God Save Our Pets

On November 16th I gave two presentations at the 24th Upper Midwest Conference on Adolescents & Children In Need in Arden Hills MN;

"WALKING THE TALK FOR CHILDREN" &

"WHY SOME CHILDREN DON'T LEARN IN SCHOOL".

I forgot what gruelling work public speaking becomes as you enter the second ninety minute session (I had fifteen minutes between sessions).

By five pm I was pretty worn out.


My presenting method has changed over the years to accomodate my conviction that learning takes place only when participants become an active part of the discussion. My secret for prompting worn out, after lunch crowds into a discussion is to hand out striking news articles on the topic that prompt an opinion or observation. It works.

The story that stuck with me the hardest came from a social worker attendee. She had reported child abuse at a home in her community on a dozen separate occasions without any response from from child protection services (because there were no broken bones or bleeding and of course not enough resources in the community to deal with child abuse).


Some months later, one of her workmates noticed an emaciated dog on the premises of the abused child's family, and told this conference attendee to report the emaciated dog. She did. After the humane society did its investigation, child protection services were referred in and the children were removed from the home.


That's kinda how I see it too; adults, pets, children, day care workers, fish and insects.