Reigning in the emotion of fear
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Updated: November 05, 2009 4:19 PM
I often warn individuals wishing to be involved in the policy development or practical administration of education that they are stepping into a territory that is different than any other business.
I have seen many well-intentioned business professionals reel under the weight of emotion that accompanies issues related to people’s children. Good business decisions and common sense do not always translate into something that can be tolerated by parents who respond to policies that might affect their children.
Having stood in front of my school for more than 20 years now, shaking the hand of every student entering, I was recently admonished by a parent for my contribution to the pandemic of H1N1.
Naturally, there had been several articles and features about the risks of hand-to-hand contact and when a young and healthy young boy succumbed to the disease, the levels of anxiety went through the ceiling.
While a doctor had told me that not shaking hands in a flu pandemic is the equivalent of hiding under a desk during a nuclear attack, I had already noticed the level of concern rising and reverted in many cases to a “fist bump” rather than a handshake.
We had also installed hand sanitizers everywhere and were encouraging students to keep their hands away from their faces until they either washed their hands or used the sanitizers.
Still, as events generated irrational levels of fear, I instituted a “no handshake” policy.
There has certainly been some flu in my school and while there have been no diagnoses of H1N1, that is only because no one is being tested. All of the cases have been relatively minor, three days of a low grade fever and a couple of days of dry hacking coughing and aching joints. They may or may not be H1N1 cases, but we are encouraging everyone to be safe rather than sorry and keep students home who are showing any flu symptoms. Whatever can be done to lower the anxiety level is being done, but we are trying to do it gently.
Fear is a strange emotion. It initiates our fight or flight response, which creates the kind of emotions that invoke anger, anxiety and aggressiveness. To do so, it actually suppresses the immune system, leaving us more prepared to “physically fight” overt threats but less prepared to take on the viruses that silently invade our system. In other words, the more we fear H1N1, the more susceptible we are to it and the more we raise anxiety by dramatically changing routines, the more we lower our natural defenses.
The best prevention for flu is to be healthy and to practice good hygienic routines. Eating well, sleeping well, drinking lots of fluids, gargling a little salt water if you have a sore throat and boosting the immune system with a little extra vitamin C, as well as avoiding contact between unwashed hands and your face is the by far the best way to reduce exposure to the flu virus or to reduce the impact of the virus should it actually take hold.
No parents wants a child to be ill, at any time, but when flu and cold season hit, as they do every year, there’s little we can to avoid potential infection, short of locking ourselves in our homes until the season is completely done. No doubt there are some people who are “bunkering” down right now. What’s most important is that we teach our children good routines all of the time, ensure they have a diet that supports a strong immune system, and that we maintain calm to reduce all of our anxieties as a virus makes its way through the population.
This does not mean complacency when a child is truly ill, but it does mean reigning in the emotions until serious action is needed.
Graham Hookey is an educator and writer (ghookey@yahoo.com).
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