Far-reaching Consequences of Wartime Attacks on Education

[April 8, 2022]  War is never an easy subject to discuss, especially when young children are brought into question. Children of all ages are affected by war in different ways, whether they’re in active war zones or exposed to war through media. According to War Childhood, the destruction of major infrastructure leads to direct effects on children’s education during wartime.

Education is often slowed to a crawl or halted altogether because there are far more severe topics being discussed during wartime. Despite that, children can still hear and see how the adults that surround them act when war is happening. They are irrevocably affected by war which can lead to depression, anxiety, irregular sleep, nightmares, and even more severe physical conditions.

Making the Best of It

Young children must have some sense of normalcy during wartime despite what’s happening around them. Education is one of the best ways to provide them with the vent they need to process such negative external stimuli. Diversifying the students’ education to include topics unrelated to war will keep them occupied and interested in more positive academic and creative pursuits.

Thankfully, the internet is full of useful resources for teachers and parents to utilize to help children cope with war-related stress. They can use literature essay examples to help young students work on essay writing and similar creative projects to keep themselves fully occupied. You can also utilize plenty of online learning resources like Khan Academy to maintain the children’s education process as intact as possible if formal schooling is paused. This will drastically dampen the effects war has on children, especially at a young age where adults can supervise and curate what media information comes through to them.

Second-Hand Effects of War on Education

According to an academic publication from 2018, more than 10% of children worldwide are affected by armed conflicts. These effects are both direct and indirect, whether through personal experiences or media exposure. In the case of the latter, you can channel the child’s experience of war-time media into education.

Once a child or a student starts asking questions about what they see on the TV or the web, it’s too late to deny them the truth. Depending on their age, students can work on a war essay project, for example, or other creative assignments which can help them cope with their thoughts. You can ask students to write about their perception of war, what they’d do to stop it, and why it’s a bad thing.

Don’t point fingers or label any one group or nation as an enemy. Children need objectivity and clarity in education so they can manifest those values as adults tomorrow. Second-hand exposure to wartime events can be just as harmful to children as first-hand experiences. Use education as a tool to mitigate that as much as possible.

Overcoming War-Time Stress

Whether you’re in the position of a teacher or a parent, one of your duties is to ensure that war doesn’t affect children as much as possible. This is difficult to accomplish if you’re in an active war zone and it’s very difficult to process what’s happening even for adults.

But, children who live through such devastating events need to continue living their lives. Providing them with stable education and topics that take away from the surrounding events are more than welcome. The consequences of war are always far-reaching – with education, they can be at least somewhat stifled.

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Please read Doug Satterfield’s book, “Our Longest Year in Iraq,” on Amazon (link here).