Punctuation Paralysis

Punctuation Paralysis

Or how to bring creative writing to a full-stop

English, as a taught subject, has been a part of western curricula for hundreds of years.  As a language, it has been the medium through which the likes of Shakespeare, Wordsworth, Dickens and JK Rowling have informed and beguiled the masses.

The teaching of English has evolved through the rote learning of verbs, adjectives and the fifty two uses of the humble comma, to more free-style forms of self-expression and exploration.

It may not be the most lyrical language to listen to, French is far more enchanting, Italian more passionate, but as a tool, it is certainly more versatile and flexible in its application.

So imagine my horror when I discovered my 8 year old son sitting staring at a lined sheet of paper as though it were a Blue Ringed Octopus. Tears welled in his eyes as his stubby HB pencil with the well chewed end, fell from his grip. ”I can’t do this.”

The sheet of paper contained a single unfinished sentence.

We chatted about what he wanted to write, it was a fantastic tale of Pirates taking over the local canoeing club to earn enough money to buy their ship back from the Shrimp King.  It was funny, and his quirky use of language was delightful. But with arms folded tightly across his chest, his face screwed up the way only kids can manage it, declared he couldn’t write that story.  I reassured him that all he had to do was write it the way he’d told it to me and that it’d be great.

 Nah, he wasn’t buying into that one.

“You just don’t get it Dad,” he thrust the piece of paper away with his hand.  “I don’t know where to put the commas.”

There it was. The Demon finally had a name, and that name was, Punctuation.

The ubiquitous nature of this problem results in kids, as well as adults across the English speaking world fearing to put pen to paper or digit to keyboard. Sadly this results in millions of stories, memories and ideas failing to be born; literary miscarriages that will never be read.

My son was stressing so much about a comma, that he was literally unable to write, to express his creativity in his own inimitable way.  A passing, and well-meaning I’m sure, comment by a supply teacher, that “punctuation was the most important part of writing”  had sowed an insidious and undermining seed in my sons head.  What a horrible way to feel, but then something similar had happened to me at school.  A sixth-form teacher (UK version of year 12) told me congenially that I shouldn’t worry, that I just had to accept the fact that I “wouldn’t amount to anything academically.”

Fortunately for me, I’m contrary by nature and set out to prove him wrong. Seven years and two degrees later, I was satisfied, sadly the 6^th Form Teacher in question died two weeks before I graduated from my Master’s Degree.

It’s taken three tear and fear filled months, but finally my son has started to ignore the red circles that leap from the page like welts on the skin, and to focus on the idea; he’s telling the story in his own words.

And you know what?  His creative writing is that much better for it.

Sticks and Stones

Sticks and Stones

a brief guide to identifying the types of child abuse for OSHC workers

By R S Faulkner M.A., M.Sc., B.Sc. (Hons)

Part 1

Identifying child abuse

After a decade of working with kids in both London and Sydney, I’ve seen more than my fair share of abused children. From a raging ten-year old girl with the imprint of a steam iron on inside thigh to a softly spoken and well-mannered little boy diagnosed as incurably psychotic at age seven thanks to a pan of boiling cooking oil poured into his lap - by his mother. Louse riddled, bruised, and abused, many children endure a life that is devoid of love, friendship and hope. They distrust adults and blame themselves. Theirs is not a life; it is a living nightmare.

This article is not an academic treatise examining the psycho-social impact of abuse on children. No, it is a brief guide to help educators in Before, and After School care identify the types of abuse, they are likely to encounter during their career. Its aim is to support whatever training their organisation has provided.

Why? Because I remember all too well being a fresh-faced educator, keen to fit in earning money in between tutorials and lectures. I also remember the first time a child disclosed to me in the most graphic of language – I froze, horrified that a father could do that to his child. By sheer luck, I handled it well despite the lack of training. But it could have ended dreadfully.

Child abuse seems never to be out of the news. If it’s not an ageing celebrity, it’s a member of the cloth or a completely average looking person. The picture of a man in a dirty overcoat, with greasy hair and a predatory glint, is a myth; a child abuser can be anyone, including another child. However, child abuse is always a crime.

Being in the child care industry provides educators with the ability to make a significant difference by helping prevent abuse. And the best way to do that is to identify it and then alert the authorities.

While child sexual abuse is obviously high profile, but there are other forms of abuse just as devastating on the lives of children and young adults. It is important that all adults who come into contact with kids can identify the type of abuse they believe is being inflicted.

But names will never hurt me. Firstly, let me state that I am not ranking the following types of abuse. I certainly do not believe that any one form of child abuse is less painful or devastating than another. I have simply listed them in alphabetical order.

Emotional Abuse. This form of ill-treatment is typified by an unrelenting stream of verbal attacks and threats by an adult towards a single child or group. Rejection and isolation usually accompany it. The constant barrage of name-calling and belittling in front of others gradually erodes the child’s self-esteem and confidence. The child becomes social incompetent, nervous and self-effacing. They develop a low opinion of themselves, are negative and have low expectations of how adults should treat them.

