Should children be protected or educated?

Eventually your not going to be there with that shield. What are they going to do then? My kids are educated. They've even been trained in how to disarm or avoid & gunman. The youngest is so good at it she's likely to make him shoot himself. Hopefully they'll never be in one of these situations but at least I know they won't make themselves an easy target.

like what my father always tell me, "education is the best protection." he also said that as early as possible it is best to equip the child with a sense of survival and teach them how to differentiate right and wrong; evil and good. if we leave it until they are "adults" it will be very hard to penetrate through them because they are way past the developmental stage. education mixed with moral values, love and communication is our best weapon, i daresay. adults tend to underestimate our capacity to observe and understand. try us! hehe because if a child isn't educated at home, he will pick it up in his environment - which pose a bigger threat.

I'm definitely on the side of education here. Considering my own childhood, and those of people I've met through shelters, victims services, and post-traumatic stress disorder support groups I would say: there is simply no guaranteed way to keep a child safe. No matter how much you love your child, how well you take care of them, and how much you shelter them, there is going to be some point at which they leave your sight. It might be school, daycare, babysitting, visits with relatives, visits with friends; there is eventually going to be some reason they are away from you. No matter how well you think you've chosen people to trust with your child, there is always a possibility that something will go wrong. Therefore, the only way to really help your child is to prepare them for the possibilities. Let them know what is and isn't acceptable. Let them know how to react if threatened, abused, or in a dangerous situation. Otherwise, they won't know what to do when they wind up in a bad situation, and you quite simply can't always be there to protect them.

Hi,there,ShardAerliss, I do agree that the children should be educated rather than protect them from the "bad things"as u mention. In my point of view there is a saying that can well illustrate what I mean that is "we learn by burned fingers(we may not learned by burnrd fingers but can lean never to touch a hot stove again)"..If we don't experience something or if we don't suffer from something we may never grow up.. Actually, shielded from the parents is one way to protect the children from something bad,however,one thing that can't be avoided that is one day she/he will enter the society without the parents and it is certain that the parents can't keep them company during their life-time..They should learn to deal with things by themselves ..How can these gain?Of course by learning.. Molly;-)

I believe that children should be educated. It can be what saves them from doing something bad. I belive that parents should be straight forward with there kids be open and honest. I my self do not have kids but I educate my younger cousin so he doesn't make the same mistakes I have made.

It is true that education is one way where we can prevent such happenings and cruelties.on the other side exposure should be given to children by parents about good and bad to make them prepare to face such consequences as in this world there are both good and bad ,we have to prepare our children for facing the worst and at the same hope for such cruelties stop and everything around us are turning good...Hope for the Best and Prepare for the Worst!

Children need to be educated. Really, if kids don't know what to look for, and what kind of people they may encounter, how are they ever going to be streetwise and understand what to do in a situation that may be tough? They may end up actually getting into trouble instead of avoiding it. Now, I'm all for shielding children from telling them everything gory when they are especially young and only letting them know what they need to know at certain ages, but not telling them anything is really just setting them up for trouble later on.

In my opinion children should be taught about everything so that they will know what is evil and can prepare themselves in case of coming face with them.

I am a firm believer in educating children. How can they know what is happening if they are never told of certain things. Knowledge is the best lever for keeping kids safe.

Number two's the best idea. If they know about that kinds of stuff they Yeah I'm more for education. If they know what's going on there's less of a chance of them falling into one of those situations in the first place. Of course some could argue that if they have that knowledge there's the risk they might run off and use it... but your ending statement is also true, and really who would you rather have them learn these things from the parents or a practicing pedophile?

children should both be educated and protected. In educating them, it must be in the proper way, or else they might interchange right from wrong..

i think children should be educated to survive in the present generation

THis is my very first post, so please bear with me. I struggle with this same issue all the time. I want to protect my kids but I also want them know certain things. BUT, I wouldn't put my child in the cage with a lion to teach them that lions are dangerous. Making them aware and exposing them to things are different things.

Education is necessary to children, be it , they are girls or boys. They have to have knowledge. Somethings like the way to move with other people, to avoid strangers etc should be taught to them in these days. They have to learn things like strangers or for that matter others, trying to touch them etc They should know that they have to avoid those 'bad people '... But please do not ever tell them all the gory stories which happen around and scar their soft, gentle minds. They'll get scarred forever. So I am for shielding them, as also for education in necessary subjects.

To be honest, in today's world, I believe that the more informed kids are the better they are able to protect themselves when adults aren't with them. I've sat down and taught my Nephew about not going into strangers homes, about perverts and have even taken him to a website that shows all the registered child molesters in our town. Why? Because I'd rather that he knows about them then think that everyone is good and decent and end up running into a child molester. In a perfect world children get to stay innocent and untouched by the terrible things in the world but if you pick up a newspaper or turn on the news you will see quickly that this is no where near a perfect world. **AT PEACE WITHIN** ~~STAND STRONG IN YOUR BELIEFS~~