By Ryan McIlvain
The wall outside DaLee James? second-grade class is filled with several drawings of the dead and dying. In one drawing, the ground is littered with stick-figure corpses. In another, a little boy and girl are up to their necks in water crying, ?Help, help!? as a giant wave bears down on them.
?A lot of it they saw on television,? said James, who teaches at Amelia Earhart Elementary School in Provo. ?I was surprised at how much information they had. They?d watched and watched and watched.?
In an effort to help students understand what happened in the tsunami-stricken countries of Southeast Asia, James? second-grade students drew pictures of the tragedy. Then they wrote down their feelings about the victims on worksheets that were also posted outside the classroom. ?I feel sad for the baby?s that did,? wrote one student.
James? students are like many others in Provo who are learning about the Dec. 26 tsunami that killed more than 150,000 people on the shores of the Indian Ocean. Such a catastrophe can be hard for young children to grasp, and even harder for them to properly cope with.
Patricia Anderson, principal of Canyon Crest Elementary School in Provo, said her faculty is trying to avoid graphic details when talking about the tragedy. They tell students that people in Asia have lost their loved ones and that they are without food, water or clothing.
?We are being very careful not to overload the children with things that are not appropriate to their age level,? she said.
At Amelia Earhart Elementary School, students take part in general assemblies where they learn about tsunamis and their effects. Kathy Hanson and Becky Lewis, both teachers at the school, taught a group of fourth-graders at an assembly last Thursday.
Lewis, a media teacher, started off the assembly with a ?pre-assessment,? asking students what they knew about tsunamis in general. When she asked what a tsunami does, hands shot up. A redheaded boy in the back was called on.
?It wipes out a lot of stuff,? said L.J. Brown, a fourth-grader from Provo.
Lewis also asked the students if a tsunami could reach Salt Lake City. She was answered with a chorus of ?No.? The fourth-graders knew that tsunamis only threaten coastal areas.
But their younger counterparts weren?t so sure. With so much media coverage in the wake of the tsunami, some students had confused facts with fallacies.
Hanson, a facilitator who deals specifically with student teachers, said first- and second-graders believed a tsunami could form on Utah Lake, even in their bathtubs. They thought splashing in the tub could cause a tsunami that would kill their families, Hanson said.
Lewis nodded in agreement.
?Fact and fiction become mixed together for them,? she said.
Beyond educating students about the facts of the recent tsunami, some Provo elementary schools are also aiding in the relief efforts.
Dennis Pratt, principal of Edgemont Elementary School, said his school district was planning to launch a program called Pennies for Books before the disaster struck. The program was to fund new reading material for Provo students. But in the wake of the tsunami, the Provo School District Foundation has now decided to channel the money into relief efforts in Southeast Asia.
And as of last Wednesday, students at Canyon Crest Elementary School are being encouraged to donate a dollar they have earned to a school-wide fund for the tsunami victims and their families.
?It?s character-building,? Anderson said. ?I think we always need to help our students be compassionate citizens.?