Educator gives tips on discussing Paris Attacks with young children

Talk about the terrorist attacks in Paris in the classroom. Keep the discussion open. Because children often know pretty much what happened, but do not understand it. This is the advice of Henk ter Haar, teacher and team leader at the pre-vocational school Guid de Bres in Arhnem, NOS reports. After the attack on Charlie Hebdo in January, he published a manual containing tips and tricks teachers and lecturers can use to discuss such difficult topics in class. This manual can be viewed here in Dutch. "It is perceived as difficult, because such an attack also affects the teachers themselves. It is discussed, but teachers struggle with how to do it right", according to Ten Haar. "They (children, ed) often know pretty much what happened, but not completely." It is up to the teachers to list the facts for them. Talk about what happened. Talk about footage spread on social media, even if it seems difficult to talk about the violence. "It does not even really matter how you do it, making the topic approachable can itself be a relief for students. Leave it up to the group to decide whether the discussion is long or short, but plan considerable time for it in advance."