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Long-Term Plan To Prevent Violence in Society Because children are at the mercy of the
families they are born into; because people have children without
knowing what a huge job it is to care for and love them; because not all
(hardworking) parents have the time or patience to devote to their
children; because everyone has a unique way of perceiving the world, and
a unique manner of communicating; there ought to be a mandatory
curriculum starting in the earliest grades that would focus on teaching
children:
A good way to teach children effective ways
to communicate would be to have the youngest students act out an
incident they experienced (perhaps a time when they were bullied, or
called names, or ridiculed, or when they felt lonely and needed to know
how to express that hurt). And in the higher grades, a student could
debate a controversial topic with another student. These reenactments
and debates would be videotaped. Then a teacher who is specially trained
(probably a psychologist) would lead the class as they watch the
playback of the video, with everyone participating in pointing out where
the communication was effective and where it was ineffective. Following
the class discussion, effective communication strategies could be
taught. If children were taught in school how to
effectively communicate, a lot of the alienation that unfortunately
leads to violence would be prevented. All children would have the chance
to feel valued. Children would learn that deep down we are all the same,
and that no one should be made fun of or worse. I think we're overdue for adding a
communications course to the K-12 curriculum in all schools.
Communication skills are at least as important as all the other subjects
our schools teach! Especially when you think about how many problems are
caused by failures in communication, from neglected children, to
divorces, to disputes in the workplace, to road rage, to school
violence, to drug and alcohol abuse, to crime in general (because
children who are ignored or abused can become criminals), to wars. I've had this idea for a long time. It's
very important to me, and I believe it can have a huge impact on
preventing violence in our schools and our culture at large. I hope you will tell your friends and
elected officials about my idea! The more people we can get discussing
it, the sooner we can make it happen! Also, if you know of any groups who are
lobbying for these types of classes in all schools, please let me know,
as I'd like to be in touch with them. Thanks. Judy
Pokras |