A few weeks ago our family’s nightly dinner discussion became centered around my 10-year-old son explaining what it was like to experience a school lock down exercise earlier that day. As he “in a matter of fact way” told his story about a teacher instructing him and his classmates to hide; I couldn’t help but notice a tinge of fear in his voice. Was his fear more projection on my part? Possibly my own fears and anxieties coming into fruition, due to concern for the welfare of my boy and the overall reality of the world we now must live in? This shocking authenticity proclaiming that “I’m here to take your life! I’m here for your children and to deprive you of the very freedom that you hold dear!” The freedom that so many sacrificed and gave their all for; only to replace it with fear for our lives, distrust and vigilance. Was my boy overtaken with this same fearfulness? or “to him” was this simply a certainty that we all must live with? A realism that will soon become a “normal” part of an ordinary day in the life of a child "similar to the cold war air-raid exercises of the 1950s?" The only difference being the cold war attacks did not occur, but legitimate terrorism "more recently" has occurred and "in 2001"on a mass scale. The words I heard on the news days before regarding the San Bernardino attacks echoed through my mind “terrorist attacks are usually done and over before the police arrive.” “We have three options which are to run, hide, or fight.” It makes sense for our schools to break down our children’s options to only two of those choices which are to “run and hide.”
When pondering the overall effects that these modern world threats may have on our children we must understand a few relevant points. Our kids tend to break the world down to its simplest form. They look at things two dimensionally in terms of good or evil, friend or foe. After listening to my child describe ISIS, I realized it sounded more like the dark side in the Star Wars films. Regardless of all the complexities involving human nature, my son was absolutely correct! The difference “of course” being that Star Wars is a fantasy science fiction and fundamentalist terrorism as well as homegrown terrorism along with the deadly promises that both embody are about as real as it can possibly get.
I believe that the effect of the "terrorism threat" on our children can be compared to exposure to other types of violent threats that occur within the backdrop our society. The majority of human beings “children included” are resilient. In time children begin to habituate to specific situations and conditions. In other words, once they become used to lockdowns and the overall threat of attack, the fear or “anxiety” is incorporated into their everyday lives and they eventually learn to adapt “somewhat like the soldier who learns to adapt and survive in the wartime theatre; who learns to sleep at night with bombs detonating in in the backdrop.” In this day and age learning to be prepared for potential threats of violence is an absolute necessity. This does not necessarily mean that children who are warned about the dangers of terrorism and better prepared for it will constantly struggle with anxiety or trauma. Nor does it mean that they’ll have to contend with mental illness throughout their lives. When children become clinically anxious or traumatized, it’s usually associated with direct or continual exposure to violent acts and images or physical abuse and/or neglect, which is not necessarily correlated with learning self-defense or being taught where to run and hide when you’re being targeted by predators. However, it’s probably not a good idea to allow children to view graphic, violent images of the atrocities associated with terrorism or to let them watch overly violent television shows meant for mature audiences. Allowing our children to incessantly play violent video games on a continual basis is also not a good idea. These vehicles can become preoccupations and are known to produce genuine anxiety and fear in our children and sometimes aggression.
I believe that the effect of the "terrorism threat" on our children can be compared to exposure to other types of violent threats that occur within the backdrop our society. The majority of human beings “children included” are resilient. In time children begin to habituate to specific situations and conditions. In other words, once they become used to lockdowns and the overall threat of attack, the fear or “anxiety” is incorporated into their everyday lives and they eventually learn to adapt “somewhat like the soldier who learns to adapt and survive in the wartime theatre; who learns to sleep at night with bombs detonating in in the backdrop.” In this day and age learning to be prepared for potential threats of violence is an absolute necessity. This does not necessarily mean that children who are warned about the dangers of terrorism and better prepared for it will constantly struggle with anxiety or trauma. Nor does it mean that they’ll have to contend with mental illness throughout their lives. When children become clinically anxious or traumatized, it’s usually associated with direct or continual exposure to violent acts and images or physical abuse and/or neglect, which is not necessarily correlated with learning self-defense or being taught where to run and hide when you’re being targeted by predators. However, it’s probably not a good idea to allow children to view graphic, violent images of the atrocities associated with terrorism or to let them watch overly violent television shows meant for mature audiences. Allowing our children to incessantly play violent video games on a continual basis is also not a good idea. These vehicles can become preoccupations and are known to produce genuine anxiety and fear in our children and sometimes aggression.
Please do not misinterpret what is being said here. The world has changed and it is a very different world that we are raising our children in. We need to face this fact. These changes do indeed affect our children’s emotions and thinking as well as the forming of their beliefs and ideologies. But, let us not associate the teaching of preventive measures, preparation and vigilance and proper informative discussions with them about terrorism, violent threats and safety as direct causation for our children to become overly anxious, traumatized, insecure and significantly unstable. Being made ready is a good thing and it saves lives. The limiting of preventative measures such as lockdown exercises and failure to explain these very real threats to our children would leave them ill-equipped and more exposed to danger. I believe that It is better to be educated and informed than not prepared.
Dr. Thomas Cordier is an author and public speaker on mental health topics. He is also a researcher and psychotherapist specializing in cognitive-behavioral treatment aspects. His book entitled, "An Introduction to the Interpersonal-Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy Treatment System (I-CBT): A Recie for Mental Health Treatment Success" is curently available worldwide. He has extensively researched the efficacy of an interpersonal, integrative approach to cognitive-behavioral-therapy (CBT) and created a model and manual that is easily comprehensible regardless of the patient's age or learning abilities. Dr. Cordier created the interpersonal-cognitive-behavioral treatment program (I-CBT and the I-CBT Family Systems Program at the New England Center for Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (NECBT) and the NECBT Cordier Institute for I-CBT. http://www.NECBT.com
