Today's lesson plan can serve to reinforce some of the aspects of the one I presented in "Internet Safety Lesson Plan." Today's website of choice is the Missouri Information Analysis Center. Upon loading this page a video will begin playing regarding terrorism and the role citizens can play in being aware and reporting. The message driving home by the video is, "if you see something, say something." This echoes very nicely the advice to be found from watching the Faux Paws videos in the previous lesson on Internet Safety.
The video will take about 10 minutes to run and should be reasonably entertaining to any child demonstrating a passing interest in shows such as Bones, Criminal Minds, Law & Order, or any of the various CSI programs. When I walk with my daughter, I try to remind her about the difference between public and private spaces. In public, I ask her to keep her eyes and ears open to what is happening around her. In private, in the safety of our home, one can daydream. In open spaces, one must watch for vehicles and people behaving strangely. I reminder her that it is her job to remain in line of sight to me at all times. When she wanders, as children are prone to doing, she gets a talking to about the rules.. again.
"Do you know," I might ask, "if there is an ogre that eats children hiding behind that tree?" She might quip that ogres aren't real. "Just because you haven't seen any monsters yet doesn't mean there aren't any monsters out there." She then might reference that an ogre would be too big to hide behind a tree. To this, my retort might be, "Ok, a small ogre, a baby ogre.."
Having fun is well and good, but there is a serious message behind this. Children do go missing. Sometimes they even go missing from their own house, such as in the case of Elizabeth Smart. Yet even in that case, the awareness, observation, and self control of the sister, Mary, should be seen as quite commendable. The man who abducted her sister spoke softly but with some effort and time Mary was able to identify the voice as that of a man she had met a year before. Truly impressive to identify "Emanuel." Although the police did not think it a reliable lead, a drawing of the face of "Emanuel" on America's Most Wanted proved instrumental to Elizabeth's rescue.
The details of the abduction of Elizabeth Smart were made into a movie, "The Elizabeth Smart Story," with a running time of 120 minutes. It may be a stretch to call this Social Studies and assign "Core" credit hours. A book, however, was also printed Bringing Elizabeth Home (ISBN 978-0385512145) and, as previously indicated, reading is Language Arts and can be treated as "Core" hours.
I want to teach my daughter the value of being observant and saying something about things she sees or hears which strike her as unusual. I want her to act the way the people at the Missouri Information Analysis Center advice citizens to be as they go about their everyday life in their Video, "See something, say something." All very valuable advice, I believe, I need more time to make this into a lesson.
A second video on the page entitled, "Run. Hide. Fight. Surviving and Active Shooter Event," may be more frightening for children. In this video, a shooter is firing a weapon. There's no blood or bodies, but the focus is different. In the first video, people are planning something bad. In this one, something bad is actually happening. In light of the recent shooting in California by Elliot Rodger in the "2014 Isla Vista Killings," it may seem worthwhile to expose them to some fearful imagery. It might also be prudent to recall to mind the Aurora Colorado shootings by James Eagan Holmes. The video, "Run. Hide. Fight..." runs for an additional 6 minutes. This extends our lesson to 15 minutes of video.
It would seem reasonable to direct the child's attention at this point to the FBI's most wanted list. A few minutes could be sent looking at the faces there. From here, one could segue (an irritating word I like to say, but can never seem to remember how to spell) into looking at a list more worrisome, the kidnap victims. This could bring us around to discussing the show, America's Most Wanted. Once we are on that topic, it would make sense to discuss the case of Adam Walsh, who's father John Walsh afterwards served as the host of the show, America's Most Wanted. From there, we could easily transition to the story of Elizabeth Smart (bio) and how the observations of her sister (see above) when aired on America's Most Wanted aided in the recovery of Elizabeth. A child may be more than a little scared at this point, but we can then explain that bad things do sometimes happen. Despite this, it can be showed, that a person can be motivated like John Walsh to make the world just a little better. We can also reference the Elizabeth Smart Foundation, (Facebook) which she founded in 2011.
For the tech savvy who's children have cell phones, one might consider the Hero (TM) App which Elizabeth Smart has endorsed. (Video)
At this point, by way of some detouring, we have a solid reason for watching the "The Elizabeth Smart Story," (Alternately, you could opt for a 44 minute MSNBC segment) With the original videos and discussion time, we could easily have half an hour of instructional time. Adding the two hours for the movie about Elizabeth Smart would nicely count for two and a half hours. That might be a little long to bear on this topic, but I think we might be helping to drive the importance home and, with luck, perhaps our children will be more aware in public. (Although, hopefully, not agoraphobic.))
Elizabeth Smart's Book, "My Story" is available as a Kindle Book from the Amazon store. I also found copies in the catalog for our local library. An audiobook version of this book was available from Overdrive.
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