WASHINGTON, DC (June 18, 2003) - The recent Middle East
wars have raised an important question: How should teachers address
the subject of war in the classroom? Should they present war independently
as broken parts to an invisible whole, or should they present it as
part of a central theme carefully integrated into a historical overview?
"The Best of Our Knowledge" from WAMC's National
Productions will address this question in a two-part series June 30
and July 7, 2003. The half-hour national public radio broadcast will
be an edited version of the May 6th hour-and-a-half National Press Club
of Washington forum in which The Fire Within Author and National Press
Club Forum Moderator Joe David asked six panelists this question.
The panelists, made up of educators, psychiatrists, and
students, replied as follows:
The most fruitful classroom discussions on the subject
have been when students explicitly compare current events to events
of the past – the revolutions of 1848 or the rise of the Cold War
- and reflect on each of them. I found that I learned something about
the wars by listening to my students compare them to current events.
When you think carefully about the present and carefully about the past,
then you become more reflective about both.
- Dr. Scott Nelson, associate professor, history department, College
of William and Mary.
War can traumatize students viewing repeated media images
depicting the violence, death, and destruction that are part and parcel
of war. It is essential that teachers present war in its historical
context (diplomatic, political, economic and military), and that they
also avoid repeatedly projecting pictures of mass destruction.
- Dr. Eliot Sorel, Clinical Professor of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences
at the George Washington University School of Medicine and Health Sciences.
Discussion of any current war such as the one in Iraq
at the secondary level should encompass a historical perspective of
war. Discussion at the elementary level should be responsive to student-generated
inquiry and concern as opposed to discussions dictated by school personnel.
- Jimmy Kilpatrick, editor and publisher of EducationNews.org,
senior fellow with the Alexis de Tocqueville Institution, and policy
advisor for the Houston Independent School District.
Lessons learned in the wake of events from September 11th
highlight the need to listen to children for feeling and thinking first
before offering information. Limiting exposure to images and news stories
and providing some explanation of what is important. Children with military
families especially need to feel that the involved family member is
going to be looked after and is well-trained. Bringing topics such as
conflict resolution down to scale can be helpful.
- Dr. Nancy B. Black, assistant chief, Walter Reed Army Medical Center,
Child and Adolescent Psychiatry Service.
It is said that journalists write the rough draft of history.
From Fox News to NPR to Al Jazeera, viewers of the war were able to
choose the war they wanted to watch. The responsibility of the historian
and the teacher is to develop a comprehensive analysis of these diverse
viewpoints on the events and convey them to students.
- Alex Kingsbury, George Washington University senior, majoring in history
To teach something so opinionated as the war would be
difficult, yet it could be done. If a class were set up to focus on
the war, then hopefully that class would analyze it in detail (the people
involved, the supposed purpose of the war, the affect of the war on
the people, the affect of the media on the war, and the sometimes grim,
but needed truths about the war).
- Clarence Cross, III, Wilson High School senior, Washington, DC
Airing: Part One of “Students and War” will
be broadcast on "The Best of Our Knowledge" in the Northeast
on June 30, 2003, at 8 p.m. and July 4 at 3 p.m.; on July 2, 2003, stations
will be able to download the show (program number 667) from the Public
Radio Satellite at 4:00 p.m. Part Two of “Students and War”
will be broadcast on July 7th at 8 p.m. and on July 11th at 3 p.m.;
on July 9th, stations will be able to download the broadcast (program
number 668) at 4 p.m. Both programs may also be heard at any time via
the internet at <www.wamc.org>. Just click on "The Best of
Our Knowledge."
For further information: please contact either:
Joe David at jdavid@bfat.com or
Glenn Busby, "The Best of Our Knowledge" producer at gbusby@wamc.org.
For a complete transcription of the May 6th forum, "Students and
War," contact the National Press Club Library at 202/662-7523.
