The Importance Of Self Safety

1741 Words4 Pages

Every child has seen the movies where the protagonist is walking home after a long day, and they turn the corner... Wham! A kidnapper is waiting to smuggle them away in their white van. Magically, the protagonist attacks the kidnapper and runs away to safety. Sadly, this is a delusion. Kids cannot defend themselves from real life attacks. A mind-blowing 800,000 children are reported missing each year (Falcon). Teaching children in school how to defend themselves can help stop this problem. On the other hand, schools can also just teach the kids how to react in certain situations. Instead of forcing the children to throw kicks and punches, schools can just teach kids prevention, procedures, and tips. For instance, they can teach kids about …show more content…

The answer is no; there are many ways a person could boost their confidence. These tips and tricks can be taught in a course. According to the article, “8 Ways to Be a More Confident Person”, even “dressing for success” augments one’s self-esteem (YEC). Even though “dressing for success” and learning self-defense increases confidence, they do it in different ways. Dressing professionally gives individuals confidence through their appearance; it does not give them long-lasting confidence in themselves. Likewise, learning self-defense assures individuals in their abilities. A study was done to see the affects self-defense had on women. Similarly to most teens, most women feel helpless when it comes to an attack and defending themselves. Ronald Smith, co-author of the study, declared, “However, the women in this study who learned martial arts techniques of aikido and karate reported feeling more assertive, but less hostile and aggressive” (Schwarz). The women had the confidence in themselves because of what they learned. This assertiveness would help decrease bullying as well. …show more content…

Teens are always told, “You’re NOT alone. It’s NOT your fault” when they are dealing with drawbacks (“Are You Being Bullied?”). The quote demonstrates a child’s mindset when they are being bullied. This could be prevented with a self-defense course because the child would be able to have opportunities to physically interact with peers. When students enroll in self-defense, they would have a partner or partners that they practice with. They have to learn different situations and techniques with each other and are also forced to problem solve together. This increases social activity and cooperation which lacks in many classrooms. Moreover, students learn to respect one another and their abilities which is also very useful when working on a classroom project or activity. Dr. Gong Chen, a professor of San Jose’s State University’s department of Kinesiology, and author of five published self-defense books, noted that throughout a study on student training, the students showed respect to the adults and their peers. At the same time, they also improved collaboration in the classroom (Sethna). Learning self-defense not only teaches students to be respectful of one another but respectful of everyone whether it is a teacher, parents, or younger child. Furthermore, learning self-defense teaches children how to be self-disciplined. This can be used for them needing to do their homework or accomplishing life

Open Document