War in Ukraine or Gaza: sometimes helpless teachers try to answer children’s questions

I have this feeling that it was important for my students to discuss it and put a framework for them

Each week, Anne Ridelle approaches topics related to the news that sometimes concerns them with her students. After the latter challenged her on the various conflicts that affect the world with horror, she decided to treat this theme with them in class. At the first question (“What does war talk to you?“), Very quickly the fingers are getting up and the words are: dead, invasion, war crimes, bombings, victims, Ukraine, Putin, Gaza, Trump, Borders, etc. This teacher gives us that she had observed that this subject returned in the conversations of the students: “As the news for the moment is still very busy at the conflict level, it stands out. There are concerns and small questions that have been asked in class. This is already a subject that they tackle between them in the playground. I have this feeling that it was important for my students to discuss it and put a framework for them.“

I worry because it can happen to us

As the debate progresses, the professor asks countless questions to assess the knowledge and received ideas of her class. The facts, the contexts, the institutions, the history, the geopolitics, many points are traveled with a certain interest and with pedagogy. A certainty, the word “fear“Resonates in the mouths of these children. For Ivan who comes from Ukraine, the anxiety of a war in Belgium lives very logically in the context of the invasion of Ukraine by Russia.”I worry because it can happen to us. It scares me because Belgium helps Ukraine. This is why Russia and war can happen so far“He explains with the fleeing look.