Sad But True: IDF 'Emergency Studies' in Schools
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Friday, 26 August 2011
Israeli children from age 7 will learn all about scurrying for shelter, with the help of the IDF.
by Gil Ronen -Arutz Sheva
Published: 25/08/11, 8:49 PM
Home Front teacher
IDF Website: idf.il
The IDF's Home Front Command will teach Israeli school children everything there is to know about running for shelter when missiles rain down on them.
The Command will broaden its pilot program for "Emergency Studies," which was provided until now to fifth graders nationwide. In the coming school year the program will be made available to children in the second, third, and eleventh grades as well.
The following year, the program will also be imparted to pupils in seventh and ninth grades.
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The program is necessary to prevent casualties and give children the feeling that there is something they can do to help themselves. Some Israelis complain that Israel is wary of using its full force to strike back at its enemies, and instead of reacting, is fortifying itself with concrete shelters and expensive missile shields. Others cite the need for caution in the face of possible UN intervention, Iran and Hizbullah armaments, and the difficulty of the decision to pay a possible high cost in Israeli lives that a massive operation might entail.
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"For several years now, people in the Command have been talking about the need to assimilate a culture of emergency, to turn this important subject into something that the children are not afraid to talk about," Maj. Carolina Aberjil told the IDF Website's Ofir Haglili. Aberjil, who heads the Civilian Instruction Branch in the Home Front Command, said: "Children are the best ambassadors for assimilating the content in their families, and vis-a-vis their parents."
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While the classes program for the fifth grade are taught by HFC female soldiers, in the other grades the program will use the pupils' regular "home room" teachers after giving them special training. Every teacher is committed to providing her class with at least four hours "Emergency Studies" per year, while the fifth graders undergo a concentrated week in which they receive "two daily hours of emergency," explained Aberjil.
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The studies in lower grades include identifying an emergency situation, and what to do in case of fire or an earthquake. Intermediate grades discuss preparation for wartime emergency, including gas masks. In high school, the pupils discuss values and volunteerism in emergencies.
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