Totten Comments on Talking About Disasters in the Classroom

“What to Say when the Sky is Falling? How to Talk to Kids about Disasters,” an online article published by Teachers College, Columbia University, features an interview with Samuel Totten, professor of curriculum and instruction in the College of Education and Health Professions.

The article said: “Totten, who received [Teacher College’s] Distinguished Alumni award this past year and is a strong advocate of incorporating the study of social issues in the extant curriculum in an age appropriate manner, says some primary, and even upper elementary, school teachers bring up serious issues in an admirable but perhaps misguided attempt to make the biggest impact they can in the single year each cohort of students is in their classroom.  Some topics, however, just aren’t appropriate – and can be flat-out terrifying – for young children, especially in the earliest grades. 

“‘You have this radiation from the destruction of the nuclear power facility in Japan that you can’t see,’ Totten says. ‘It keeps spreading; it’s in the water now. It’s disturbing enough for adults to try to think about that without hitting children over the head with it who can’t even conceive the magnitude of the situation.’ He notes that teaching about such issues to secondary level students is a totally different situation, and he is in favor of in depth study of serious social issues in a well-structured manner that engages the students in the facts, the socio-political issues, and the far-reaching ramifications for the individual and society.”