Exposure to domestic violence often accompanies emotional abuse. The chaos and violence inherent in such a violent familial environment are an indicator that a child endures some other form of ill-treatment too

It’s important to note that domestic violence doesn’t always include black eyes and broken arms. It can be threats, rape, social isolation or the promise of revenge if reported. All are painful, and all impact in a major way on the child that endures its onslaught on a daily basis.

Neglect is a form of abuse. Not every child that rocks up to school in a dirty shirt is suffering neglect, and of course, all kids get head lice at some point. Neglect is ongoing and far more insidious. It is the continued failure to provide for a child’s basic needs. These include a need for food, shelter, supervision and physical and emotional care. This type of abuse has a severe negative impact on a child’s overall development and needs immediate addressing.

The child who is hanging around outside your centre for two hours every afternoon, regardless of the weather, should certainly get your ‘Spidey senses’ tingling. Certainly, a child with torn, dirty clothes, too that are small or are smelly is of concern, and it should be documented and raised with the school. Also, are they hungry? Are they provided with enough to eat? Raise any concerns immediately with your manager and the school.

One case I remember was that of a 6-year old girl who came to a vacation care program run at a school in Notting Hill, London. A staff member came to me with concerns that focused on what the little girl was eating for lunch. I took a look at what I first thought was a tin of tuna but discovered it was a de-labelled tin of cat food. She’d had a tin every day for a week before that vigilant member of staff had spotted it. The family were struggling, but that was no excuse for intentionally feeding pet food to their daughter.

Physical abuse. This form of ill-treatment is characterised by either the intentional or careless causing bodily harm to a child. Physical abuse can be through, beating, biting, burning, kicking, punching, slapping or any other form of physical violence or harm directed at a child.

As anyone who was ever a child, and that’s all of us, knows, scrapes, scratches and bruises are synonymous with childhood; making it hard to identify physical abuse immediately. What should ring alarm bells are those physical injuries that cannot be explained away by play, such as bite marks, cigarette burns or bruising on unexpected areas of the body and will often be continual. Physically abused children will either invent a story or be reluctant to talk about the injury. If you have concerns, alert your line manager and follow the child protection guidelines outlined by your organisation and local government authority.

Sexual abuse. Child sexual abuse is when someone, usually but not exclusively an adult, uses their power or authority to force/coerce a child to become involved in some form of sexual activity. Child sexual abuse may include one or more of the following:

•    Suggestive sexual comments – verbal, online or texts

•    Exhibitionism

•    Fondling of a child’s genitals or masturbation on or performed by the child

•    Oral sex or penetrative sex of any kind

•    Exposure to pornography or taking sexual photographs of a child

•    Online viewing of child pornography or the downloading and distribution of

       child pornography.

The impact of this form of child abuse is always severe. It affects a child’s ability to develop, to learn, to feel safe and to thrive. Denied their right to develop to their future full potential, it impairs their social and emotional development, ultimately affecting their ability to experience loving, trusting relationships.

Sexually abused children experience a multitude of long term effects and carry guilt, shame and self-loathing into adulthood. Their heightened levels of fear and anxiety can, in themselves, become debilitating.

Well, that concludes our look at the types of child abuse you’re most likely to encounter during your childcare career. In part two, we’ll look at what signs and behaviours a child may exhibit that can indicate sexual abuse.

Reflecting on the simple art of an honest self-appraisal

Reflecting on the simple art of an honest self-appraisal

By Roy Faulkner M.A, M.Sc, B.Sc

It’s all about the spelling. Just so we’re clear, when talking about SWOT, I’m not referring to SWAT. The former is a business tool that stands for strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats, while the latter is a specialised police unit. Even though I watched every TV episode of the SWAT series as a kid, I do not have the knowledge or experience to write with even a modicum of confidence about special weapons and tactics; although it would be kind of cool if I could. Sadly, I'll have to stick with SWOT.

Ignorance isn’t bliss; it’s just ignorance. As a young creative, the mere mention of anything reeking as much of account service lingo, as a SWOT analysis, would have sent me into a paroxysm of indignation – primarily, if I’m honest, to cover my ignorance of what the acronym meant. But with the greying of my hair and the widening of my waist, I have able to appreciate its usefulness for my client’s business. It allows one to ascertain what their client is doing well, what they can improve upon, and of course, which competitor’s actions pose the most significant threat to their business; all of which, as brand custodians, should be of interest to the entire account team, including the creatives. Heresy? Nah, common sense.

Tea and crumpets with the Devil. Then one day, Boom! My hair was too grey, and my waist had widened too much to look good in skinny jeans. The truth was that whenever anyone used the phrase, “let’s start by addressing the elephant in the room”, everyone turned to me and said, “Hi”. I mean, seriously!

