| No Time To 'Do' Anything But Get Into Trouble: Wheels of Fortune |
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Yossi (an amalgam of many cases I have seen) has been having difficulties with the police. Yossi lives on a yishuv. A yishuv is a smaller suburban community that was formed on vacant land, either in-or outside the Green Line. For the most part they were built in the halcyon days after the Six-Day War and an Anglo-Saxon aliya. The houses/apartments are basically identical having been built by the same contractor. They were generally settled by young couples with children. Today, theses towns are facing a new reality - populations of teens and early twenty-somethings with a paucity of activities after school hours. While many of the yishuvim have yeshivot that first finish at 10:00 p.m., for many teens, that's still daytime. There is no "action" to speak of. No bowling - as if they might be permitted to go to a bowling alley if there was one; no clubhouses that are permissible; no synagogue teen activity programming - even separate boys and girls activities. These are "communities" that don't have community activities, well certainly not permissible ones to the more observant, but even for the secular teens and older teens. There are hardly, if any, public libraries where one can borrow a book or look something up. In certain circles, the computer is a poison fruit that only parents can access for work; however, in most cases these kids use their phones and access everything, about which for the most part, their parents are clueless. What does exist "under the radar" are pool halls, gyms which serve alcohol and other habit forming activities which create a false aura of sisu v'simchu-enjoy and be happy. My read on what goes on is that these teens - and some are as young as ten years old - what we call pre-teens - are starving for activities besides learning. Some of the parents arebaalei teshuva and remember how things were; they may tell their kids about the bad old days: The kids hear this and say to themselves, "they had all the fun and lock me into this life of boredom: They used to drive!" Here, getting a license is only permitted at age 17 and then using the family car is forbidden, as to replace it, now that it is taxable, can cost as much as a starter apartment, $50,000.00 and up! So here they are, lots of energy and nowhere to go but into trouble. Add to the mix a teen with a learning disability who - is frustrated in school, feels generally badly about her/himself and is looking for somewhere or something that will make her/him feel good, wanted and finally fit in - and you have trouble with a capital "T." Recently, a mother approached me with great trepidation. She didn't want to be motzee shem ra - to speak badly of a neighbor - but she overheard a conversation in the supermarket that sent her reeling. A young teen was buying paper goods and drinks for what looked like a party. As he was lifting these things onto the conveyer belt his mother asked: "What about beer?" "Oh," he said, "I'll get four bottles." The mom retorted: "I don't think that will be enough for the number of kids you're having over." "These were frum-religious people," the mother said to me aghast. Well fools rush in where angels fear to tread. I have been thinking for a while about putting together a project - a way of trying to deal with this problem - of teens-without-a-sense-of-purpose. I asked this mother if she thought she and her husband and other parents in the neighborhood could get my idea off the ground. This is my idea (though I'm not sure others may not be doing something like this already): Let us create a course where teens can learn how to tutor new olim. The student teachers would be paid a stipend to take the course. The payment would include money deposited on a weekly basis in a new bank account and the same amount of money in coupons. The cash would be available to use immediately or to be saved (personal choice), the coupons could be used to pay for driving lessons if they were old enough, or to learn the mechanics of an automobile (for both females and males) - for example how to change a tire. In Israel there are two parts to the driving test, Theory and Practice. One can only start driving at 17 years, but this group would be able to begin with the Theory part, a sort of Driver's Education, earlier. This idea can address two major issues facing this population, both interconnected to the "do nothing feel like nobody" situation. They would see that they have something to offer; their studies and work would be valued and they would learn to delay gratification i.e. not spend their money immediately but build a nest egg for something that is valued. The incentive to save would be the matched funds in coupons, which in effect would double the value of their savings. Those who complete the Theory Course and are older than 18 years would be able to take the Practice part - driving lessons in a car. The car issue might be dealt with by the Parent group, or other group running this program, who could submit a proposal to car companies for their used cars, or some such idea. I know there are a lot of kinks in this theoretic solution. But how about let's try to put our veritable shoulders to the wheel and get this moving. I will be happy to brainstorm with others. |
