I’ve been an advocate for teaching Personal Safety in schools for most of my teaching career. In the district that I worked in, I had little success. Other than when an unknown car stops children on the road, does it get discussed in class. At that point a memo goes out to staff and parents from the district describing the incident and reminding parents that it will be/was discussed in school as part of their regular Personal Safety discussions. Other than brief discussions in class at that moment, nothing else is done. I’ve been out of the classroom for 2 years now, but do not think that much has changed.
In an age where more and more standards and curriculum are being foisted on teachers to teach and assessments based on all of that content, it is no wonder that educators look down on adding more material (personal safety) to their already over packed day. From my point of view, however, personal safety of children goes beyond the standards and the NCLB legislation. If we can’t keep the kids safe; teach them that in abusive situations that they are not at fault; give them strategies to protect themselves from predators, then we are doing them a disservice, no matter how well they perform on tests.
The battle that I fought to get Personal Safety curriculum in my school system has passed. I no longer work there and with all that is expected of teachers now, I would have no support. So what course of action do I have? Storytelling and singing.
We already know that storytelling is an effective tool in communicating ideas and information to people. In a story format, much more is retained. If you want further proof, read Story Proof by Kendal Haven. I want to create a program that focuses on Personal Safety.
When I was little, one of the songs that we learned was called, “Remember your name and address”. Some of you might remember the Tiny Tim version of it. (You can Google it if you have never heard it). I’m trying to work on a new version of the song that connects to Internet safety. It would go something like “Don’t give out your name and address…” I could do it as part of a personal story of how I learned the “Remember your name and address” song as a child to protect myself when lost. It gave me an alternative way to get home safely. I could then talk about how times have changed and introduce my new version of the song that keeps us home safe. I probably will update the tune, or at least the tempo to connect more with kids.
I posted on my professional storyteller network my idea and asked for suggestions as to what kinds of stories I could tell. I don’t want the stories to be real life stories. There are plenty of them out there, but they would frighten more than teach. Some of the ideas that I have received include finding a tale in which a secret name is important to the story or using an original Grimm’s fairytale, like “Little Red Cap”, where I could adapt the story but keep some of the grim parts to get my ideas across. Then there are my favorite tales, Jack tales, which I am sure have within them Jack outwitting some evil predator.
My goal is to find material that demonstrates to kids that they are capable of making correct choices and that they can do something when confronted with bad people. I don’t think this program will be designed and ready to perform soon, it will take time to find all of the material and then learn it, but I am hoping that when completed, districts will hire me to perform it for their schools. It is not a solution to having a Personal Safety curriculum embedded in the school day year round, but a start in bringing to kids what is sorely needed for their health and welfare.
Any other ideas would be greatly appreciated.
