Wednesday 10 November 2010

War.

I was working with some kids this morning, we are building a clay-oven at school, when the conversation came to the holiday tomorrow. I decided to give them a test, so I asked why there was a holiday. (11th of November is in remembrance of the ending/the victims of WWII, but also WWI)
OK, they knew. They linked it to the second world war. They didn't know about the first one, however.
-And who was fighting who?
-Hitler.
He's a famous guy. They know him.
-Who else?
That, they didn't know.
-Who was fighting with the Germans?
- Russia?
I lolled. So I explained to them:
-Italy, Japan. And a last one: Where did the fights take place?
-France. Germany. Netherlands. U.K. 
-That's it?
They thought so. Yes, I must have been a small-scale West-European thingy.
I started summing up: countries in the pacific, Hawaii, East Europe. South Europe, The Sahara, several colonies in Africa, ... more than 50million dead. 5 times the Belgian population. They fell silent.


I'm second generation(my father was a child when WWII broke out). They are third generation, my son is third generation. War is non-existent to them. They have never been hungry, in terrible distress, friends or family killed. They have to know.

Never let this happen again.

35 comments:

  1. Fantastic post, Im only 19 but i know I owe everything to the veterans. Both my grandparents fought in the wars, they were great people.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Russia, lol! Well, shame on me too, because I'm not very informed about those kind of things in the history, I should! good post!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Thats a good thing that they dont have to know

    ReplyDelete
  4. Yes it is through forgetfullness that we repeat the mistakes of history again and again.

    ReplyDelete
  5. i agree, we should starve all the children and bomb the schools so they know what war means.

    jk lol, but i understand your point. they have no idea what it means to sacrifice something for your country and what you believe in.

    +following

    ReplyDelete
  6. yeah, I can't imagine what it must have been like living through that era

    ReplyDelete
  7. well i think those kids don't know really much about the wars...school should teach them more about it...or parents should tell them storys about it instead of silence about this issue

    ReplyDelete
  8. it's a good thing they know now.

    ReplyDelete
  9. In the immortal words of Boy George: "War, war is stupid, and people are stupid, and love means nothing, in some strange quarters."

    or something like that

    ReplyDelete
  10. It is happening as we speak, we are in afganistan to gain controll of oil and sustain a profitable war.

    ReplyDelete
  11. War and peace kinda go hand in hand huh

    ReplyDelete
  12. no one ever knows history...which is hilarious, because it's basically dictated where we are today...

    ReplyDelete
  13. the war is just so profitable... what can you do?

    ReplyDelete
  14. Jim has a good point here. War has major global implications.

    ReplyDelete
  15. Yeah, thats why history is taught in class so it is never repeated. My dad's side all served (all 12) and my grandpa was injured in WWII. :D

    ReplyDelete
  16. It's good of you to educate the children on this. I feel that many kids today don't get enough history education... If they don't learn about the past, then we are doomed to repeat it.

    ReplyDelete