I teach at an elementary school that serves students from 4 to about 12 years old. The students seem to grow up in a very protected environment guarded by school, teachers and parents. In cyberspace there is plenty of talk about Internet Safety, Cyberbullying, accessible pornography, and kids being lured into meeting adults they have met online. All this seems so far removed from our little protected school community.

Administration and parents are mostly in the dark about the shift that is happening in social networking for teenagers and young adults. What they do hear and read in newspaper and on television scares them mostly into making the technology unavailable to their children and students. On the other had they might not monitor their children enough, because they think that the children are too young to “get into” certain places or are not interested in these kind of online activities yet.
The adults want to protect them “just a little while longer”. Most parents, teachers and administration of elementary school children and Pre-Teens feel that they still have some time until they have to worry about all the threats that the Internet brings.

Well….

The online world is changing rapidly. Faster than ever before. The access to the internet and other social network devices has become faster and easier with wireless access in Starbucks, Barnes and Noble and other hang outs Through cellphone with IMs, SMS and access to MySpace , Game consoles that connect online.

Younger and younger kids want these tech gadgets, which in some cases unknown to the parents. open up the gates of the protected community. The worst that can happen to those kids is that they will not be prepared to handle what they encounter. The worst parents and schools can do is to close their eyes and keep thinking: “They are not old enough yet”.

After listening to Parry Aftab at our Florida Council of Independent Schools convention, I am exploring the option of creating a chapter of “Tweenangels” at our school. I believe that it is necessary to educate and prepare elementary school children for the online world and their online life just as much as their older siblings, cousins, neighbors, and friends in Middle and High School.

From Teenangels.org:

Teenangels must be between the ages of 13 and 18. Recently we created Tweenangels to help preteens become involved, and they must be between the ages of 9 and 12. (Teenangels and older Tweenangels can train as part of the same chapter, if that helps get a chapter going. But Tweenangels do not train with the same level on Internet sexual predators. So either the Teenangels are trained less thoroughly in this area than their counterparts in other Teenangels chapters, or special arrangements are made to allow the older Tweenangels to train in these matters.) Each Teenangel or Tweenangel must receive the permission of their parents or guardians to join, as well as a good-standing letter from their school. (Special procedures are available for students who are home-schooled.)

The Teenangels and Tweenangels must agree in writing to the Teenangels’ and Tweenangels’ code of conduct and at all times adhere to the code of conduct and rules set for Teenangels and Tweenangels. And each Teenangel or Tweenangel must commit to training at least 500 other students each year, and delivering one special research project and joining in one group project annually. (Training includes making presentations to groups of students in schools or at community events, and is usually accomplished easily by presentations at three in-school assemblies.)

Posted: 29. December, 2006 at 9:51 am. Filed under: Uncategorized.
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