to be uncomfortable with young children learning about war?

[CleanTheFeckingMicrowave]

I have a Masters degree in History and I am a bit of a history buff, so I'll put that out to start with.

DC's school has been doing a lot of work on WW1, including the Reception and Y1 children. On one hand, I think it is a big cultural moment, but I don't find the slaughter of millions of people is appropriate for such young children.

This was glossed over in school, to be fair, but the result has been a very Disney-fied version of war. We shouldn't forget or dismiss the horrendous human cost of it.

Does that rambling make sense to anyone else?

I think YABU. War is a pretty big part of Hunan history and human nature. Best to start teaching them from a young age I think. That said my four year old wants to be a general and has somehow figured out what kinds of tank traps are most effective/which weapons are most deadly etc so maybe it’s a bit weird.

I also have history postgrad qualifications. I remember when DD came back from nursery a few years ago really upset about why we wear poppies and I thought it was inappropriate that they told the 4 year olds about war... however I found over the next few days she asked really smart questions about it and was clearly processing something pretty big in her mind. Now she’s building on that knowledge a few years on and I’m glad she’s not just finding out about it.

Totally depends on how it is being taught and what is left in it left out. I think a lot of it is age dependent. We watched a very detailed video about the Holocaust when I was in year 3 at school and it has stayed with me until this day. I couldn't do GCSE history as I didn't want to face the history school trips.

YABU in my opinion. War has shaped the world we all live in and should be taught about from a young age.

I just think that in making it age appropriate the important parts are lost- for example the Holocaust at Y3 is completely inappropriate imo.

I was in Berlin and our tour guide told me it is mandatory for all children to learn about the atrocities of WW2 every year. They visit concentration camps regularly. The Germans believe that facing up to the past is the only way they can stop history repeating itself. Video games and TV desensitize violence for children. Learning about it in school helps them develop empathy.

I do think Y5/Y6 should be learning about war. I'm really not sure about younger than that though.

Would you object to them being taught about the Hyksos invasion of Egypt and their expulsion in 1550BC?

How about the Roman invasion of Gaul in 50-58BC?

The Crusades in 1096-1291AD?

The War of the Roses in 1455-1485AD?

The Jacobite uprisings of 1715AD?

If "No" to all of the above, then why is the First World War (1914-1918) such a problem? At that age gap any history is going to be whitewashed into the ground regardless - be it about wars, economics, religion, or anything else. Nobody is going to be talking about witches being burned at the stake with reception age people, for example, and that's nothing to do with war.

I get that you don't want to expose kids to things that are unpleasant, but anyone who plays with toys like action man, or plastic knights, or dinosaurs has to understand on some level that guns shoot things, knights hit each other with swords, and dinosaurs eat each other. Just be sensible about how graphic your pictures and descriptions are, and it'll be fine.

I think reception is a bit young to understand such things, but I don't think there's any harm in explaining what Remebrance Day is about, considering it's 100 years since Armistice Day this Sunday.

When I was a child we learned about the war. But in an age-appropriate way.

When I was in my teens I came across a document my grandmother had written. I knew she had grown up in Ukraine and emigrated to Canada in her teens. What I didn't know was that she had been living under the Stalinist regime and that eventually her family moved to Germany. (They were of German descent.) Grandma eventually wrote her memoirs with the assistance of my cousin. Her brother also wrote his autobiography. I've read both. I think they're very important documents but not at all suitable for young children.

We learned about the history of the USSR when I was in Grade 9. After reading my great-uncle's story I realized that they had actually sanitized it quite a bit at school - and that was while still telling us a fair bit about the horrors that occurred.

I think it's important to remember these things so that we can ensure they never happen again.

War, slavery, racism, murder. I didn’t want my child to know about any of it, but unless I kept her locked in the house she was going to hear about it. By 5 she was a fluent reader and could read any newspaper headline as passed.

Kids can’t live in a bubble. Better they learn about the horror from caring parents and teachers who will try to provide context.

Particularly this year, it’s 100 years since a peace treaty ended the slaughter of ww1. Yabu, it’s never too early to learn about the need for peace.

