Susan,
What a great question! I have learned that while families often believe they are screening what their child, or children, watch, a large portion of shows and games that children are exposed to are commonly designed for older viewers. Books and toys based on action figures as well as play weapons flood the market for young children to read and play with. And with a still-developing ability to understand, young children face conflicting, even bewildering, messages about violence. On television, they view both
Sesame Street and
Transformers. At home, they receive contradictory messages from adults: "don't hit, " play nice," "stand up for yourself," "fight back." I'm sure it's hard for them, and we can monitor weapons play in their learning environments too.
However, I will say that some studies (
like this one) are showing the positive side of this. I'm going to be upfront with you, with what I've learned from grad school and Gartrell's
Guidance Approach, I don't agree with it. In the past, I have tried to move from "superhero play" to "imaginative play" where young learners could pretend to be first responders or firefighters. Too, I would look at the other outlets the learners have in their environment; I once had a director remove a climber that a family donated to the school because she thought it was unsafe. While it may have been coincidental, as soon as we brought it back, with mats underneath, the weapons play subsided. Too, I would let learners know in a quick meeting the guidelines we had for playtime. For example, I would say, "I love that you are being creative with our toys, and sometimes that scares others. I want this to be a safe place for everyone because everyone in this class is important." (In the area I was teaching in, there was a lot of gun violence and many were exposed who lived in the surrounding area.) I would also suggest reading
this article by Diane Levin.
I hope this helps!
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Meghan Kay
Westerville OH
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Original Message:
Sent: 04-15-2021 07:01 AM
From: Susan Ferguson
Subject: How to respond When boys maKe every thing Into a weapon?
I am seeking opinions on how you deal with all objects being turned into a weapon with boys in the classroom. I teach 3s, and regardless of what it is (legos, magnatiles, sticks, paper tubes)...a few of the boys turn them into guns/blasters/swords etc. it disturbs me, but I'd like like a better way to communicate with them about it other than fruitlessly repeating "no weapons" in the classroom. I think I feel especially sensitive to it this year with so much violence in the news, and don't want to project my feelings into the situation. I understand this is often a natural component of play. I'd love any articles or resources folks can suggest on how to embrace the positive aspects of this but minimize how they point their weapons at classmates and pretend to shoot (they build really creative weapons lol!).
Sue Ferguson
Lead Teacher
St. Paul Preschool
Woodbridge, VA
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Susan Ferguson
Manassas VA
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