Thursday, December 18, 2014

... and a time to make a stand

Newspapers, perhaps across the world, carried the news of the carnage carried out at a school in Peshawar. This was punctuated by photographs of grieving families of the deceased.
 

Nobody can imagine a school may be target to an armed assault. Yet, in hindsight, a school serves multiple purposes for that militant mind-set.
 
First - a school is, relatively, an unguarded installation.
Second - children are hardly prepared mentally to recognize the mortal danger.
Third - the large casualties/fatalities would & probably did result in copius attention from the Fourth Estate.
Fourth - most parents, after such an incident, would choose to keep their little ones home rather than risk their lives.
 
The parents who have lost their children have my sympathy. Yet my attention is more with the parents who would attempt to protect their children by keeping them from school.
 
A youngling, as most parents experience, instinctively reacts when his possession is taken away from him. A new-born baby may cry, a slightly older one may throw a tantrum, a school-going child may take a more violent stand - erupt into fisticuffs, throw stones/sticks ... or stronger
 
In the long run a school would teach young minds to stand firm against injustice. It would teach that the law of the land may act slowly but eventually prevails. It would teach impressionable minds that a wrong is righted not by striking back immediately, but by approaching higher authority. A school environment offers a youngling opportunities to develop healthy social interactions, skills (including conflict resolution) in a moderated environment. In the long run social skills developed at school would be more useful in helping end the cycle of violent behaviours. Withdrawing a child from school may make it more likely that child would sooner be on the side of those perpetrators of this incident - therefore more at risk of avoidable injury & life!

To all parents in/around Peshawar (and all such potentially dangerous locations in the world) Children are the future. Education, and knowledge of the world around them is the one thing that can improve their lot in the future. For the sake of your children, do not stop the education of your children because of incidents like this! Stand firm!

1 comment:

Unknown said...

Very true indeed. Well written, carnage in school is outrightly unimaginable and disgusting. The perpetrators are a stigma to humanity.