The education journal Rethinking Schools is asking teachers to submit ideas via email (elizabeth@rethinkingschools.org) for teaching about the Russian invasion of Ukraine. I think they asked for ideas because they, like me, are not sure how to engage students in a discussion of what is taking place because so much remains unclear and events seem to change hour to hour. Rethinking Schools recommends following reports by Amy Goodman and Juan González on Democracy Now! On February 25, 2022, Democracy Now! posted reports by Nataliya Gumenyuk, a Ukrainian journalist in Kyiv, Nina Potasska, a Ukrainian peace activist, and Katrina vanden Heuvel, an American journalist and commentator with The Nation. These reports are available at the Democracy Now! website as both text and oral interviews.
According to Gumenyuk’s report, “As the Russian army advances on Kyiv and threatens to topple the Ukrainian government, Ukrainian officials have banned men ages 18 to 60 from leaving the country to potentially be drafted into defense forces and have directed residents to use Molotov cocktails against the approaching Russian troops.” Potasska, coordinator for the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom in Ukraine, fled Ukraine when Russia invaded to help rally international support for her country. Vanden Heuvel was most concerned with the possibility of a broader, even nuclear war, as Russia confronts the U.S. backed NATO alliance.
Since 2014, Ukraine has made major steps towards establishing democracy in a region of the world where many countries have authoritarian governments, including Russia. Ukraine has also expanded its commercial ties with the European Union. The people of Ukraine support these new directions and have rallied to resist the invading Russian army.
Rethinking Schools also recommends analysis by Phyllis Bennis of the Institute for Policy Studies. In an article in Foreign Policy in Focus, Bennis argues “Our first concern must be for civilians across the country, now facing violence and displacement. And our first call must be for an immediate ceasefire, a pull-back of Russian troops from Ukraine, and international support for the humanitarian challenges already underway in the region.”
While condemning the Russian invasion as illegal, Bennis offers a historical perspective on the underlying conflict in the region. According to Bennis, “If we start the clock in February 2022, the main problem is Russia’s attack on Ukraine. If we start the clock in 1997, however, the main problem is Washington pushing NATO — the Cold War-era military alliance that includes the United States and most of Europe — to expand east, breaking an assurance the U.S. made to Russia after the Cold War. Many foreign policy experts and peace advocates have called for ending the anachronistic alliance ever since the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991. But NATO remains and has only encroached toward Russia further, resulting in new NATO countries — bristling with NATO arms systems — right on Russia’s borders. Russia sees that expansion — and its integration of neighboring countries into U.S.-led military partnerships — as a continuing threat. Ukraine is not a member of NATO. But in the past the U.S. and other NATO members have urged its acceptance, and Russia regards Ukraine’s drift toward the West as a precursor to membership.”
For secondary school students, I recommend lessons with maps, images, and television news broadcasts. The CNN website has live updated news clips. On February 27, 2022 it posted a 3-minute video, “This is what happens when war comes to a major city.”
As a high school lesson idea, have students read and discuss the following quote.
“Certain foreign newspapers have said that we fell . . . with brutal methods. I can only say; even in death they cannot stop lying. I have in the course of my political struggle won much love from my people, but when I crossed the former frontier there met me such a stream of love as I have never experienced. Not as tyrants have we come, but as liberators.”
Questions
1. What is claimed in this quote?
2. Based on your knowledge of history, who do you think said this and what event?
In case you are unfamiliar with the quote, it is by Adolf Hitler, justifying the invasion and annexation of Austria in March 1938.
In the United States there has been debate over how the country should respond to the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Students can read quotes from statements by former President Donald Trump and President Joseph Biden and discuss which view comes closest to their own and why.
Questions
What is former President Trump’s view of the Russian invasion of Ukraine?
What is President Biden’s view of the Russian invasion of Ukraine?
Whose position comes closer to yours? Why?
Former President Donald Trump: “Putin is now saying, ‘It’s independent,’ a large section of Ukraine. I said, ‘How smart is that?’ And he’s going to go in and be a peacekeeper. That’s the strongest peace force I’ve ever seen. There were more army tanks than I’ve ever seen. They’re going to keep peace, all right. No, but think of it. Here’s a guy who’s very savvy. I mean he’s taking over a country for $2 worth of sanctions. I’d say that’s pretty smart.”
Source: The Hill, February 24, 2022
President Joseph Biden: "Putin is the aggressor. Putin chose this war. And now he and his country will bear the consequences. There is a complete rupture right now in U.S.-Russian relations. I will do everything in my power to limit the pain the American people are feeling the gas pump. This is critical to me. But this aggression cannot go unanswered. America stands up to bullies."
Source: The White House, February 24, 2022
Especially helpful for teaching younger children is a Rethinking Schools edited book Teaching About the Wars. I also recommend this essay on children’s books, Talking with Children about War, Peace and Hope, written by social studies educator Judith Singer for the journal Social Science Docket, a joint publication of the New York and New Jersey Council for the Social Studies.
Singer opens with a quote from The Fellowship the Ring by J.R.R. Tolkein (1954: 50). Frodo laments, “I wish it need not have happened in my time.” His friend Gandolf replies, “So do I and all who live to see such times. But that is not for them to decide. All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us.”
One of the children’s picture books she discusses in the article is Potatoes, Potatoes by Anita Lobel (New York: Greenwillow, 2004). This book tells about a mother who tries to protect her two sons from war by building a wall around her house and potato field. Unfortunately, when her sons grow up, each longs to see the world beyond the wall. They become enamored of the soldier’s uniforms. One runs off to join the army of the east and wear a red uniform, while the other joins the army of the west and wears a blue uniform.
As of noon on Sunday February 27, 2022, an estimated 400,000 civilians had fled from the fighting in Ukraine, about half crossed the border into neighboring Poland. The United Nations’ refugee agency, UNHCR, is planning to assist as many as four million people as the situation in Ukraine worsens. As a civic action project, students can raise money and collect supplies to aid Ukrainian refugees. USA Today recommends five charities that will be assisting Ukrainian refugees, the International Rescue Committee, Save the Children, Razom for Ukraine, International Committee of the Red Cross, and Global Giving Ukraine Crisis Relief Fund. National Public Radio recommends supporting UNICEF, Doctors Without Borders and United Nations Refugee Agency campaigns.
Follow Alan Singer on twitter at https://twitter.com/AlanJSinger1