What happens when young people have knives as weapons?
Badness? Sharp intake of breath. Not a good thing at all, ever?
A quick look at the Office National Statistics shows 17301 young people in England and Wales were carrying knives in 2018. Most young people will know of someone who has been affected by knife crime.
My first blade
I was presented with a pocket knife by my stepdad for my 7th birthday. “The a gift of a blade could sever a friendship, so you had to pay towards it with a piece of silver.” I fished out a 20p piece and handed it over resentfully.
“Why do I have a knife” I asked, turning it over in my hand.
He said “well, what if you need to cut yourself free when you have accidentally got tangled in bailer twine attached to a bolting horse? What if said horse, after said bolt had a stone in its foot? What if you had to dispatch a chicken in an emergency? Or cut a sheep free of barbed wire? What if you had to cut your leg off ’cause it got stuck?”
I do, even now, have occasional catastrophic dreams about terrifying farmyard accidents… and not having a knife to free myself.
Last week it was knife night at my Explorer Scouts Unit (Scouts Aged 14-18)
I watched them as they walk through the doors, a little muted and more serious than usual, aware of the evening’s activity. One comes in wearing a cartoon rucksack with a stonking great axe handle sticking out of it. He also had steel toe cap boots in his hand. I have some weedy trainers on. That’s another lesson for me as a rookie scout leader. Avoid cutting one’s own toes off whilst wielding axe!
This lot teach me so much.
Usually when we bring stuff for an activity, the moment it is poured out the bag Explorers come from every direction hollering and wrestling each other for the best gear. It could be tents, firepits, rubber ducks, food. If it’s there they will fight for it.
In the heap today were:
Hatchets
Long handled axes
Whittling knives
Bow saws
Splitting mauls
Camping axes
And none of them touched a thing.
I looked at the pile of weapons and wonder how the evening will pan out. I am glad that the week before we all had a first aid update. Clean, Cover, Pressure and Elevate. Anything severed, put in a clean plastic bag after and store in iced water.
I had a patient once in A&E who bought their sawn-off finger to me floating in a glass of milk. We couldn’t do much with that.
There are a few bulging first aid kits scattered around. We give them a briefing on safety, they are quiet. This is unusual. We tell them about maintaining their own safety and space and also the safety of others around them.
After this talk, the weapons become tools.
Young people with tools.
It’s a Tuesday evening in the middle of the GCSE exam period. A sunny blue hue May evening and 25 assessment addled teenagers sit together in a field. Each has a blade. A sharp blade. A blade where a slip and you bleed, a fall and it’s worse.
All of them sit, blades pointing away, scraping the bark from sticks, whittling shapes, pegs, spoons. The shavings curl in the grass.
The thoughts of exams shaven away, the tactile replacing the intellectual. They are calm, focussed and respectful, talking to one another gently. For now, they are in a moment that is entirely their own; they are engaged and their emotions are regulated. They took the space they were offered and showed us our trust in them was vindicated.
No unused blade was left unsheathed, no axe bit side up, no one ran, no one shouted.
A mindfulness exercise with none of the rumination.
The blades are put away and accounted for. We lit a fire, toasted some Marshmallows and the boisterousness was re-established
When young people are given time and are shown trust they show us sides of themselves we never knew were there. I love this about Scouting.
A sobering column!
“ One comes in wearing a cartoon rucksack with a stonking great axe handle sticking out of it. He also had steel toe cap boots in his hand”
Totally wasn’t me!!
A beautiful illustration of why we should encourage young people to use such tools in a responsible way, in an environment where they are learning not to be afraid, just to be safe and sensible.
Interesting, in the good old bad old days small boys always had pen knives, probably kept in blazer pockets at school, forbidden now of course.