The Teaching Twist in Oliver
January 10, 2010 by Megan · Leave a Comment
We went to see Oliver last night. A BRILLIANT performance by Cairns Choral Society, they filled the stage and the enquiring minds of the audience in perfect harmony.
A few busy London street scenes of over stimulation may have melted down those with autistic tendencies, however, the juxtaposition of the calm intensity of the sub text would have gained control of the melt down. I could not take my eyes, or mind, off the valuable teaching lessons being offered right in front of me.
I watched Oliver through adult, Human Service eyes and immediately grappled with the child exploitation by Fagan, his ill gained superannuation fund with his ever so normal concern for his respectable retirement and the overt domestic violence between Bill and Nancy. I hadn’t seen Oliver for many years, probably since well before I became a social worker, and I do not remember the domestic violence or even reflecting on the exploitation of homeless youth as a modern curse. Wow – what a shock it was to discover a rich tapestry of social science teaching in Oliver. I had not seen it before because I hadn’t bothered to re see the classic as an adult. What a mistake!
As I watched the grooming of Oliver by Dodger and then by the collective (Consider yourself at home), I really dug deep into understanding how easy, how romantic even, it is for our young people to fall into opportunistic prostitution and for us to not care because they are nought but street kids. The gang culture of sharing and a code of honour; how lovely to a young person who is searching for something/someone.
My thoughts this morning are twisted. This is a sign of a most excellent production – it has left me pondering the story line and holding the graphic words and acting in my mind. Most importantly, it has left me wanting to do something practical to end child homelessness and domestic violence. I already work in the field and leave my day job frustrated to the maximum. However, reaching out at a street level and giving what is missing but being searched for: would this make a difference?
The ticked cost me $40.00. Was it worth it? I throughly enjoyed the performance and want more. Congratulations to the Cairns Choral Society. I appreciate the social cognitive torture that has encroached me since last night’s performance and yes, it was worth it. It was so worth it that as a gesture of thanks, I am going to today donate the cost of my ticket to Harold’s House and his Street Level Youth Care. Young Oliver was lucky to have a biological grand father who rescued and loved him. Our street kids are not quiet as theatrically blessed.
On behalf of the exploited street kids and victims of domestic violence that I work with, thank you Cairns Choral Society.
Donations to Harold’s House and the Street Level Youth Care can be made at
Cairns Penny Savings and Loans.
Here’s what a young homeless woman said about the help she could have received from Harold’s Street Level Youth Care:
“If it was there when I needed it, it probably would have been the best thing and I probably would have changed earlier.”
– Liz, aged 18
Competition. Enter the draw to win FREE registration
January 2, 2010 by Megan · Leave a Comment
Only six days until the launch of the peer supervision and job recruitment forum for human service professionals.
People who join up BEFORE the launch on Jan 8 at 6pm (Brisbane EST) are in the running to win one of three FREE registration packs:
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a monthly subscription valued at $29.55 (Aust),
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a yearly subscription valued at $299.95 (Aust), or
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a monthly organisational subscription valued at $119.80 (Aust).
Ambulance called for child protection
December 12, 2009 by Megan · Leave a Comment
Traffic Lights compliments of sxc photo exchange
Cars pulled off in an orderly direction to allow the ambulance safe thoroughfare. I watched as a seamless guard of honour happened while we all waited at our red light. The mobile lanes of traffic halted: Ambulance, with siren blasting and lights flashing made it through a very busy intersection within seconds. The ambulance was responding to a critical incident with the help of motorists who knew nothing of the trauma awaiting at the destination.
Imagine what would happen if child protection had the same community response. Is it possible that community will ever hear child abuse as an ambulance siren and pave the way to clear a path of protection for the child? For years the traffic light analogy has been used to educate around risky behaviours: Green behaviours are good, go ahead behaviours, amber light are risky, back off behaviours and red are STOP behaviours.