My dc were asking about the poppies before school age, and I'd imagine lots of children are too. You don't need to go into the full horrors of it, but they learn a little at the time, and more as they get older.

I've just been sitting down with my 11yo with my grandad's war stuff. His call up papers, his discharge papers, army record books, photos he took with his little box Brownie camera.
They're not sugar coated, the pictures are the true reality of war as a Desert Rat, but perhaps the bit that caught ds was the army pay book. It says in the front "Original destroyed by fire". How? I don't know. But the casualness of the writing says perhaps more than the photo of the ambulance on the side, or the vehicle that hit a landmine; it says what they were facing every day.

For me the realisation that he joined up aged only the same age as my oldest hit me. If we were back in those times, I'd be looking at ds and wondering "five more years?"

And perhaps the most poignant item is a telegram. My Gran kept it until she died when we found it. She didn't keep for sentimental reasons.
"Home GWR 5:47 George" sent on his discharge in 1946.

If "No" to all of the above, then why is the First World War (1914-1918) such a problem?

But I would object to that list being on the curriculum for any class under Y5. That's what I'm trying to get at.

My dc's experience of learning about war has been the blitz and evacuees for primary school. And the holicaust in key stage 3.
Is that not the way they do it everywhere then?

YABU. My 4 year old reception child has been asking me for 2 years what the poppies mean, and what the war memorial in the village is for etc. so I’ve explained in an age appropriate way. What else am I meant to do?

Some children actually are child soldiers OP. YABU and oversensitive. It would have been explained in an age appropriate way.

Following with interest as I tend to try and find ways to tell the truth age appropriately and was not expecting my 4yo to be so gung ho about tanks, shooting and guns.
He saw one in the summer and loves machines so figured out stuff about it really quickly. Then today in the library, he found a ww1 & 2 section aimed at 7-9 year olds and carried over some of the books to ask me about them.

How would you recommend dealing with it? References to it are really embedded in a lot of culture, Paddington the movie, Narnia etc the poppies are hard not to notice, there are refugee children at his school so assuming keeping it quiet till age 9 just isn't going to happen.

I've spoken to my 5 year old about it after he commented on poppies. Kristalnacht too. Why we have bonfire night.

In some other countries it is apparently much more common to talk about these things with young children.

They're learning about it rather than experiencing it as the kids in the1940s and other times would have. While they shouldntvsee the full atrocity of war, by year 5 they should have some comprehension of it. It won't do kids any good at all to be kept in a bubble away from anything unpleasant and is likely to be even more damaging when they finally begin to understand.

There's a difference between answering your own child's question and them being taught it in school though. I've explained to my DC why we stand for a minute's silence etc and definitely answered the poppy question- I'm sure I always said it is to honour soldiers etc.

@CleanTheFeckingMicrowave

So a child can play with a toy Knight and Saracen, but not be told what they are?

That's a bit weird to my mind.

If anyone wants to know the true horror of war look up the name Harry Patch.
He was a soldier in WW1.
If you read,or better still listen to his words on war it really brings home how awful it was.
He held his mate while he was dying.
Heart breaking.

It'd be rather more weird to insist my child acts out historically accurate battles and events- 'No, darling, you see Joinville's depiction....'

YABU. Whilst the finer details of the atrocities of war should clearly be kept for a time when children are capable of engaging in sensible discussions about it, to refuse any teaching of an enormous part of human history is ridiculous. I don’t imagine that they are being educated on the gruesome facts and figures of the Battle of the Somme or expected to re-enact trench warfare. They will be being educated on Remebrance Day and what (and why) it is that we actually remember on Remebrance Day. You can’t, unless you’re some sort of hermit, avoid war and all that goes with it until you deem it appropriate at some arbitrary point in the future. Even if somehow you managed to, I can’t imagine that most children wouldn’t question all the poppy displays or poppy sellers at some point and then what would you do? Pretend that it’s not happening until you’ve deemed them old enough to understand? I’m sorry but you’re being ridiculous. This is not the sort of thing you can avoid or censor from your children’s lives because you don’t think they are old enough yet.