Goldie Hawn has been honoured with an award for helping raise awareness about mental health issues at U.S. schools.
The Private Benjamin star picked up the honour from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Service Administration during a trip to Washington, D.C. this past week (ends08May09), where she was campaigning for more education dollars to help kids with learning difficulties and teenage problems.
And she's using the press she's getting after receiving the new honour to advocate "social and emotional" education.
The actress says, "I think our children are really in trouble... There's too much suicide, too many kids killing each other. It absolutely brings tears to my eyes."
Hawn insists schoolyards are nothing like they used to be when she was growing up - and education bosses need to revisit the past to solve the problems of the present.
She adds, "I think we had much more dream time. I think we didn't have as much pressure.
"I was not a great student... I had minor dyslexia, but I never felt the pressures of those kinds of problems; I felt like I was going to be OK.
"These kids now are so pressured that their stress factors are really great. What's happening is they don't know how to deal with their stresses, so it's coming out in many different ways - drugs, self-medication... I don't think they have stability... I don't know why they should; I don't have it when I look at the news.
"I used to lie down and look at the clouds and I used to dream... Our kids now are bombarded with bad news... families are breaking up. There's no stability in the family; two parents are working making a lot of money, but who's home nurturing the kids?
"Children really need to be focused upon; schools aren't broken, the kids are."
The actress' Hawn Foundation is trying to create a programme for troubled kids that can be implemented into schools across America that builds on kids' "social and emotional learning skills".
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