A recruiter, now long retired, used send out a regular email to CDs outlining the creatives that were looking for jobs. Great, right? One CD told me that he’d got me along for an interview not because he wanted to hire me, but because he wanted to see if I matched my description. That comment perplexed me for ages, but it all became crystal when I got my hands on the recruiter’s email. And what a surprise it was to discover I was described as, “very fat, but very funny”. No mention of my skills, education or experience, just my weight and my sense of humour. Gave the term ‘belly laugh’ a whole new meaning. But hey, my description was mild compared to some of the other creatives on the list, one of whom it stated was, “the most boring and miserable writer I’ve ever met”.

My confidence went south quicker than a bowling ball through the bottom of a wet paper bag, and by the time I was euphemistically 'let go', my self-esteem was so low it was down in the pits of Hell having a cuppa and toasting crumpets with the Devil. As a person, I was fading into irrelevance.

Loads of us have been there, and I suspect that a vast majority of my peers will have at some point grabbed a sheet of paper and feverishly scribbled down a list of ‘pros’ and ‘cons’, revised it several times, then screwed it into a ball and tossed it into the bin. Waste of time, yeah?

Whale semen it isn’t. The truth is, I couldn’t figure out what I wanted to say about myself, especially in a covering letter. Ironically, I could easily sell a jar of oven bake sauce that resembled whale semen, but couldn’t sell myself – I’d always relied on my portfolio and trusted that people would say positive things about me. Well, we know how that turned out as a strategy. No, I was going to have to reinvent myself. But how? Then I got to thinking about that arcane Cthulhu-like practice mentioned earlier, and beloved of Suits worldwide - the SWOT analysis.

So, there I am slumming it in my local Gloria Jeans with only a large skinny flat white and a fruit scone for company. Suddenly, mid sip, I remember how account service were always yarning on about how they had done a SWOT analysis for this or that client and how much it had helped them improve their business. there was no reason it shouldn’t work for a creative such as myself, or indeed, for you or anyone else looking for a new job, a career change or promotion. So here are the four steps to a better understanding of who you are and what you have to offer your present or future employer.

Step one, define what it is you’re good at - pedestal your strengths. Sounds simple enough, but don’t get bogged down with the obvious and mundane. Dig deeper. Be honest. You might be a dab hand at branding, excel as a pitch presenter, or write a killer headline under pressure. All great. But the best strengths are the ones that give you a competitive edge. They equate to your unique selling proposition.

Step two, ascertain what your weaknesses are. Personally, I don’t like the word ‘weaknesses’, I’m more in favour of ‘underdeveloped strengths’, but this would mean you’d be doing an SUSOT analysis, which sounds medical. During this step it is once again, important to be honest. There’s no point saying that your kind of okay with strategy when what you mean is that you suck at it. Just like the failure to disclose an errant mandarin in your backpack at Customs drops you in it, so does lying to yourself about your ‘underdeveloped strengths’.

Step three, work out what opportunities are available.  Opportunities are chances. You either seize on them or sit crying into your soy latte lamenting on the opportunity that got away. Build on your strengths and give those weaknesses a workout Arnie would be proud of, either through serious self-improvement or by surrounding yourself with team members with skill sets that complement your own and from whom you can learn – sort of like Charles Xavier and the X-men, but hopefully, you’ll have more hair. But, and there’s always a but, you have to be upfront and honest with yourself. By recognising and then acknowledging those under developed strengths, you’ll be in a much better position to make the best of any opportunity that comes your way. If you don’t, you’re lying to yourself, and that doesn’t do anyone any favours. Yep, honesty is the best policy when it comes to a personal SWOT analysis. Like it or not, you have to own the good as well as, the not so good.

Step four, identify what poses a possible threat:  Threats can come at you from any and every direction. Working out exactly what they can mean the difference between getting through unscathed and forging a beautiful new beginning or ending your days suffering a slow agonising death – career wise that is. So, ask yourself, and remember, to be honest, questions like, are your skills current? Are your skills relevant? If not, then you know what it is you have to work on and improve. There’s no point hiding behind your bleed-proof pad hoping that UX and SEO will miraculously start making sense. Remember, the onus is on you to accentuate the positives, in this instance your strengths, and eliminate the negatives, which involves developing those areas where you’re not as mustard as you thought. The success or failure of your threat identification depends entirely on whether or not you have the moral fortitude (and common sense) to be completely open and honest with yourself. Lying will leave you ill prepared at best and irrelevant at worst.

Not for the faint hearted. Admitting that you’re crap at something doesn’t come naturally to most folk – it certainly doesn’t to me. It took me an age, and numerous disasters, before I could openly say with hand on heart, that I was utterly useless at DIY. No SWOT analysis needed. But with the technological change taking place at a rapidity formerly only enjoyed by communicative diseases, becoming left behind is a genuine possibility to many older creatives. Don’t get me wrong, I‘m not saying that a personal SWOT analysis is a panacea or proverbial silver bullet, but it will help you identify any gaps in your skill-set, and once they’re defined, you can set about filling them.

Good luck and all the best.