In Focus

Social Education 67(4), pp. 190-191, 236 © 2003 National Council for the Social Studies : Answering Student Questions In this special section, the editors of Social Education asked teachers across grade levels how, or if, they had addressed the war in Iraq with their students. Their replies show the approaches teachers are taking to explore current events in the classroom.

Kim Kozbial-Hess teaches social studies for the fourth, fifth, and of war, from both sides. This is the very first time that students sixth grades at Fall-Meyer Elementary School in Toledo, . She have asked if the war would come over here. has served as chair of the Steering Committee of the NCSS House of Delegates, as well as president of the NCSS Elementary Special I had lunch recently with two fourth grade teachers (both Interest Group (SIG) and Intermediate Elementary representative for Social Studies Council award winners) and asked the Ohio Council for the Social Studies. them what had been done in their school. It is located in a I asked students to find the weather in and compare it wealthy suburb west of . Aside from writing letters to a with the weather in our city and with the state of Ohio (weather fellow teacher’s son, who is serving in Iraq and who had attended .com). I blew up a map of Iraq and traced the positions of the local schools, they said little had been done. They found that troops with the students as the war progressed. I also arranged the war seemed unreal to their students. Both teachers use Time for students to become pen pals with Iraqi American students for Kids in the classroom but felt that even that did not make in Dearborn, , where there is a large percentage of the war real for their students. One reason for this was that the Iraqi . students didn’t know anyone serving in the military. One of the Among the questions asked by students in our class discus- teachers lives in a distant blue-collar town, where a National sions were: How much money do soldiers make? Who can be Guard Unit had been activated. She said that in her neighbor- buried in Arlington National Cemetery? What is Taps? (The hood school, every class had at least four or five parents who music they play when a soldier is being buried.) Why do they were serving and in some cases both parents in a family were fire the rifles over the soldier’s coffin? What is the significance serving. In that school, the war news was a daily event. of the American flag that covers the casket, which the soldiers In my own classroom I use the newspaper (USA Today as well fold and give to the widow or mother? as a local paper) to maintain a classroom wall on news. When During the school year, prior to the outbreak of the war, I the war began to be daily news, I titled the wall “The Human organized many activities related to current events and past wars. Faces of War,” and we sought out photos and articles that made We had speakers from the Korean War, World War II, Vietnam, the action very real—sand storms in the tents, wounded children and the first . On September 11, 2002, the class gave a and sad-faced American military holding the children, the first special presentation to honor soldiers from all wars. We invited American women POWs, families at home, etc. family and friends of the students to attend. The students and I also keep a map of the region posted, and we tracked the staff were on the front lawn in a semicircle. Speakers were movement of troops on both sides. We had spent many weeks present; we raised a commemorative flag for the Korean War in the fall studying ancient Mesopotamia so students were very (presented to our school by the Department of Defense), and familiar with the geography of the region. It made the headline all students were given buttons from the department. Students news very real to them. When the Nebuchadnezzar division of wrote poems and sang patriotic songs. Iraq’s Republican Guard was mentioned, every single student in grade six knew where that name came from. When the Baghdad G museums were ransacked and the items taken were listed, we had photos of many of them hanging in the room. The golden Mary Ellen Sorensen teaches sixth grade at Spofford Pond School harp of Ur was a favorite, and when the class read about its in Boxford, Massachusetts. She is an active member in her state being destroyed for the gold, they were shaken. and local social studies council, has served on the NCSS board, and chaired the 29th Northeast Regional Conference on the Social This fall we had a pen pal project involving a local National Studies. Guard member who was sent to Kuwait. His letters and photos I have been teaching sixth grade for sixteen years in Boxford, were helpful as the war escalated, and students could see the a bedroom community about thirty miles north of Boston. My places he had photographed. Also, he answered a lot of ques- students have seen a number of U.S. involvements in world tions about how children lived in the region—school, sports, peacekeeping missions and have always expressed strong opin- dress, music, etc. ions. I try very hard to make sure that they see the human side

