You are the leader of a survivors’ camp. When do you think the children should be exposed to the violence with zombies, other camps, and a government trying to purge “impure humans”? This includes combat training, firearm training, and survival skills How are they taught? When are they actually sent out to scavenge for supplies or to defend the camp? Is this taught alongside things that such as reading and science or separate? And finally, what is you’re views on teaching children these things in today’s society?
I will be asking a series of these questions to see how a person’s political views are changed by very abnormal scenarios. Thank you for your time.
Assume the virus is an advanced form of rabies and is transmitted through bites and scratches.
assume that some children may be as young as 3 or 4.
For the fist time in my life, I believe it is a real possibility. I think all we have to refer to is TV shows like Jericho or movies like Mad Max or Waterworld. Everything about the environment in which we are now living, is abnormal. I thank God that my son is 21.
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Children wouldn’t be coddled in a zombie apocalypse scenario. In that situation, children would probably become pretty aggressive without much prodding from adults… especially those left to fend for themselves if their parents were gone. I’ll venture to guess that children as young as 8-10 would readily adapt and teens would become regular zombie killing machines. Self preservation is an instinct, and children are better wired than adults to confront situations with psychotic abandon. They’re technically mentally impaired. Their prefrontal cortex isn’t fully developed, so their reasoning skills an inhibitions are not as developed as an adult’s.
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=124119468
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A very intriguing question you pose. No one ever thinks about the children in such scenarios because as human beings we think of them as too innocent to be forced to go through something of that nature.
(Note this is assuming the camp has a high enough wall that the children can’t see over or through it)
To answer your question though I would have to say that if they are of the age to think then they will have already been exposed to it. Even if they are never allowed at the wall they will still hear people talk, they will hear the gun fire, see the looks on the faces of survivors who are shell shocked and I truly believe that the zombies will become a sort of Bogey man for the children and even though it sounds horrible I believe that at a young age as soon as they ask the first question about what is going on then they should tell them what is going on in a ghost story way so that they think that it is just that. A scary story told by adults to scare them. This way they will mentally be protected from insanity from living a life in fear. At this time the normal schooling (that outside of survival and shooting) should go on like it does today. Learning the basics.
However after ten or eleven they should understand that what is happening is real. They should not be allowed to go to the wall as lookouts or defenders and they shouldn’t go scavenging. At this point they should begin firearm training along with light and basic survival training. They will still be required to spend the exact same amount of time learning their other pursuits as they did and this is just an add on to their more grown up lives.
At the age of sixteen I believe they should get their first kill off of the wall. Nothing dangerous just have them make some noise wait for a zed and put the zed down. This should be given praise as a sort of right of passage and make it a big event and something to be desired by the younger children so that they look up to this now adult. As an adult now he has the option to continue learning but it is not required but now has mandatory duty on the wall like all other adults.
A note on the above paragraph these rite of passages should be done with all of the boys of that year as a sort of graduation. Also at this time there will be a few who are the most gifted in schooling who are singled out (with their consent) to go on and become a doctor or engineer for the camp. These men will be highly respected and so it will be a desired job.
No one will go scavenging until the age of 21 at the earliest. If camp conditions permit it will be 25. All must participate at least once before the age of 26 however so no one except those ill or malformed can get out of scavenging. These first timers should be sent to the safest areas with the best escorts so no one dies their first time. The cut to camp moral would be devastating. After this whoever is the most skilled should go as need dictates.
My views on teaching children these things in today’s society are a big no. There is no need whatsoever. Right now anyone can continue into higher knowledge and actually grow us as humanity and not because we must change to survive. The quality of life in this scenario is much lower than if we didn’t have a zombie apocalypse and there is no reason for children to be shown anything remotely similar.
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I was hunting/fishing/trapping when I was seven. Training should always start at an early age. Training should cover far more than just general zombie survival. In should include gardening, math, science, reading, carpentry, etc.
There are those who foresee bad times coming. Not zombies of course but a reduced living standard. If you listen carefully to scientists and other generally “smart” people you will find most of them suggesting it. Should the young be taught such things as firearm usage and survival skills? Yes. If most people today had to butcher their own animals they would starve to death. Anyone who has any amount of space available should learn to garden.
If you think about it if the power grid went down for a single week there would be chaos. Looting would cause great damage, many would be without water. That’s just scratching the surface. Only one week without power and the US would be in turmoil. We would likely survive it but that’s only one week.
Hopefully all the smart people are wrong. Because it would suck if they were right.
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