YOUTH ABUSE
Adolescent and Child Abuse in Film, Literature and Reality was a very enlightening and shocking course that made me dig deeper into underlying problems in our world today. I took this honors seminar spring semester of my sophomore year with individuals from all different majors. It was great to have a variety of mindsets and critical thinking skills when it came to class discussions and opinions about the topics we were studying. Throughout the semester, we researched and read many articles about child abuse, neglect, pornography, sex trafficking, and many others. I realized before taking the course the content was going to be vulgar and appalling, but I was very intrigued about the history of child abuse in our country and the different cases. I wanted to be educated because as I work towards my nursing degree I know that I will more than likely have to take care of non-accidental trauma children and I want to be able to approach and take care of them to the best of my abilities. Throughout the course, I read about child abuse and neglect in our country, other countries, and across the globe. We also had speakers come into our classroom, one being an author and another being a police officer that investigates child predator cases. In addition, we also explored the various aspects of the foster care system and the pros and cons it currently has. My class also had the opportunity to travel to Kentucky to a facility known as Buckhorn Children’s Center where they were able to interact with abuse adolescent abuse victims and also did some volunteer work on the Buckhorn property. Unfortunately I was unable to attend this trip due to work, but I heard what an amazing experience it was and I plan to visit in the future. Everything that I learned from the course was very eye opening and with the knowledge I hope to be able to spread awareness to my peers, colleagues, parents, and family about the potential dangers children endure every day and how to keep them safe from such treacherous actions. I feel very educated about the many different signs to look out for in children who are abused and neglected and I plan to incorporate that information into my daily life as a nurse. Abuse is a horrendous event that no child should ever be faced with.
Pictured above are two novels that we had to read throughout the semester. Invisible Kids is based on a true story and focuses on a child abuse case that took place right here in Cincinnati in 2006. As a class, we were given an amazing opportunity to meet with the author, Holly Schlaak. She openly voiced her input about the numerous cases she has dealt with as a social worker, in which some of them were wrote about in the book. She also was able to describe to us more about the foster care system and why it doesn’t always work but also many success stories as well. Bastard out of Carolina was more a fictional novel that told a story of a less fortunate family and a child who was abused by her mother’s boyfriend. Both books were absolutely phenomenal and I would recommend either of them to anyone looking to gain more insight on child abuse.
Attached are a few reflections I have from the class based on different articles that we read and on the two novels we were assigned. We were asked to write weekly reflections of our thoughts and were challenged to think deeper into the situations. In the beginning we were all so set on the child’s point of view and how awful it is for him/her to ensure such a tragedy. But as the semester progressed, we were challenged to look at the abusers point of view and what background he/she may have came from.
Attached are a few reflections I have from the class based on different articles that we read and on the two novels we were assigned. We were asked to write weekly reflections of our thoughts and were challenged to think deeper into the situations. In the beginning we were all so set on the child’s point of view and how awful it is for him/her to ensure such a tragedy. But as the semester progressed, we were challenged to look at the abusers point of view and what background he/she may have came from.
response_2-_child_abuse.docx | |
File Size: | 117 kb |
File Type: | docx |
Reflection on Invisible Kids novel.
response_3-_abuse_class.docx | |
File Size: | 115 kb |
File Type: | docx |
Reflection on Bastard Out of Carolina novel.
response_5-_abuse_class_.docx | |
File Size: | 114 kb |
File Type: | docx |
Reflection on abuse in affluent families versus low income families.