Young people are hungering for meaning. A lack of spiritual education in childhood can reverberate across a lifetime
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Making sense of it is a column about spirituality and how it can be used to navigate everyday life
As a parent, I want nothing more than for my children to grow into healthy, happy, purposeful human beings. Yet all around me – in classrooms, in conversation and in alarming statistics – I see many young people struggling rather than flourishing.
In Aotearoa New Zealand, where I live, the numbers paint a stark picture. Unicef ranks us lowest among 36 OECD and EU countries in child mental wellbeing. High levels of bullying and anxiety among young people are said to compound this picture, contributing to depression, school avoidance and isolation.