Ideas?

[Yvonne Belisle]

In light of the fact that our children are the future does anyone have any ideas about things we can teach our children to help prevent repeats of today in thier futures? To the victor has always gone the definition of history for example the war between north and south. Many issues were buried by the winners that the south felt were important. Are we going to do this with our children or are we going to explore all the factors behind current events and not be biased in the information we give them? Is it possible to discuss all sides with our children objectively or are our personal feelings over the innocent lives lost going to color what we tell them of why? I don't know the answers so I am hoping that some of you will have some ideas on the subject.

[Lilu]

Hi Yvonne, good question!

I don't know that there is any definitive answer. Some of it will of course depend on the ages of the children, and how well they will be able to *understand* information that we give them, and like you say there will come a time where in the future the "story" of what happened is going to written and there will be a biased slant to it.

I'm not sure how to handle any of it - it's impossible to cover each and every side, but I think the KEY is that you TRY to remain open to different sides, the positions that they are coming from, and don't deny your child the right to find out more about it, and when they ask questions, answer them as honestly as you can.

As with anything, you can only do your best, be honest with your children, and if you don't know the answer to something, say "I don't know". I think it would be very sad to see the underlying issues behind WHY this happened buried as simple "crazy people" antics. I hope that when it does come to a history lesson that the issues of all parties are covered, and maybe now is the time for us to read and learn about these issues, print out anything that is of interest to KEEP for our children - information that might not be available 10-20 years down the line.

I just have no answers, but thought I'd ramble anyway!

BB
Lilu

[Yvonne Belisle]

At least you took a stab at it. This is a terrifying issue to many of us and already the media tends to ignore the other side of this and why we were a target. I think if the American people as a group were more vocal on wanting to know why that would change things and outlooks but I don't see it happening in the near future there is too much pain at the moment for most of us to care about why they did it.

[Lilu]

It's only been two weeks since the attacks, you are right, there is still MUCH anger and sadness. I hope that MAYBE some time down the line there will come a time when people have had time to grieve, and are capable of looking a little more objectively at WHY something like this may have happened. It's hard to think maybe there was something that could have been done to prevent these attacks or whatever when it's only been a few weeks. I know some people are, and that's what I'm saying, it may be time to at least save some of these thoughts for future reference? :) It is a difficult topic.

BB
Lilu

[Laiste]

As a parent I too am struggling with this issue. My son is 8 and has many questions about this. Who, what, why, will it happen again? What are we going to do about it? I TRY to answer all his questions honestly and assure him that everything is going to be ok. This is very difficult when in my mind and heart I know that I am lying!! I think he senses that too. Maybe in time, when we have had time to heal!!