Thinking over hundreds of children I have treated, I can only wish that somebody had sounded a siren for them when they were being abused and hurt by adults tasked the responsibility of keeping them safe from harm.
Next time you hear an ambulance siren, think of how many child abuse you sirens you may have failed to respond to…..and change your behaviour. Pull over for kids at risk – their functional development relies on first aide: somebody brave enough to recognise and help them.
PEER SUPERVISION FORUM IS COMING
Suitable for all workers in the human services:
youth workers, speech pathologists, occupational therapists, teachers, nurses, social workers, psychologists, community workers, etc
For early notification of registration and launch:
Child Pawn
November 28, 2009 by Megan · Leave a Comment
Photo by Blue Seat at SXC Photo Exchange.
Many of us get radical around the exploitation of children in the chocolate (cocoa) plantations and diamond mines. I only drink Fair Trade tea and coffee. I comment when I serve it, “No children were harmed in the making of this coffee/chocolate.” Many of us devote our lives to ending the exploitation of children. We work for low wages, put up with appalling abuse and trudge through the shit of life. Many of us scream when children’s clothing metaphorically or literally says, “Porn Star, come love me.” Many of us take up the protection of children because we believe that kids have the right to have a childhood free of fear, abuse and exploitation. I believe this. I work for this!
I wonder at the use of children in advertising and marketing. How far do corporations go before the children become corporate pawns? Where is that line between the playground and the pawn shop where we sell our kids for a solution to our business needs?
I recently watched some “marganalised” children, rounded up from a low socio economic neighbourhood, coached and trained to voluntarily entertain the Elderly for Halloween (the elderly being the older people in a rather affluent neighbourhood). A nice thing to do, yes? A good thing even because the kids learnt some skills, their self esteem may have been positively impacted and they got to see an alternative way to live life (in affluence 
). However, the poor children did not get paid for their entertainment but the specifically recruited project manager and event coordinator did….and they then used the pictures of the children in their brochure advertising for their event management business.The pictures were used to display the excellent corporate social responsibility of the event company: to showcase that it is a good thing to round up kids from poor families and parade them in front of the rich so the rich can feel good and the poor can feel richer for the experience.
Ummm….children in the diamond mines don’t get paid for their performance but the organisers do. Is their a parallel here? Is the West capitalist society reframing child labour as acceptable entertainment and skill acquisition?
The children’s show was so fantastic that, many external agencies booked the “margainalised” kids up to come and perform for them at Christmas bonanzas and Carol nights…no remuneration, no recognition of the time these children have to practice and stay in a controlled emotional state, no thought that we might be exploiting these children, again. The children were booked because charity is good, helping others less fortunate is a nice thing to do. Giving the poor families a break, a chance, an opportunity is all that is needed to fulfil social responsibility.
What about the cost of petrol for the parents to get these kids to practices and events. What about the cost of the new brush, the new clothes, the new social graces so that kids and their parents felt less different in flash surroundings. What about the cost of child abuse to get these kids to perform?
As I thought my discomfort through and watched a clutch of well meaning businesses bobbing around the children, kissing, hugging and congratulating them, my mind conjured up a crutch of pimps all trying to win up the kids to do a blow job on their vessel.
Child Pawn came to mind: the exchange of children’s performance for a need. If opportunistic prostitution is the exchange of sex for a commodity (hot meal, roof over the head, shower, etc) what is the exchange of children’s performance for business gain???
Am I being too sensitive to child protection here or have I just witnessed the exploitation of children?
Other articles to help you think about how we allow our children to be used as pawns:
Coffee, Tea and Chocolate for Child Protection
Reuters knife Dolce and Gabbana
This article is dramatised and is a combination of witnessed events. The reflections and analysis are my own. Any similarlity to people or events is purely accidental.
Why you need to teach your kids about safety and protection from child sex abusers
November 22, 2009 by Megan · Leave a Comment
BITSS of Protective Behaviours is a play program designed by Megan Bayliss from Imaginif.
