Jan

23

New Front Line video “Growing Up On Line”

Filed Under The Way I See It | Leave a Comment

I just had to share this brand new video Growing Up On line with you. I think it’s well worth the time to watch the different segments. Who knew how involved our kids really are on-line and what it really means. I teach kids all day long and never fully realized the impact of the net and digital technology. There’s a section called “A Revolution in Classrooms and Social Life” that made me feel so inadequate given that in some of my classrooms I do not have computers for my students. Life long learner? Yup - that’s me alright!

Jan

22

Recycle, reuse, rethink.

Filed Under The Way I See It | 1 Comment

I recently came across Annie Leonard’ s video The Story of Stuff and plan to show it to my students to get them thinking about entire topic of consumerism. If you have a moment, I highly recommend you watch it. You may want to share the video and Annie Leonard’s message with others.

Jan

20

Slash-proof vests and bullet-proof back packs for students - what a sad state of affairs.

Filed Under Dealing With Stress, The Way I See It | Leave a Comment

Today I was browsing through my file clippings and came across these headlines in the November 15, 2007 Toronto Star , “Parents equipping kids with bullet-proof backpacks” and “Slash-proof hoodies selling well”. My first thought now, as it was back when I first read the headline was “What a sad state of affairs”. We’ve come to this. Parents are buying slash-proof vests and bullet -proof backpacks for their kids to wear to school. It makes me shudder. Are these items of clothing going to be the new in-thing next September? Will we see slash-proof vests and bullet-proof backpacks in next September’s back-to-school ads? Are slash-proof vests and bullet- proof back packs going to be the new school uniform kids for kids? Are school boards going to insist that teachers wear them? Where is this ride down the slippery slope taking us. It’s scary!

I suppose I should appreciate the American and British entrepreneurial spirit that saw the opportunity and seized it to produce and market these $130.00 slash-proof vests and $195.00 bullet-proof backpacks. More than 1000 of these backpacks were sold within two months in the States and hundreds upon hundreds of the slash-proof hoodies lined in Kevlar sold on-line around the world in the first six months of their existence. Bullet proof back-packs and slash-proof hoodies- I don’t know, but I think this is way over the top. Kids are apprehensive enough about going to school without the message the slash-proof vest and bullet- proof backpacks are sending them. Dr. Eilenna Denisoff, a trauma expert with the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health notes that fear can be taught and the excessive safety measures will lead kids to think the world is a terrible, frightening place. Kids will become more anxious. Marc Lewis, professor of developmental psychology maintains that this is an awful development given that 13 percent of children in North America suffer from phobias, panic disorders which are often reflect parental fears. I, myself, can see this might add to the problem of school phobias. Every year we give support to kids who are school phobic. School phobia is a real problem for the kids, parents and teachers. This development isn’t going to help. I think some kids are going to be afraid of everything, even afraid to leave the house.

The two entrepreneurs, Mike Pelonzi and Joe Currans, who developed the bullet-proof backpack were inspired to do so by their desire to keep their own kids and the kids of their neighbours’ safe. After some research, they decided that the bullet-proof backpack was the best way to go because most kids had backpacks, and they could hold them it in front of them to protect themselves.

The slash-proof hoodies are the brain child of a British firm specializing in protective clothing for security and police forces. Their research showed that approximately 90% of the street-smart youths who hung around street corners wore hooded tops. The company targeted this group but was surprised when the demand for the slash-proof hoodies came from parents of 12-13 year old girls and from women over 60. So now the hoodies are available in pink and baby blue. The company is also developing stab-proof school-uniforms.

What can I say to all this except it’s so sad. School doesn’t seem to be as safe a place as it used to be. That’s for sure. People have been shot and killed right inside high schools here in the Greater Toronto Area . People have been stabbed and killed right inside high schools here in the Greater Toronto Area. Just this past week two innocent bystanders at two different times were shot and killed on the street as they went about minding their own business because they got caught in the cross fire of someone else’s violence. It’s scary. I guess it is the new reality. I think we need to do more than buy slash-proof hoodies and bullet-proof backpacks to protect ourselves.

 
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