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Is War an Appropriate Topic for Elementary School?
War is an appropriate topic for the elementary school. However, knowledge about war should not be given to children from a particular point of view. Children should be encouraged to talk about war from different perspectives, and to learn from it. This statement has been demonstrated in the context of Burma, which is governed by a military regime and has had civil war for about 60 years.
Burma participated in World War II, joining its long-time British colonial masters in fighting against the new colonial rulers, the Japanese. Then civil war broke out in Burma after its independence in 1948. Ethnic minority groups have been fighting for freedom against the central government ever since then. Fighting in the areas controlled by ethnic armies has killed many people, and villages have been burnt down. Villagers flee to neighboring countries for refuge. The most vulnerable are the children.
Nang Lum, one of our RWCT teachers, once told us the story of her childhood. There was fighting near her village in northeastern Burma, and later the village was burnt down. She was ten at that time. Her mother took her and her six-year-old sister into the jungle. Then the mother left her daughters in the jungle and went back to the burning village to retrieve her cattle. Nang Lum and her sister were frightened that night. In the ethnic minority areas of Burma you can hear thousands of similar stories.
The people on both sides of the civil war today were victims of these wars when they were young. Some people think that they might not have learned the lessons of war, or they learned only one-sided views presented in the name of patriotism, because schools in Burma have traditionally practiced passive learning.
If children are forced to learn passively, it is better not to include the topic of war in a school curriculum dominated by one-sided ideas. Today, we are creating thinking classrooms and it is appropriate to include the topic of war. Children in the war zones have already learnt about war through their own experiences. They can reflect on their experiences in the classroom. I believe that children will think about war, to learn
from war and to create a peaceful world.
This is a hot question for many people. A few years ago, while delivering an RWCT workshop I suggested that participants plan a class session on the question, “Do Russians strive for war”? (This is a line from a Russian song popular in the 1960s.) The Realization of Meaning stage included reading mass media texts that discussed the Chechen War. I vividly remember the argument that immediately broke out among the participating teachers. Some of them expressed doubts that it was appropriate at all to touch upon this painful theme with students, some of whom knew about it all too well, and not only by hearsay. Most of the teachers tended to think that it was better not to disturb children’s souls with such complicated, adult issues.
However, I think that we should talk about war with children. We should—because such talks are much needed. Being a mother of two boys, I see that my own children consider war to be fun. For them it is a sort of engaging entertainment, a game, in fact. They often fail to notice that in real life war is connected with human death and suffering. And how can children come to know about it if we, parents and teachers, carefully avoid the topic? I believe this conversation needs to be started early in a child’s life, and it has to be continued not only at school, but in the family as well.
I also think that we need to talk to children about war because it is a way to make them feel responsible for all those around them, and for the future. There may be fewer wars in the world if we, the adults, realize— and make our children realize— that saying Ye s or No to war depends not only on politicians, as many people tend to think, but on our own willingness or unwillingness to take part in it.
Unquestionably, war is not a simple thing to discuss with children. But who said that only simple topics are suitable for children?
Department of Slavonic Studies, Shota Rustaveli Batumi State University; RWCT trainer, Batumi, Georgia
Of course the answer is yes. There was a lot of bloodshed in my country after the collapse of the Soviet Union. There was even outright war. Children saw people being killed and robbed, both their loved ones and strangers. They saw houses, villages and cities being bombed and burned. Today in Georgia the word refugee has lost its original meaning and has come to mean something different: outcast, loser, a homeless person doomed to live in poverty and hunger. Children who grew up in the cramped and rundown dorm rooms and abandoned hotels of the Soviet times are the first to suffer from this perception.
In our city, Batumi, there are refugees from Abkhazia. Some of them attend the Saint Andrew Protocletos Seminary, where I teach Russian, and this has given me an opportunity to get to know them a little better. I have been deeply touched: These children’s eyes are full of sorrow and fear. They don’t try to distinguish themselves in class as they don’t see any prospects for the future.
I tried talking to them about the war. To my surprise, the boys were eager to participate and related war stories that should have been forgotten by now. But apparently the adults in their families often talk about the war, so the sinister images do not fade from the children’s memories. Once I asked them what they would do to change this tragic situation.
I have received a variety of answers. Some of them said that what was lost in the war can only be regained through war. Others have faith in the international community and its role in settling the conflict. Still others, and there are quite a lot of them, have no hope of seeing their homes again. After all, it has been sixteen years since they were forced to leave.
But it was the girl refugees that amazed me most. They refused to talk about war. They couldn’t even bear to think about it or hear about it! I’ve given this considerable thought and have come to the conclusion that the female psyche is not attuned to the topic of war and destruction. A woman is a source of life! She can’t continually think about war. She needs peace. And to achieve peace, she is capable of forgiving even her worst enemy.
At the peak of the Cold War a young mother came to see me in my medical office about her small daughter Maria, who had just celebrated her seventh birthday. After her party, Maria watched the evening news with her family.
“Mama,” she said quietly, “am I going to die in a nuclear war?”
Her shocked mother replied “Of course not darling! Whatever has made you ask such a question?”
“But… How do you know I am not going to die in a nuclear war?”
Children are exposed to images of war and suffering on television, radio, and computer games. Often they overhear conversations about war and tragedy because relatives are in danger. Sometimes they have classmates who have come as refugees from war-torn countries. What children learn is often deeply disturbing to them because they lack the context to interpret what is happening and where.
Teachers in countries not at war often ask if they should avoid the subject of war because it frightens children, or because it may burden the child with a sense of responsibility to stop war. When we teach young children about war we must be honest, because they trust us not to give false reassurance. At the same time, we must also offer them the information they need to understand the news they hear, and we must provide them with hope. They are often concerned that they are in immediate danger or that their house may be bombed like the houses on television. They may be afraid that their parents are going to leave them. They may also be worried about a family member who is serving or living in a war zone.
Children need help to process information about war, so that they can understand why countries are in conflict, and they need to know what is being done to end the violence. The most hopeful information today is the fact that, in terms of statistics, the world is moving away from war. Teachers can help build a culture of peace in the classroom knowing that [this process] is also happening in the world.
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