Social Education 190 We are located fairly near a nuclear reactor plant (Seabrook) One really important cooperative group project I developed and are within the fallout zone, so we have talked about what was an assignment allowing students to learn about war. we might do if there were a problem at the plant. Some students Each group was given large sheets of paper, markers, cray- have expressed concern about the possibility of “them” coming ons, glue, scissors, etc., and directions for the assignment. Col- over here. It took a lot of talking to get students to be more lectively, each group was to come up with a poster defining explicit about who “them” actually was. September 11, 2001, war. Most groups focused on the current war and supported the had an impact on our school community because a number of troops overall. Only one group of students addressed the concept parents work for airlines and several families were connected to of war in general (which was the purpose of the assignment). companies based at the World Trade Center. Their poster was titled “What Is War?” They used America’s My school system has not taken a position on teaching about colors—red, white, and blue—with the following captions or the war but allowed individual teachers to handle it as they felt boxed descriptions: comfortable. Because I teach the oldest grade in the building, • War is like a big conflict at school, but they have weapons. have a strong interest in current events, and use the Newspapers • War is like a last resort between two countries or more. in Education program, it was very easy to include the war in • War is a big confusion where one country is better than the my curriculum. My students are interested and concerned about other. what will happen to the children of the region—when can they I thought that they did a great job of productive thinking and get back to a “normal” school day, etc.? of relating war to their own life situations. My classroom was affected by the war due to the fears my G children experienced. Some of the children had family members serving in the military and worried for their safety. Others were Suzanne Zaremba teaches U.S. history to sixth grade students at afraid of retaliation in the form of bombs or chemical weapons. Lucille Brown Middle School in Richmond, . She is a 1995 According to my students, one good thing that came from our Keizai Koho Center fellow and a former chair of the NCSS Instruction Committee. Currently, she is involved with the “We the People” discussions was that with dialog and more information, their Program and writing the curriculum for Richmond Public Schools. fears were calmed, and they felt that they were learning about My students predominantly come from lower income families. what was going on and in some way taking part. They are very street smart. Many are left to their own resources One difficulty I faced in dealing with the war was that due to the restrictions of parental jobs or other issues. Violence whatever I did had to correlate directly with the state standards. in many of their neighborhoods is the norm. Some of my I also needed to get administrative permission to use CNN in students regularly hear gunshots at night. Fights in our school class. It might have been simpler not to deal with the war, but are a daily occurrence. I felt that history teachers should be able to discuss the war. Teaching about the war in Iraq was a challenge on many We had already discussed the Civil War, the Spanish-American levels. Those challenges included misinformation, indifference, War, World War I, and World War II. I know the children have fear, and the fact that some students’ loved ones had been called benefited by learning about what is going on in the world up to serve in the military. around them. For learning about the war in Iraq we used various web- These issues have been important to my students. Some of sites: CNN’s Student News at cnnfyi.com; NCSS’s resources the students had acquired misinformation, which was quickly webpage, www.ncss.org/resources/moments; The Federal Emer- dispelled with lessons on separating opinion from fact. The gency Management Agency’s site for kids at www.fema.gov/ war also gave me the chance to emphasize the importance of kids/tch_help.htm; and Prentice Hall textbook publishers at www. tolerance, which is something that each of us needs to learn. We phschool.com. need to learn more about others who might be different from The last site helped me to correlate my Virginia standards of ourselves and try to understand others even if we do not agree learning with my textbook as well as giving “Iraq Updates.” with them. With the development of new technology, the world I have taught about Iraq using current events, geography, only gets smaller each day; ignorance breeds intolerance and writing, and exploring fact and opinion. I use a few minutes intolerance breeds hate. More knowledge and understanding each week to hold a current events session. As the war started, can only lead to better relationships even on a small scale like I felt it was more important to try to keep the children more the community of one classroom. informed. As we headed into war, a packet by Gallopade, “United G We Stand: America’s War Against Terrorism,” helped to guide Michael M. Yell discussions each week on topics such as the following: is a seventh grade world studies teacher at the Hudson Middle School in Hudson, Wisconsin. He was named NCSS • Why the World Is Determined to Fight Terrorism Outstanding Social Studies Teacher of the Year (Middle Level) in • Resolve versus Revenge 1998. He is on the Board of Directors of the Wisconsin Council for • What Is War? Why Do We Fight Them? the Social Studies and the National Council for the Social Studies. • Keeping a Cool Head in Time of Crisis In my classes, we took a week out from the study of history for a • What Should I Really Be Afraid Of? lesson titled “What Is Happening in Mesopotamia Today?” Early • Diplomacy versus War in the school year, we explored the area between the Tigris and continued on page 236 >

