Dan Heasler,
I have had a look at your blog site. Very impressive, but I still remain skeptical about schools carrying out social science courses or even life skills courses.

Good in theory, but such systems can easily become corrupted or distorted by teachers who have a private agenda to push.

As an example, I took one of my children out of grade 11 SOS course after 1st semester and enrolled her in a chemistry course instead.

Why? Because the SOS teacher had failed about 75% of the students in 1st semester exams. One of the students the SOS teacher had failed was the top grade 10 student in English, and latter became dux of the school in grade 12 with an OP score of 1. She is currently studying medicine, but the SOS teacher had failed her.

It was later found that the students were not allowed any opinion other than what the SOS teacher told them to believe, and that SOS teacher was also highly feminist with no regard for boy students.

Who knows where that SOS teacher is now, but hopefully not in front of a class.

Also it is interesting that some of the poorest nations in the world have the lowest suicide rates, and also countries that are highly anti-homosexual have virtually no suicides.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_suicide_rate

I don’t believe there is any great connection between homosexuality and suicide.

Dear Vanna,

http://gaylife.about.com/od/gayteens/a/gaysuicide.htm is a link which tells about homosexual teenagers and suicide.

From the link:

Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Transgender and Questioning Youth

Suicide Statistics

By Ramon Johnson, About.com Guide

Lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and questioning youth are up to four times more likely to attempt suicide than their heterosexual peers, according to the Massachusetts 2006 Youth Risk Survey. A 2009 study, "Family Rejection as a Predictor of Negative Health Outcomes" led by Dr. Caitlin Ryan and conducted as part of the Family Acceptance Project at San Francisco State University, shows that adolescence who were rejected by their families for being LGBT were 8.4 times more likely to report having attempted suicide. And for every completed suicide by a young person, it is estimated that 100 to 200 attempts are made (2003 Youth Risk Behavior Surveillance Survey)

David f,
Well that report is also interesting, when countries such as Iran, which is a highly anti-homosexual country, have virtually no suicide.

Peer group acceptance or rejection is very important for both boys and girls, but I think that homophobia is over-emphasised in our society, or over exaggerated by those wishing to pursue their own agendas.

I have yet to find a teacher who has anything positive to say about boys as a group (or men for that matter), while I have heard many negatives said.

I would think many teachers would have to attend life skill classes and undergo a complete change in attitude before they could teach life skills to others.

I have been a sufferer of depression since the age of 15.

Thanks - NOT - to Jayb who says "let nature take its course".

I may have seriously contemplated suicide in the past, but this does not mean I am not a valuable person to society.

I can never pin point any particular incident or events that preceed a bout of "the little devils" in my head. They start to party and even with medication I just have to let them party on until they are exhausted - and only then can I continue life as normal.

Suicide has been occuring since time began. It is more to do with what is going on in our head than any particular outside influence.

I watched with great sadness the story of the young newsreader who could not fight the thoughts in her head any longer and jumped off the cliff.

With age, I have learnt to cope with these "grey days".

Depression is an issue that absolutely needs addressing in schools.

More emphasis should be on "learning to live" rather than "living to learn"

Vanna said, "I would think teachers would have to attend life skill classes and undergo a complete change in attitude before they could teach life skills to others."

I think we have to ask ourselves as a society if life skills are something that can be packaged up and taught in a classroom?
We have been educating our children this way for around 200 years as part of the continuum of modern existence. Prior to this, "life skills" were learned as part of "life" - by learning within the community. children spent their formative years in the company of all ages instead of being segregated with age peers away from the world going on around them.
Yes, this is the way we do it now, but we shouldn't feign amazement when our deliberate warping of life delivers us a society where the disconnection and bewilderment of our youth turns rapidly to depression.

An earlier thread on this subject was raised on OLO either this year or last year Dan.

I recall mentioning the use of dumbells used daily, gym muscle strengthening exercises, swimming, riding a bike, gardening, all of these activities in individuals suffering from depression have turned their illness around to the point whereby many people have come off their medication and not needed it in their future lives.

Dr Nalin Singh [one example] among other specialists have treated patients for years using the muscle toning exercise programs successfully.

Unfortunately when the 'black dog' hits people with depression, it is difficult for people to get out of bed, [one of my friends suffers this on a regular basis] during these episodes.

She has suffered depression for well over 15 years and treated regularly. When I raise the muscle exercises, swimming or bike riding to her in between the episodes, she disregards the suggestions. One day.....hopefully!