New Zealand has one of the worst teenage suicide rates in the OECD (15 per 100,000).

As a father of three teenage children I find this statistic staggering! For a country which prides itself on being “God’s Own” there seems to be a systemic failure on the part of our education system and social agencies.

As a coach I have wanted for some time now to help teach life skills to young people. These skills are not going to be taught at our schools and most parents either do not have the time or don’t have the knowledge to do this themselves. 

Unfortunately our education system is so bureaucratically entrenched and heavily reined in by an out of control  “Nanny State” that unless you are a qualified teacher you don’t have a hope in hell of being allowed anywhere near our young people during school time.

I recently wrote a letter to the organiser’s of a “Boot Camp” style programme for young people offering my services and asking them to meet with me so we could discuss how we could work together. Needless to say I didn’t even get the courtesy of a reply. 

Our young people are our future. If we are serious about ensuring that the human race does actually have a future we have a moral duty to provide a young people with the necessary life skills that will enable them to deal with the viscitudes of life and to help them realise their true potential.

There are many qualified and wise people in our communities who could help with this task yet political expediency prevents this from occuring. What is it going to take to make this disgraceful currently invisible statistic become more visible  to those who have the power to make the requried changes in our curriculum?

Education is not just about stuffing our young people’s heads full of information (check out my blog “Creative Intelligence”). It should also be about preparing them for life and in particular showing them how to handle those challenges in life which when you are young can seem insurmountable. Suicide should never be an acceptable option when it all becomes too much to handle.

The Law of Karma will ensure that those that take their own lives will end up repeating their experiences until they have grown beyond the need to end their lives as a solution to their difficulties.

We all have to take responsibility for this predicament and create a groundswell for change that our political representatives cannot ignore. What can we do you may well ask?

Commit to writing to your local member of Parliament and outline your concerns and make suggestions for possible change. Lets work together to help our young people to live long and full lives.