Wednesday, November 27, 2013

Allowing Children to Play with Guns in School

Legos as guns. (Photo: Christine Wolf)
Legos as guns. (Photo: Christine Wolf)

Earlier this month, I received a Facebook message from a concerned Evanston citizen, who told me that the 2-year-old classroom at The Child Care Center of Evanston, 1840 Asbury Ave., has an area devoted to gun play.
“A teacher in this classroom reached out to me as another early childhood educator in Evanston, for my opinion. She is appalled, as are most of the staff at the Child Care Center. The Executive Director Lindsay Percival, however, has sanctioned this area in the classroom. This school has a long history with the African American community, Dajae Coleman was a former student. The # of subsidized families here is 70% of the total enrollment. The board is unaware of this and last I heard, parents had not been notified,” this citizen wrote. “I am shocked and saddened that this is happening to a classroom in our community. If my children still attended here, I would be pulling them out immediately.”
I contacted executive director Lindsay Percival to get her opinion on the matter. As we played phone tag, I took to Facebook and posted this question: 
What are your thoughts about having a dedicated gun-play area in a 2-year-old classroom? Click here to read over 40 Facebook replies within a few hours.

It's clearly a complicated issue and I believe we need to make an age-appropriate curriculum a priority for every educational setting to equip teachers and their caregivers meaningful strategies to address guns and violence. When a child points a gun fashioned from a Lego when trying to understand his world, what should a teacher say to the child and to the class? If a shooting hits the news, what are the opportunities for dialogue that teachers can raise? Our children are exposed to guns. They are curious. What should we be telling them? 

6 comments:

  1. I will freely admit to having some issues when it comes to playing with guns. Having any gun pointed at me, toy or real (army training) makes me wince. Perhaps I have the Colonel's four rules too much a part of my psyche.
    At the same time, my son and several of his playmates live for the imaginary wars with nerf guns that they have. And I don't begrudge them a single minute of it.
    Looking back, I see a lot of similarities between me and my father.(Korean war vet) We never had a gun in the house, so my only exposure to them was through the boy scouts till I enlisted in the Army at 17. He was a very stoic man, but never interfered with whatever play we were into, be it war, cowboys and Indians, or seeing if we could make our sleds go far enough to go over the cliff in the park. (never successful)
    My personal belief is that we are too quick to demonize childrens' play with guns. Those who cherish their first amendment rights are quick to say that it isn't video games. If that is true, then how are playground games much different?
    That being said, there does seem to be a trend to normalize and eventually make acceptable behavior that leads to not so good outcomes through their portrayal in media.

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    1. Well, one difference between kids playing cops and robbers or cowboys and indians and the violent video games is the age of the kids who play. Plus, I would imagine people who are opposed to the one are opposed to the other.

      Were you around here when I shared about taking my boy to the air-soft shooting stand at the local carnival? Well, basically I think it can easily do more harm than good for a parent who is anti-gun to be too rigid about it. The forbidden fruit syndrome could ruin much effort.

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    2. I don't recall that posting, so it must have preceded me, though I do recall you posting a photo of a parent and child with an airsoft gun and there being many comments regarding child abuse.
      While I don't partake, my son has his nerf gun arsenal and plays with his neighbors. Quite like it was with my father come to think of it.

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  2. Many children will express an interest in guns. It's part of our world. You can take an abstinence approach, and they'll get the message somewhere else, or you can teach them about guns and gun safety.

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    1. Like teaching 3 year olds to kill with guns, which you agreed with, or stating that parents don't have the right to NOT teach their children about guns, their decision and responsibility, not yours.

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  3. How does fairness have any bearing on reality?

    We must ingrain total obedience in the minds of the youth at an early age. They must understand that (they) common people are not allowed to engage in certain unapproved acts or foster an insubordinate mindset.

    The animal (ape) must be tamed young for it to accept the yoke of civilization.

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