they move to the urban setting they become vulnerable to anti social activities which also are criminal in nature. The youths are usually discriminated. The gangs are readily acceptable for them since they provide for them a sense of belonging and identity since the youths are desperate. Though these gangs, the youths feel greatly empowered with renewed purpose and belonging. According to Carol, (1995) the aboriginal youths that live deeper inside the city are more vulnerable to engaging in criminal activities. They are also prone to processing of justice. Therefore, gangs do provide protection for them and thus giving them safety. They accord them the basic needs (Carol, 1995).

It is recommended that the federal government while working together with the municipal and the provincial administration should help in the identification and provision o safe house for the aboriginal youths in urban centers. This will help them leave the gangs and engage in better life (Gallant, 2003).

Alcohol and Substance abuse

Many aboriginal youths in transition to urban life abuse substances like alcohol, solvents and smoking. This is one of the most risky lives. According to studies, aboriginal youth are six times riskier in abusing alcoholic substances than heir non- aboriginal counterpart. The federal government should come up with programs that help the aboriginal youth not to indulge in drug abuse. An example is the NNADAP program put in place by first nations. The program should be target all aboriginal youths both in rural and urban settings. Sustainable funding should also be provided by the federal government. In addition to that, there should be treatment centers that provide treatment for cases related to substance abuse. These centers should be age specific (Alberta Report, 2001).

Training and Employments for the Aboriginal Youth

Many aboriginal youths posses low education levels due to the poor backgrounds they come form. They rarely complete high school. With low education, many end up being jobless. Thus many aboriginal youths risk being unemployed (Smith, 1999). Being unemployed is risky for the youths as they are likely to engage in antisocial activities. The federal government should set up programs that will reduce the aboriginal youth unemployment. Given the fast population growth rate of the aboriginal people, the government should move fast in bringing Canada’s shrinking labor force to the required levels. The barriers to employment of aboriginal youths include factors like little job experience, low education levels among the aboriginal youths, lack or inappropriate skills among the youth, high transience and mobility levels amongst the aboriginal youths and poverty and discrimination (Smith, 1999).

To solve the above obstacles, the federal government should initiate employment and entrepreneurship programs for the aboriginal youths. These programs will help them develop the necessary skills, and experience fro the required jobs. All those programs that are undertaken to help alleviate the youth unemployment should have a long term perspective. Therefore, the federal government should not only initiate but sustain the programs through sustainable funding and increased human resource development. In addition to that, the partnership of transitional urban aboriginal youth and the private sector employers should be encouraged by the federal government and the stakeholders (Gallant, 2003).

Provision of professional development

Aboriginal education requires the use of professional development for it to come out successful. The aboriginal youth have suffered so much under the non-aboriginal education system. They have undergone the torture of the mind with many negative thought being implanted in their minds (Gallant, 2003). They were taught using foreign language that they do not understand well. They were alienated further from their culture and their traditions. Through this, they faced racism hence discrimination. The discrimination they faced affected their self esteem that they lost focus in life. They are still suffering from neocolonialism since their parents still believe that they are inferior to the non-aborigines. With this mentality, they are poor lacking a sense of direction in life (Tunison, 2007).

There needs to be established a special education program that caters for aboriginal children. Aboriginal youth face many challenges as they study. Coming from a poor background where parents struggle to feed ad take them to school they face a lot of hardships. The parents can’t afford better schools to take them. At the schools that they are taken, they are taught the non-aboriginal literacy where they are further alienated from their culture. As they move to urban settings, they are faced with the challenge of racism and lack of identity which leads to discrimination. Through all these tribulations, the aboriginal education is characterized high drop out rates, truancy and poor performance in academics (Kanu, 2005).

There is very little parental involvement in the education of their children. According to the Ministry Of Education (2005), parents have an important role to play in the education of their children. They assist their children in doing home work, provide them with good parenting and also get involved at school projects and trips for their children. They should help the school in the better management of their children. Aboriginal parents are too busy that they find no time to spare for their children. Since parents also advice their children and influence their future life, the youth’s from aboriginal backgrounds do not experience that. This explains the poor performance at school, poverty, truancy, involvement in gang activities and high school drop out rates. The children lack a sense of belonging (Ministry Of Education, 2005).

Since the system of education for the non-aboriginals does not favor the aboriginal children, the government should initiate the curriculum that favors the aboriginal students and culture. The government should also engage trained aboriginal teachers to teach aboriginal children. This is because they best understand the aboriginal culture and language (Gregory, et. al. 2008). This will break one of the barriers of poor performance among aboriginal children. More so, the government should develop aboriginal schools in urban areas that are exclusively for aboriginal students. This will reduce the instances if racism and discrimination hence the self esteem for the children will be raised resulting not only to better academic performance but also better future life. The government should come up with guiding and counseling programs that support secondary school going aboriginal students (Alberta Report, 2001).

The outcome of poverty in aboriginal families is poor parental responsibility with many parents not taking part in the up bringing of their children. The children, due to low self esteem indulge in many antisocial activities that ruin their future. They engage in alcohol and abuse of substances in addition to participation in criminal activities. Their parents also do not know their culture.

The future of the aboriginal people lies in the employment of professionals to come up with a system that suits them. The new system should make use of aboriginal teachers to teach aboriginal youths.

Conclusion

The aboriginal people are the natives of Canada. With coming of the Europeans, the aborigines were marginalized. They were imposed to foreign culture and education system that doe not value the cultural and the language of the aboriginal people. They were taught in foreign language that they did not understand. Through the non-aboriginal literacy programs, they were taught that they are inferior to Europeans. As a result they became inferior and poor. Their children performed poorly in schools.

During the transition stage where the aboriginal youths move to urban setting, they experienced many problems that range from high school drop out rates, truancy, high rates of pregnancy, racism and discrimination and involvement in antisocial behavior. All this conditions accompanied b a very low self esteem impact negatively on the aboriginal children and they end up leading a very poor lifestyle.

The federal government should engage in several activities to save the aboriginal people. It should work in collaboration with other community groups in the establishment of urban centers that care for the aboriginal youth in transition. Through the centers, the youths engage in sports and other recreational activities that will boost the self esteem of the aboriginal youth hence improving their future. It should also establish training centers and initiate awareness for the aboriginal youth in terms of drug and substance abuse, and sexual and health behavior. With these the aboriginal youth will contribute much to the labor force in Canada. All these programs that are initiated by the government should have a long term perspective otherwise, they will not be effective.