Safety Film

by Kelly Knowlden

In the olden days when teachers could sign out reel-to-reel movies from the Intermediate Unit for children to watch, I signed out a likely film called “Safety for Children.” Mrs. Tripp told us to always preview films and usually I did. However, due to many pressures, I did not get a chance to watch this one before the day I needed to show it to my class of first and second graders. We were watching it together and it started out with play-ground safety - reminding children to not walk in front of the swings when someone was swinging, to be careful to hold on to the monkey bars, etc. (Pay no mind to the fact that we had access to neither of those things at school.) Then it moved into the ‘safety at home’ section and talked about not putting things in outlets, not running down stairs, and stay away from dad’s tools in his workshop. It then proceeded to show a boy of about 9 or 10 running the radial arm saw over his han.... PROJECTOR OFF! LIGHTS ON!

It strikes me that parents make my mistake all the time. They give their children things that have serious consequences in their using, but do not teach them how to use them. “Safety” is not even in their thinking. I am thinking of things that children see as necessities and parents are sure that not having them will scar their children. Things like cell phones with abilities to communicate ‘facelessly’ or be on the internet with little or no restraints. (Why is ‘sexting’ an issue?) Or even the ‘harmless’ game systems that are the desires of every boys heart. They would be odd-man-out if they didn’t know something about Call of Duty, right?

Let me be frank with you. You are paying big money for one of the best educations in the city. We have hired the best teachers in the world. However, they cannot compete with the adrenalin-pumping action of gaming systems nor the text- induced drama of social media. Students will yawn when hearing of the wonders of God’s world. Eyes will glass over when reading the stories of men and women who have lived nobly. The tools provided are like radial arm saws to their souls ... unless you have been vigilant in teaching them how to use them.