Teens on the Edge

Each one of their stories is both unique and alarmingly the same. They reveal experiences that most of us cannot imagine or would wish upon anyone we know. These stories of abuse, neglect, abandonment, and more, reveal a harsh world: unfiltered and raw; a life with diffuse and often distorted perspectives of the familiar, the new, and the unknown. Reading these essays is to bear witness to and participate in the lives of these youngsters, lives they have been forced to live convulsively, compulsively, and beyond reason or meaning. Briefly, their lives may become our lives, as we are confronted with their unhealthy and often self-negating and selfdestructive perceptions of how life is. These stories may force us to search deeply into the meaning of our own lives and those of our children; and we may feel compelled to 'complete' their stories in our own mind. Each story has something meaningful to convey to us, as their childish, immature, desperate, and unfiltered voices call out to us for a moment--and then disappear, becoming as lost as these youths appear to be.

These stories represent not so much failed children as they do failed parents, failed communities, failed social institutions, and failures to recognize desperate cries for help. For many teenagers, their painful cries began as young as four or five years of age, when their anti-social behavior first began to manifest itself. These pleas were often met with a brusque, knee-jerk reaction that said: 'Come back when you are older and become a real threat to our well being; then we will deal with you.' Sadly, this is the point at which the youngsters in the book find themselves.

These teenage girls and boys are now studying for the GED (Graduate Equivalent Degree). As they struggle with the demands of the classroom, their thoughts wander to life on 'the streets' and to the bizarre yet enticing workings of that dark underbelly of society. This book vividly explores the full spectrum of the human drama as it manifests in the chilling and mysterious world of juvenile crime.

The President's Council of Economic Advisers' newly released statistics indicate the nation is making gains regarding the wellbeing of our youth. Less than 2 percent of children go hungry in a year, children who live in poverty are visiting doctors more often, and the number of children living in crowded housing dropped from 9 percent in l978 to 6 percent in l997. Yet these gains have not prevented our communities from experiencing a social breakdown in many critical areas. Children are progressively exposed to readily available and easily accessed drugs, violence is more prevalent, more youth are being incarcerated, and increasing numbers will become parents before they complete school. 'Improving the odds for children in low-income communities will require many things including greater access to supports that all families need to raise kids successfully-employment opportunities for parents, quality health care, formal and informal networks of adults...vibrant religious institutions, organized recreation, and safe streets...But of all the community institutions that help children become capable adults, perhaps none is more important than school' (The Annie E. Casey Foundation, Kids Count Data Book, l997).

Moreover, it is becoming increasingly clear that children are desperately dependent on their parents for guidance, and perhaps most importantly expectations. If parents set low standards for their children it is extremely difficult to offset the ill effects of this. Robert J. Samuelson (Newsweek, 2-23-98) writes that the investments 'that really count for children come from parents: love and security, discipline and instruction, a sense of worth. Being rich is no guarantee that parents will provide these; being poor is no indicator that they won't. But large federal programs, whatever their benefits, can't undo parental failure. Nor can they offset the ill effects of family breakdown. To think otherwise sanctions the behaviors that put children at risk.'

We must be careful when we weigh the statistics and rhetoric concerning these children that we do not become too pessimistic about the prospects for some and avoid unwarranted complacency about others. It is a complicated yet captivating perplexity quacunque via data (whichever way you take it).