Innocence spoilt or innocence preserved? Parents the world over debate against anyone teaching their children about that disgusting and perverted sex stuff: “When should I start teaching my child about Protective Behaviours? Not now surely. They’re only seven,” or “I don’t need to teach my child about Protective Behaviours because my child is safe” are claims that I have heard for years.
The shocking prevalence statistics are that one in three Australian children are sexually assaulted by the time they are 18. The average age of disclosure on of sexual assault in Australia is age 9. Eighty five percent of child sexual abuse is perpetrated by somebody well known to the child.
One in three! One in three!!!!! That is innocence spoilt. That is disgusting. That predators are having in home access to our children is disgusting. Our kids are at a higher risk of good old Uncle Lester abusing them than of having Dennis Ferguson move into the same street.
Perpetrators sexually assault because they can….because they have access to our children….because we have failed to pre educate, to proactively protect and tell our children that NOBODY is allowed to touch their private parts and ask for it to be kept secret.
What do I need to do to be a protective parent:
Start to teach your child about Protective Behaviours today. No matter what age your child, they are neither too young or too old to start learning about protective behaviours. New baby or college student, if you have a child or young person in your care, it is time to protect them from possible (probable even when you look at the prevalence statistic of 1 in 3) harm.
Protective Behaviours are not about teaching sex, smut and rot. Protective behaviours are a common sense approach to keeping ourselves safe under all circumstances. While is it NEVER a child’s job to protect themselves (it is our job as their loving parent), Protective Behaviors provides the child with a plan of what to do, who to go to for help, and when they should go to that safe person.
Protective Behaviours are things that most parents teach their children. Wear a hat for sun safety; Wear shoes for protection from cuts and parasites; Do not take drugs; Do not leave your drinks uncovered because of the possibility of drink spiking, etc, etc. What parent has not schooled their child in some sort of safety?
Yet personal safety, protective behaviours, about our body (particularly our private parts) is an area that many parents shy away from. Many parents see protective behaviours as scary, rude or unnecessary. Many parents insist that protective behaviours (often wrongly renamed as sex education by ignorant parents) be taught only at home and never at school in the classroom.
From the time our babies begin to learn songs about body parts (Head and shoulders, knees and toes, knees and toes) we leave out the importance of our private parts: our vagina, penis, anus, or breasts. At age three, our children are already internalising that those parts are not to be mentioned. Sexual predators LOVE this. They love a child who will keep their mouth shut: a child who will be too embarrassed to tell parents about what somebody did or said to them. Our children need to know before they go to Kindergarten or start learning body part songs that it is not rude to call their private parts by the correct name. They need to know that it is okay to talk about those parts and that sometimes big people try to trick children into keeping secrets about private parts. People who do that are nasty and need to be told on.
BITSS are important letters (reminders for the teachable moments) to include in everyday play with your children, no matter what their age:
- Body ownership,
- Intuition,
- Touch,
- Say No,
- Support Network.
By using these bits of play letters, every day, you will reduce the chance that your child will remain silent if someone tries to sexually abuse them.
Using play (or discussion for teenagers) you will find teachable moments to use any one, or all, of the BITSS letters. Play is children’s work. It is through BITSS of play that they will learn about self-protection, how to tell someone if something does happen to them and how to say “no.” You probably already help protect your children against sexual assault, but, they need gentle, daily, reminders of what to do: preferably from the time they are newborns.
BITSS play provides you with some fun ways to remind. Use these bits of information in everyday activities (bathing, nappy changing, making sandwiches, reading, playing together, etc) so that your children continually hear the BITSS required in keeping them safe from child sexual assault.
You may also find these articles helpful:
Understanding Protective Behaviours in Keeping Children Safe.
Are Children’s Books Providing them with Enough Advice?
Five Simple Bits to Help Keep Kids Safe.
Protect Kids from Sexual Predators. Use Correct Names for Private Parts.
BITSS of Protective Behaviours
For God’s sake. If you are a common sense parent will you PLEASE protect your children.
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