Education curriculum should include a self-defense class
The foot is already in the door with ALICE; add it to our curriculum already
June 12, 2018
In 2014, 65 percent of women reported having experienced street harassment in a survey from Growth from Knowledge, a German research company, and Stop Street Harassment, a nonprofit organization dedicated to documenting and addressing and ending gender-based street harassment worldwide.
Students are taught nothing in regard to self defense, and are expected to not do anything about getting hit when actually involved in a fight.
No wonder roughly one in four high school students report being in physical fights per child research and analysis site, Child Trends.
We know what you are thinking: If we teach self defense in school, that will only increase the amount of fights that happen on school property. Why would we ever teach students how to fight?
If the curriculum teaches strictly a self-defense course that focuses not only on the physical aspect, but also on the verbal confrontations and how to avoid the fight, that could benefit any student.
The California-based C.L.A.S.S. (Children Learning Awareness Safety and Self-Defense) would easily meet these needs.
C.L.A.S.S is a program dedicated to providing teachers and students with self-defense techniques that work, and for students to develop inner strength and self-confidence to enable them to be safe in today’s society.
C.L.A.S.S. has recently created a program specifically for high school and middle school students ages 14 to 18. This class involves all types of solutions to concerning situations for teenagers, such as peer pressure, conformity, sexual harassment, approached by strangers, being followed, road rage, internet safety and step-by-step physical techniques.
But, if the school board feels tense about adding strictly a self-defense class, an even more enhanced experience could be employed, such as a generalized life skills course. That way, in addition to defending oneself, other important abilities could be taught, such as first aid techniques or how to improve people skills.
We know that the world is a dangerous place, but that is no reason to be afraid of it. Self-defense classes would help relieve some of this fear, and prepare us for anything life decides to throw at us.
This is the real world, after all, so might as well treat it as such.
