Fright Free Children

and the Effects of Low-Level Violence

Submitted to Letters to the Editor October 21, 2023:

Toronto Star
Peterborough Examiner

Celebrating Halloween - Don't

It's time, time to stop scaring kids. Time to stop frightening people. Remember the great joke of a surprise birthday party that was so funny that the victim would come into the celebration only to be so surprised that they peed their pants? Right? Not funny for the surpriseree, funny for everyone else. Not really funny!

To quote Deepak Chopra, "When you are upset, very upset...you start to die." There was an experiment on a chipmunk and while he was away from his nest they took away all his hidden nuts. The chipmunk took one look at the empty nest, twirled around and died on the spot. Funny?This is how the dying process physically happens - first your healing process stops - your immune system stops. And next your elimination system stops - pees. Then each organ stops one by one. To frighten anyone is inhumane and cruel!

Recently I was passing a Halloween scene that I saw driving near Bathurst St. It was the usual scene of crosses, cemetery doom and gloom items. But the centre piece was a murder. A man from the house evidently, was setting up a couple of figures arranged in full size showing a murder scene. The man was about to kill his victim with a large knife high in the air - the woman in white was leaning away, escaping.The worst of the scene was the fact that the man setting it up had his little girl helping him. I can imagine what kind of an impact this would have on her mentality. (PTSD anyone?)

The only spirituality celebrated in schools is Halloween - anything scary, frightening, negative seems to be encouraged - ghosts, skeletons, dead bodies coming out of the ground, etc. But that's OK, that's different, it's just for fun. Is it?

Let's stop frightening!

Merina Balten BA, MA

(Attention Parents - Please take this letter to your school and ask what they are doing for Halloween.)



Frightening a child hurts them, can leave them deeply impacted, even traumatized. This fact isn't widely recognized. For this end this book was written.

Community: Children's horror books are presently the largest section of publishing. Hallowe'en events and celebrations are growing every year, scaring and frightening children. Schools class/yard: Bullying situations. For example my grandson was recently found crying in his school washroom because of a bullying incident with classmates. Frequent disharmony in classrooms is often overlooked instead of addressing the group's overall morale. Home: "Spare the rod and spoil the child" has been our most cultural children's touchstone. Research shows, even the child that has been brought up with 2 caring and affluent parents were found to be harmed by excessive criticism. The present school curriculum needs to include positive values and Spirituality in all of its facets.

The Book

Frght Free Book's front cover

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Introduction

1. Why we frighten children
2. The history of childhood
3. Horror
4. Fear
5. Is violence inevitable
6. Low level violence
7. The sources of violence
8. Censorship
9. Thoughts are things
10. Horror Harms
11. Violence begets violence
12. Solutions - violence
13. Additional - teachers
14. Additional - parents
15. Moving the Fright-Free agenda forward

The book Fright Free Children and the Effects of Low-Level Violence, is the result of many years of observation, dreams and consultation with teachers and parents and will be be published in early 2024.

The Author - Biography
Merina Balten

An elementary music school teacher with degrees in BA and MA in Theology.

Spiritual education: Merina studied Spirituality and dream interpretation for many years under a teacher who was tutored by Padre Pio, Italy. She also took extensive courses with Dr. Wm. Bezman at Pathways to Health in New York, studied with Rev. James McShane in Lindsay, ON, as well as took courses at Delphi Spiritual University in Georgia, with certification in Spiritual Hypnotherapy and courses in intuitive counselling.

Currently putting together material to submit to the Ontario Provincial government as well as the local school boards asking that Spirituality and a more holistic approach be now included in the school curriculum.



Merina Balten - author

Contact Me

1. Frightening children is the last allowable violence against children. Do you agree?

2. Should we ask Toronto District School Board to discourage frightening small children in our schools?

3. Should we agree that our Provincial government allow Spirituality in schools? (As it is, Halloween is the only Spirituality encouraged, negative Spirituality.)

If you wish to support our efforts in this direction financially please go to our business site: merinabalten.acnibo.com and subscribe for our services: eg. internet, hydro/gas, security etc. Or to begin as a business venture contact Jacqui at 647-268-3635.

The Blog

  1. Accept where we are in life
  2. Acceptability of low level violence
  3. Accepting given wisdom as final
  4. All the news that's fit to print
  5. Art of living well
  6. Avoiding low level violence
  7. Being comfortable.
  8. Being stressed
  9. Breathe!
  10. Cigarette Packaging
  11. Competition in the Olympics
  12. Conversations with God
  13. Criticize - avoiding low level violence
  14. Dead man walking
  15. Death
  16. Depleted Elementary School Curriculum
  17. Dreams
  18. Drink the Kool-aid
  19. Eat Slow
  20. Feeling
  21. Floodgates open
  22. Getting Upset
  23. Getting upset more
  24. Ghomeshi trial and low level violence
  25. Ghoul Girl
  26. Giving too little at church
  27. Goals
  28. God is not good
  29. God is not Goodness
  30. Going against your own beliefs
  31. Good Friday and Low Level Violence
  32. Growing Soul
  33. Hallowe'en
  34. Happiness is,,,
  35. Hatred Hurts
  36. Hatred Hurts
  37. How to criticize
  38. How to live
  39. I'm Beautiful
  40. I'm not religious I'm spiritual
  41. I'm Small
  42. If Looks Could Kill
  43. Immortality
  44. Inequality in the classroom
  45. It Takes a Village
  46. JOY
  47. Judgment
  48. Laughing
  49. Let's Quit Remembering
  50. Life manifests who you are
  51. Littering
  52. Love and Marriage
  53. Low level violence - cigarettes
  54. Low level violence and killing insects
  55. Low Level Violence at Home
  56. Low levels of violence - Bigger levels
  57. Makeup
  58. Manifesting
  59. Manifesting - focus
  60. Manifesting 1
  61. Masturbation
  62. More Manifesting
  63. My father's after-life journey
  64. Nagging as low level violence
  65. News
  66. News plus
  67. Not living in today
  68. Not taking care of yourself
  69. One Hour
  70. One-mindedness.
  71. Pills and thoughts you think
  72. Play well with others
  73. Police facing mental health issues
  74. Poor Gian Ghomeshi
  75. Possession of Another
  76. Prostitution
  77. Rainmaker
  78. Reality Shifting
  79. Regression Therapy
  80. Relax Already
  81. Religion
  82. Religion again
  83. Remembrance Day
  84. Responsibility
  85. SCARING KIDS IS FUN?? IS ABUSIVE!
  86. Self Love
  87. Self Love - continued
  88. Self-Healing
  89. Smile
  90. Stand up Straight
  91. Talk to the Animals
  92. The low level violence of "sinner" thinking
  93. The low level violence of being a follower
  94. The Slow Dying Process
  95. The violence of co-dependence
  96. The violence of co-dependence MORE
  97. To Speak or not to speak
  98. Too much noise
  99. Trust
  100. Trusting
  101. What goes around comes around
  102. Whatever you hate
  103. When you walk through a storm
  104. You Idiot
  105. Your cultural values