On Fear - A New Kind of Drill for Our Kids

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Tuesday September 26, 2006 · 9:49 AM PDT

2006/09/26 · 09:49

When I was a little girl, we had tornado drills along with the usual fire drills at school. We'd file out of the classroom and line up along the halls, kneel on the floor facing the wall, bend over our knees and cover the back of our neck with our folded hands or a book. This was in the mid to late 60s so they probably weren't calling these "duck and cover" drills by then - they were still a pain in the neck (so to speak).

I got a glimpse into how much things have changed since I was a girl. My 5-year-old daughter is already doing fire drills in her kindergarten class - no surprise there. What DID surprise me was something called the Red Drill. She described it and my jaw dropped... the kids crowd into the coat closet in their classroom with the teacher and shut the door. Then they practice being as quiet as they possibly can.

WTF?

I guess it's just a sign of the times. We hid from tornadoes - now my kids are learning to hide from terrorists or classmates with rifles. I don't think these Red drills would have ever occurred to my teachers back in Milford Michigan in the 1960s.

Or maaaaaaaaaaaybe it has something to do with our living in a suburb of DC, when the media and our politicians are doing all they can to keep us fearful of everyone and everything around us 24/7.

Either way, I'm concerned at how this fear is being drilled into our children at a very young age. We grew up preparing for fires and tornadoes - but our kids are growing up preparing for terrorist attacks. Every time my daughter hides quietly in the coat closet, she's being told that she's not safe - anywhere. Even in her kindergarten class. And this will be drilled into her year after year after year after year... 13 years of this. Who could blame her for growing up to be a fearful woman?

I have to wonder if this is unique to the DC area, or if schools all around the country are running their kids through these Red Drills? Has Columbine changed our society that much? Or was it 9/11 that did this to us?

If this is because of 9/11 then the terrorists have already won. Mission accomplished - we're scared shitless and we're teaching our children to be afraid as well.

I'm torn - on the one hand I'm glad my daughter's teachers are taking a threat like Columbine or whatever seriously, and are taking precautions.

But this really doesn't sit right with me. They haven't yet installed metal detectors but I worry that this is just around the corner for our schools. Is the end result (raising a generation of fearful children) worth the preparedness? Or is this totally over the top?

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On Fear - A New Kind of Drill for Our Kids

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