European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - September 12, 1989, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Children s fears can be Aff Ayed by addressing them in Calm matter of fact talks. By Jean Marbella Baltimore Sun and dogs. The wrong clothes. Bigger kids drug dealers. Parents dying. Or divorcing nuclear War. Having sex. Not having sex. How did childhood and adolescence Ever gel the reputation of being Carefree years these kids sighs Anna Dotson a guidance Counselor at a Baltimore elementary school have a lot they re  while the worries of youth seem to Pale next to adult concerns like mortgages and marriages they re just As real and just As monumental from a kids Eye View of the world experts say. In some ways children s fears have changed Over the years. Substitute today s worries about crack dealers and aids for yesterday s worries about War and the depression. But. Mainly children have always had to face the same sort of  their current incarnations. Life changes says Leon Rosenberg a child psychologist at the Johns Hopkins Hospital children s Center in Baltimore. Children before never knew to be afraid of smoking for example but children have always worried about threats to their parents and now. If their parents smoke they worry that they re going to die. With Young children in general the fears really Don t change much. The younger child has fears of unknown things bad things. For a 4 or 5-year-old, it s monsters Lor a 6 or 7-year-old, it s Freddy Krueger. He May know it s just a Novie but it embodies things that frighten him. It s typical Lor a Normal child to sort of have vague fears of monsters. By 7, 8.9 years old there s a tendency to gel nervous about strangers bad people fire because they re More aware at that age of things happening in the neighbourhood the Community says Rosenberg. They la say i can t sleep because there Are robbers in the House it will occur More intensely if there s been a robbery in the neighbourhood. Those Are common fears at the  a Little bit of worrying is Normal and in fact worrying about a fear can help ease it. A certain amount of anxiety is salutary says John Goldenring a California child psychiatrist who has studied children s fears. It appears that those who have dealt with their fears Are better off than those who Haven  but when does a healthy anxiety turn unhealthy a child should t be spending any significant amount of Energy worrying about  says Rosenberg. With a fear of robbers for example maybe to Frey can t fall asleep right away or when Twilight comes around they might be scared. But they should t worry about it during the Day. If it s interrupting the child s play during the Day something s wrong. There s too much anxiety in the  often he says children s fears Are a reflection of their parents anxiety Levels. That s where they get their Security he says. If they see parents fall apart. 8-year-Olds will fall  parents often find themselves caught Between keeping their children Safe from the dangers of the world and making them fearful of every new person and everything outside their Doorstep. You Don t want to frighten the child but you Don t want them to Trust the world because the world s not trustworthy says Judy Esles a Mother of two. I have to consciously guard against overreacting. I remember roaming the Woods when i was a child says Esles Whoso children Are 2 and 6-years-old. My daughter understands she can t do  parents can make children wary of outside dangers without frightening them by explaining things in a matter of fact relaxed Way says Rosenberg. It depends on How upset you get he says. You should Tell them i Don t a ant you talking to strangers. Most Are Good but there Are a couple of weirdos out there. If a stranger comes up to talk to you walk away. Ii a stranger comes up to you and says your Mommy sent me to get you Tell them i la never Send a stranger to get you in the beginning kids will get a Little frightened by these discussions he says. But you make it Clear to them and you remain firm and  often children won t come out and say what they re care and handling of potential dropouts by Lawrence Kutner new York times f the thousands of adolescents headed Oil to College this month in the United states a disturbing number will not graduate. For Many of those students the freshman year will be a watershed. Within Days of starting their first classes they will find themselves lacing rigorous academic and social challenges unlike anything they have Ever experienced All too often their response to these challenges will be to drop out of school. Only about 62 percent of students who Start a four year program finish a degree within 10 years said Vincent Tinto a professor of education at Syracuse University and the author of leaving College rethinking the causes and cures of student attrition University of Chicago press 1987. Forty to 50 percent of those dropouts occur within the first year of College " the proportion of american students who drop out from individual colleges however varies widely. Generally the More selective the College the lower the percentage of dropouts said Leonard racist the program director of the admissions testing program at the educational testing service in Princeton. N.j., who reviewed 300 studies of College dropouts. According to researchers studying this problem and College administrators who will soon be counselling students a significant proportion of those decisions to drop out Are preventable. Often the solution they say is to provide More counselling and other support services to students Early in the freshman year. But parents also need to understand what will be happening to their College bound children and How to help them Complete their degrees. Most academic problems Don t crop up in the first month or two said Jack Corazzini. Director of counselling services at Virginia Commonwealth University. Instead we see More homesickness and mismatches those mismatches Are More Likely to be social or cultural than academic. For example students from Small High schools sometimes have difficulty adapting to Large Urban campuses. Freshmen sometimes feel intimidated by Pio lessors. Many entering students feel isolated and at the same time Are unaware that a lot of their classmates feel the same. Parents should Tell their children to really talk to faculty members after class instead of just sitting in the classroom Tinto said. Page 14 the stars and stripes he also recommended that students become involved with at least one extracurricular activity Early in the first term As a Way of building relationships with other students and breaking through the feelings of isolation. On Campus work study programs have been one of the most powerful ways of using financial Aid to prevent dropouts he said. The Job helps integrate the student into the  freshmen who Are feeling overwhelmed by College sometimes fear that they have failed their parents. It s especially difficult for the child who is the first in the family to go to College Corazzini said. They carry More of the Hope of the family on their  these feelings of failure compound the problem of course Foshe students believe they Are the Only ones who Are having difficulty coping with the changes. They do not understand that their confusion is a Normal part of growing up. Parents should Tell their children about the pains of their own emergence into adulthood said Paul j. Burgell the chief student affairs officer and a vice president at the University of Rochester. The child often thinks that he s going crazy or is a disappointment to his  he has found that Many students Are reassured when they Are told that their feelings Are Normal. I never Tell them that they la get Over it. They never will. But their tuesday set