With the alarmingly growing rate of terrorism and evil in this increasingly corrupt world of ours,how do explain to the little ones why their world is so bad?.
What do you tell them is the reason why a young man or woman with his or her life ahead of him walks into a school,market,church, mosque or gathering then blows himself up with others?
How do you explain to him that a person can walk up to a musical concert and starts shooting people?
What do you tell him if he or she asks you why people rape,cheat, steal and kill one another.?
How do you answer him honestly, satisfactorily and still preserve his or her innocence in the process.
Honestly I can't,but thankful Dr. Manny Alvarez comes to our rescue with this very intriguing piece;
"As our society has become more 'modernized', our children have been in the most unfortunate ways been exposed to some very ugly aspects of society.in the second half of the 20th century, their innocence has been marred by tales of and exposed to crime,abuse,drug use and hatred. As parents grappled with ways to explain to these ugly truths to their children, they often had the advantage of factual arguments which they could break down for them. 'Good guys versus bad guys' , 'cop versus robbers'.
Many of the lessons parents passed to their children- such as don't steal, don't hate, don't hurt anybody- can be found in some form scattered among educational tools. Children attending Sunday school learn early on in the ten commandments the simplicity between right and wrong,and the importance of being a good,ethical human being.
So don't steal,don't kill,don't lie,etc- seems simple enough. But in 2015,.become more complex than that. Now,things in America and around the world have changed dramatically. Terrorism graces the cover of every magazine, newspaper and television broadcast and we're tasked to explain one of the most complex topics we will ever face to children: TERRORISM. They may understand it as a word,but certainly not as a concept. We now send them to schools where lock down drills and practices have become part of the norm. As parents [and elders] ,it is our responsibility to break down what this evil that they are practicing protection from truly is.
In doing so,we can't lose sight of the importance of basic lessons..There should be no discriminating against skin color, religion, culture. Doing so would go against the very grains of what our country is made of.
For those at loss at how to explain this to your child,I will share with you the way I explained terrorism to my autistic son. What I told him was that God creates every human being the same way. He instills in each and every one of us the ability to love one another, and the ability to care or look after one another. However some can forget this and instead of listening to what their God-made heart is telling them,they listen to others who have also forgotten.
I told him to think of a rose a rose and how one end of a rose is a collection of beautifully coloured petals and a warm loving smell. While the other end is a prickly stem full of thorns intended to cause pain and holds no beauty. Then I explain that, terrorism is when people lose their beauty, as if the rose was cut in half and are left with only the thorny,pricky soul with the intent to cause pain. I told him that it is because these people have lost their beauty,they begin to hurt people, without reason, without cause. It is not that that they are are envious,or want to steal something; they are just left with thorns inside that want to inflict pains on others.
I told him,and I'll tell you,that most people are not just a soul full of thorns,and that true beauty still exists all around us,but in today's society, we must fight to protect what we have left.I know that many critics have mocked the act of prayer in the aftermath of these horrific events,but I told my son to continue to pray. And I told him that when he prays, he should ask God to create more beautiful flowers on this earth, so we can bring the true beauty of God back to life."
Now you know.. you can use your own words to explain terrosim to the young minds around you.
These things happen...
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