Do not use children as pawns in adult games
EDITOR - I read the article (on parking outside St Botolph’s School with interest but there are a number of salient points which present in light of this.
Critically, I think that whilst it is important to see that this is a child led campaign, it is questionable where the source of this is.
At the end of the day, children are not responsible for where their parents/carers park and should not, certainly at a primary level, be bought into the fray in this regard.
Adults are the perpetrators and the police should deal with them without using the children as pawns in the equation (enticing them to want to do this is still using them as pawns).
Yes, there is certainly a place for road safety and careful discussion around such subjects should be embraced but they should be child relevant.
Choices lead to consequences in this world - if a parent parks where they shouldn’t then the judicial system should have a penal system that will address this.
Secondly, fear and threats will simply not work in changing behaviour in the long term. There is a short term propensity to react from the fight flight mechanism that is intrinsic in us but it is short lived and does not satisfy a positive outcome with longevity.
Thirdly, with condemnation fairly well accepted of the practice of planking, there has to be a question mark over what message goes out to the children that see this in action and in the photographs.
Do the police really condemn children lying in the road (even to get a message across). Then of course there is the question of how little children who saw this staged actually processed such a scene.
Small children do not have the cognitive ability of older children to process and understand that this is just an act - everything for them is always larger than life and oh so real!
As we are all aware primary school gates are magnets for pre-schoolers (with their carers and parents) as well as the older school aged children too.
Therefore in essence I’m afraid a big thumbs up to idea of challenging this obsession that parents have with deviant and downright dangerous driving and parking near schools not just county wide, but country wide (and probably beyond), but a big thumbs down for the way in which it has been handled which lacks psychological, emotional and practical validity.
GINNI DELLOW, Sleaford
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Saturday 26 May 2012
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