Nigel Wrangham to Speak at Cascia Hall PAC
TULSA, Okla. – Nigel Wrangham, II, will speak to parents of pre-teens and teenagers to help them implement strategies for preventing substance use, violence, and other problems and challenges. Admission is free and all are welcome to attend on April 15, 2010 at 6:30 at the Cascia Hall Performing Arts Center. Nigel has been training and consulting with communities across the country for over 10 years. He currently teaches at the University of Oregon. The following are his words regarding his message.
“Two items in the news recently caught my attention. In rural Montana, just outside Helena, five teens were killed when their pickup truck failed to make a turn on a country road. Alcohol is said to have been involved. There was drug paraphernalia in the vehicle. On the other side of the country, in Massachusetts, nine high school students face criminal penalties for bullying a classmate literally to death. Their 15 year-old target hung herself. How are these stories related, and what do they mean in Oklahoma, halfway between the places where each tragedy happened? In both cases, in addition to families and loved ones having a permanent hole torn through their lives, something was missing. Something wasn’t there that should have been. That something is Guidance. The third definition of this word in Webster’s Dictionary provides the most relevance here: ‘The process of controlling the course of a projectile by a built-in mechanism.’ Adolescence is nothing if not a projectile; an unpredictable, rushing course of feelings, drives, and often conflicting desires that seems so painfully long while it’s happening, yet went so fast for those of us blessed enough to have lived through it and grown up to look back. So who controls the course of this projectile? Who provides this built-in guidance mechanism?
The sad answer, all too often, is no one. That certainly seems to be true in Montana and Massachusetts, and it’s often true in almost every community across America, including Oklahoma. Parents: guidance is your job. No one promised you it would be easy, and no one promised you that your teens would always welcome it. The good news is that you don’t have to do it alone. A world of resources is yours for the taking. I am coming to visit the Tulsa community and help you open up the door to that world just a little bit. We can share stories, tips, and a little knowledge about the adolescent brain. We have a duty to ourselves and our children to remember that each one of us can make a positive difference in the lives of our kids.” For more information about Nigel Wrangham, visit his website at www.nigelstrategies.com.
The Cascia Hall Performing Arts Center can be accessed from Utica Avenue at 25th Place.
Updated 04-06-2010
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