Consequences of Stress on Children's Development

There are a ton of stressor's that can cause affect children's coping skills.  I remember growing up in a fairly nice neighborhood in Brooklyn, New York, with good family values.  I would say I had a great childhood because of my parents working hard for my brother and I.  My father worked nights majority of my childhood and my mother was a stay at home mom until I was about eleven years old.  This is when my world changed.

In 2001, I turned eleven on September 6th which also happened to be the first day of 6th grade.  It was already a nervous experience.  I was in a new school (one that my brother and cousin attended) so the teachers already knew who I was.  Only a few kids from my primary school went to the same middle school and only maybe one or two were in my actual class.  I'd say the first week was a success.  I got along with everyone fairly well for the first week, I liked my teachers and I had band class.  This was an awesome introduction to Junior High School... until September 11th.  

I distinctly remember being in gym class the morning of September 11th.  It was a beautiful, breezy fall morning and my brother had taken me to school this day.  I had to be in by 7:10 a.m. because i was in the SM program for gifted children.  We had an extra math or science class and started earlier than the other children.  When second period came around, the boys and the girls were separated for gym.  We had a gym on the fifth floor and a gym on the third floor.  Of course, we had the fifth floor gym for the semester.  I remember learning about what we were going to be doing and actually seeing the Twin Towers smoking.  Of course at this age I had no idea what was actually going on.  I am assuming after the schools got the news of what actually happened we weren't allowed near the windows and in all of our other classes the shades were down.  The teachers tried to explain to us what happened, but they also figured our parents were better for this so after lunch all of the kids were brought down to the auditorium or the lunch room where movies were played as our parents picked us up one by one.  

I remember my mom getting to school about an hour earlier and as we walked home, she told me all about what happened.  I didn't know what to think or what to believe, I was only eleven.  I remember getting to my aunt's house and she had it on the news on t.v.  This was the first time I actually witnessed what I saw so many miles away from my school window.  This was the first time in my childhood I was scared to live in New York.  I didn't understand what terrorism or war was at the time, but as I grew older, I understood what happened that sunny day in New York.  

The country that I chose to research about the exposure of children to war and terrorism was Egypt.  I picked this country because of the recent events that had happened about two days ago.  There was a bombing of an Egypt Mosque and at least 305 human beings were killed.  Not only was there a bombing of the Mosque, but as the civilians were running out of the church to save their lives, they were also being shot at.  Ambulances rushing in to help people were being shot at.  For children to bare witness to this type of tragedy is just a shame.  This is not the type of world that we should have our children growing up in.  When did hate become stronger than love?  When did we so strongly start hating others that we don't believe they should have the chance to live a long life?  This needs to stop all over the world.  According to State.Gov "The new Egyptian Constitution passed following a public referendum in January 2014. Article 237 specifically addresses terrorism, stating that Egypt “commits to fighting all types and forms of terrorism and tracking its sources of funding within a specific time frame…” Egypt’s penal code includes an extensive counterterrorism legal framework, primarily under Part 2, Section 1, Article 86, which defines terrorism in expansive terms that include peaceful protests. Additionally, subsequent sections define a variety of offenses and penalties for those who engage in terrorist activities and provide incentives for cooperation in the investigation and prosecution of terrorist organizations. Despite having counterterrorism as its stated primary purpose, Egyptian counterterrorism legislation has had an intimidating effect on NGO operations."

https://www.state.gov/j/ct/rls/crt/2014/239407.htm

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/11/24/world/middleeast/mosque-attack-egypt.html