May/June 2003 191 In Focus continued from page 191

Euphrates, once known as Mesopotamia. The students know critical foreign policy decision making. The interest of students that area is now called Iraq, and that the lands once ruled by King in the war did not in any way rival the level of student interest Hammurabi were until recently ruled by . in September 11, 2001, the Oklahoma City bombing, or the We began our week with a look at what the students had Columbia disaster, when these occurred. At first, students were heard on the news about the war. Although the war is not interested in the reasons for fighting and in the initial television particularly a teen issue, my 120 twelve- and thirteen-years-olds coverage, but their engagement quickly waned. were very interested in discussing and asking questions about The true challenge of teaching about the war will be to follow what was happening in Iraq. through by examining the various decisions the United States In the first couple of weeks of the war, we examined media and Iraq will be making in the coming months regarding the coverage. I began by modifying a lesson titled the “Lead up to creation of a provisional government, rebuilding the economy, War” from the Jim Lehrer NewsHour Extra website (www.pbs. and mediating nationalist ambitions within Iraq. We should keep org/newshour/extra), which looked at the period between the first students focused on reasoned decision making with particular Gulf War and Operation Iraqi Freedom. We also used an article attention to identification of the varied, and sometimes conflict- from NewsHour Extra on embedded journalism. The students ing, duties and values of the decision makers. then did a “mini-research essay” on an article that they found in a newspaper, a newsmagazine, or on the Internet (the three G sites that I recommended were CNN, MSNBC, and NewsHour Extra). The students analyzed the articles, wrote summaries, Amy Thibaut has been teaching world history for more than and discussed them in class. We ended the week not only by eighteen years. She is the social studies department chair and a world history teacher at Cypress Falls High School in , , discussing the various articles but also by discussing the latest where she teaches mostly honors-level sophomores. news on Iraq. I did not do an entire project on the Iraqi war but because we were already studying the theme of “Conflict and Cooperation G Between Societies,” we used the Iraqi conflict to make many Kevin Pobst is the social studies chairperson at Hinsdale South High of the points about war in general. We used Geoffrey Blainey’s School, Darien, . He has taught social studies for twenty-one essay “The Causes of War,” and related it to Iraq to see if it years. is typical of most wars. We also created a map of the Middle During the week prior to actual combat (when it was clear East and identified the countries surrounding Iraq, the types of that hostilities would not be avoided), freshman students in governments they have, what their position had been in the my world studies class read one article justifying a U.S. attack first conflict with Iraq, and if that position had changed with and one article arguing that there was no adequate justification the current war. for an attack. In both cases, students were asked not only to The best lesson I did was on imperialism. We defined the identify the key assertions of the article and the accompanying reasons or motives for imperialism and the different types of reasoning but also to speculate about what values served as a imperialism, and then we wrote arguments about whether U.S. foundation for each of the arguments. We then discussed the action in Iraq was imperialistic, and, if so, what kind of imperial- articles’ arguments in the context of the duties and values that ism the United States was practicing. their authors were attempting to promote, and considered The students had lots of questions and watched the news whether the actions they recommended would promote those accounts pretty closely; there was a great deal of current events duties and values or not. discussion over the course of the war. We in our district were The students then read several editorials drawn from foreign very careful about showing war coverage in the classroom, newspapers (Iranian, Taiwanese, French, etc.). As they had being sensitive to the fact that so many students have friends done with the earlier articles, students spotted the arguments and relatives who were sent to the Middle East. in favor of or against U.S. intervention, and isolated the duties For the most part, students were very supportive of the war and values that were being advanced. effort. The liberal students who stayed up to date on foreign Then I asked students to write and discuss “What, if any, action policy, like students in the debate club or Model United Nations should the United States take toward the government of Iraq? Club, were less “gung ho,” but I was not really surprised by Justify your position particularly in terms of duties and values.” that attitude. This was a very traditional series of lessons aimed at encour- A time-sensitive curriculum and state testing at the begin- aging students both to develop informed opinions and to chan- ning of May forced me to rush through the process of covering nel the expression of their opinions through a “decision-making Iraq more quickly than I would have liked. model” that emphasizes the clarification of an “agent’s” duties I think that, on an issue like this, objective, well-balanced and values. lessons should be offered. This is sometimes hard to find in There have been few “personal” ties to the conflict among newspapers and magazines. After a conflict begins, no one my students; probably this is because we live in a fairly affluent wants to be considered un-American. Many people tend to get suburban area outside the old south. This area is also monolithi- one-sided in their approach. We must teach some tolerance and cally Republican, so there is a predisposition to accepting the open-minded acceptance as we teach the facts. G opinions and actions of a Republican president during a time of

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