Alternating Point of View

(Part 2 of 5)

With child abuse, there are a few givens, chief of which is there are no stereotypes, no single set of identifying criteria that can add up to clearly identifiable symptoms, only ones that can be loosely identified as a syndrome.

What is also clear is that paedophilia cannot exist in the open; it demands secrecy to survive. On the assumption of authenticity and that the process-goal continuum are the same thing (the product of the product), withholding the inner thoughts of some of the characters should not happen.

That does not mean, however, that everything has to be disclosed – only its relevant in the eyes of the author.

Allow me to digress. I taught in the prisons for quite a length of time and one of the notable observations was the way the education system in particular did not meet the needs of these men and women both when they were at school and in the correctional system.

There were, of course, many reasons for this, most of which had little to do with education (e.g., the disproportionate number of child abuse victims in the prison population), but it did mean I had to deal with a group of people who did not have a positive regard for “traditional” teaching methods and many of whom saw no real value in education.

Attention span was frequently short, immediate gratification often the norm, cynicism rife, etc, etc., but there was something else. They were in my classroom, voluntarily, some with less than ideal motivations. My job was to foster the flicker that refused to die.

Key to that was to stimulate the desire to know. Once I facilitated that, I could step aside as they rocketed past me. A pure joy to watch.

I look forward to your comments.

Regards

Eddie