Toy Guns and Violence

I had an interesting conversation on Christmas morning with my mother-in-law and two other moms of young boys. The three of them could not believe as an educator I allowed my sons to play with Nerf guns (which they got for Christmas and absolutely love. When I asked what was wrong with getting them guns I was told it teaches them to be violent, but I beg to differ. My position is that it takes more than a toy gun to teach a child to be violent. If a child never see's a gun used in a violent manner, but only as an item of recreation and in our case learning (my sons and daughter use Nerf guns to shoot alphabet targets that I made for several language arts and literacy games) how does it teach them to be violent. It's the impressions that they get from music/music videos, video games, movies and other forms of mass media that demonstrates the use of guns as a weapon. As we were speaking about this issue one of the other children came by playing a game on a hand held game system that involved shooting, I just smiled.

The PBS documentary Raising Cain addresses the issues of gun play,violence, gender based education and the nature of boys in great detail. This is a great source of information on parenting and educating boys. As always your feedback is wanted and needed!

Below you will find a brief synopsis and video clip from the documentary:
The documentary, Raising Cain: Boys in Focus, provides answers, insights, ideas, and hope. Hosted by child psychologist Michael Thompson, Ph.D., co-author of the best-selling book Raising Cain: Protecting the Emotional Lives of Boys, this documentary explores the emotional development of boys in America today. Thompson consults with some of our nation's most respected psychologists, social activists, researchers and educators to probe the issues facing boys and find solutions to their dilemmas. This two-hour documentary provides surprising new research about boys' inner lives, dispelling a number of commonly held misconceptions, and highlights innovative programs that are bringing out the best in boys.