Should Schools Teach Self Defense and Security?

Safety and security are really important for people. Our everyday decisions are based on what we think is less dangerous and more secure for us. We are always trying to find ways to protect ourselves and avoid all types of damage. But even though we try, we can not avoid running into unpredictable situations that can cause us physical and even mental harm.

As we grow, we start to identify items and situations that can cause us damage and we learn how to avoid these things. This occurs as we start to get conscious about life and the world taking into account all danger that surrounds us. As we begin to understand these situations where danger can occur without warning, we may feel scared and insecure affecting our mental health and approach to the world. But if we could somehow avoid robberies, kidnappings, assaults, and others, could we feel more confident and secure about the world? I surely think yes.

Not only adults but kids, who are just getting to know the world, are the ones who most need the confidence to have an adequate and healthy perspective about society and the world.

School can be a prominent place where kids learn and understand society as they get to interact with others outside of their families. Yet not only learning about society will make children feel more comfortable, but schools could teach a subject where kids learn to defend themselves by using physical skills. This is called self defense.

Self defense is a set of skills that allow a person to defend themselves by using physical force. This is a way for people to identify and prevent acts of crime enhancing people’s mental awareness and opening them to have a healthier and confident approach to life. (Orion Security)

There is a huge importance for kids to learn self defense at a young age, especially where bullying is an issue. Children should be able to defend themselves from any type of violent situation. Not only from bullies at school, but in the exterior world where criminal situations can appear without notice. In the US more than 750,000 students between 12 and 18 years of age have experienced violent crimes and about 67% of all sexual assaults are on underage kids. (Orion Security) This reveals how kids are in danger while walking on streets, in the mall, or even while being in pools. But aside from the physical damage these criminal situations can provoke, children can also be affected psychologically. When kids are victims of abuse or crime at a young age, they are more likely to experience mental illnesses over the years. Schools should teach self defense to students for them to feel more secure and safe while interacting with society.

Yet self defense has still more benefits for their daily lives. The practice of martial arts teaches children important values such as hard work, dedication, and perseverance. Discipline and responsibility are the most important elements self defense teaches. As humans, we must be responsible with our actions and learning this at an earlier age is better. When kids enroll self-discipline at an early age, they start to involve discipline in other aspects of life.

Aside from implementing discipline and responsibility, self defense also encourages important values in children. Some of these values are integrity, humility, honor, respect and courage. (Evolve MMA) It also teaches children a really important aspect of life that can help us improve if we see it in a positive way. Self defense teaches children the significance of failure and how this can be an opportunity to improve. These are values kids can’t learn in a classroom and textbooks, that’s why teaching self-defense in schools could be a great opportunity for kids to learn proper values to become moral citizens in the future.

Self defense affects in various, but positive ways a child’s life. Learning these physical skills can help kids handle school issues such as bullying. Teaching students to fight reduces incidents of fighting in schools as students learn to analyze how a bully acts. At least one in ten middle schoolers experience bullying and plenty don’t have a clue of how to confront these situations. Self defense helps children predict these situations that may include confrontation. While practicing, the trainer will cover various simulations of real life bullying scenarios allowing kids to practice for them to apply them in real situations. When a bully approaches a trained kid he is not able to develop his tactics as kids learn the psychology of a bully and get trained to avoid and get out of difficult situations.

If self-discipline has so many positive aspects, why don’t schools teach it? Well, there are various reasons why schools won’t allow self defense in their curriculum. One of these reasons can be that teaching kids to fight may destroy the safe environment school has created. Teaching kids to fight can destroy a child’s mind and ruin its childhood, especially when they are really young. (World of Self Defense) Introducing this topic to kids can be in reality challenging. It should be done at an adequate age and using appropriate vocabulary. If it is taught with no guidance and patience, kids could learn inappropriate ways of how to implement self defense in their lives. This will be disastrous making kids obtain a mentality completely different from the one wished to obtain. The child’s mentality can be affected, making him think that everything should be solved by fighting and in a future they can become aggressive. This can become a worse problem in the future, possibly causing mental illnesses such as anxiety, and this wouldn’t be the kids fault but the schools. This can be something that worries parents not allowing kids to practice self defense or even attend that school.

Defending oneself from a bully or a criminal can also worsen things as you are showing them you want to fight. This can be seen as sort of a challenge for the person who is attacking, starting a fight while what you are trying to do is to make everything stop. But the truth is fight won’t always be required. Self defense covers all aspects of violent confrontation including a criminal’s mentality. The point is to prepare students physically and psychologically to defend and protect themselves when being in a critical situation.

Self defense has various benefits and some disadvantages that influence a children’s life. Kids can gain essential values and a healthy mindset, but if everything goes wrong they could suffer from illnesses in their future. Implementing self defense in schools can be a difficult decision even though in my opinion, schools should implement self defense. Learning these physical skills benefits kids more than you think. Schools should inform parents of their purposes with teaching kids self defense as they should be the ones who may think this is inappropriate as it harms other human beings. In fact, the purpose of self-defense is not to harm people, but this will teach children when these physical skills can be convenient to use for their safety. In conclusion, self defense should be taught in schools in an appropriate and educational way. Although, kids should not learn these skills at an extremley young age because their childhood and mentality could be ruined forever. The grade appropriate for schools to teach these may be around fifth or sixth grade as Middle School is an epoch where bullying is at a critical point. Although it should be taught in the healthiest way possible to avoid harming the kid’s mentality. Self defense can improve the life quality of plenteous children and schools should contribute to this cause.

Bibliography:

Orion Security. “Why Self-Defense Should Be Taught In All Schools | Bay Area Security Patrols.” Bay Area Security Patrols by Orion Security, 18 Sept. 2017, www.orionsecurity.com/2017/09/18/why-self-defense-should-be-taught-in-schools/. Accessed 17 Nov. 2020.

‌Evolve MMA. “4 Reasons Why Learning Self-Defense Is Important For Children — Evolve Daily.” Evolve MMA Singapore, 26 Feb. 2020, evolve-mma.com/blog/4-reasons-why-learning-self-defense-is-important-for-children/#:~:text=Self%2Ddefense%20not%20only%20allows,importance%20of%20maintaining%20personal%20relationships. Accessed 17 Nov. 2020.

“How Learning Self Defence Can Improve Your Mental Wellbeing.” Urbankombat.com.Au, 2 Feb. 2016, urbankombat.com.au/how-learning-self-defence-can-improve-your-mental-wellbeing/#:~:text=Self%20defence%20and%20martial%20arts,also%20mental%20discipline%20and%20control.&text=The%20skills%20learned%20in%20self,in%20your%20overall%20mental%20wellbeing. Accessed 17 Nov. 2020.

‌Wise, Rachel. “The Benefits of Including a Self Defense Program in Middle School Physical Education — Education and Behavior.” Education and Behavior, 25 Jan. 2018, educationandbehavior.com/self-defense-to-stop-bullies/. Accessed 17 Nov. 2020.

WorldOfSelfDefense.com. “Should Self Defense Be Taught In Schools — Pros & Cons.” WorldOfSelfDefense.com, Mar. 2019, worldofselfdefense.com/should-children-learn-self-defense-how-to-protect-themselves/. Accessed 9 Nov. 2020.