War Made Visible
From language arts to math to science to social studies, the school curriculum teaches young people what to think about. But it also teaches young people what not to think […]
Wars & Related Anti-War Movements
Melody Sullivan Goes to Palestine
A review of Finding Melody Sullivan by Alice Rothchild.
“Instead of Going to School or University, Ukrainian Children and Young People Are Hiding in Shelters, Trembling, and Shuddering from Every Noise”
How can children feel after they have been forced to flee from their homes, live in basements or metro stations? They lost their usual lifestyle, friends, some of them lost their parents.
Teaching for Peace in a Time of War
Like you, we are angry and fearful about the Russian invasion of Ukraine, and these are terrifying times for our students. As Ukrainian educator Igor Tsyvgintsev reminds us, “The entire curriculum of school studies comes down to humaneness.”
Teaching for Peace in a Time of War
In his sadly timeless song “Masters of War,” Bob Dylan sang: You fasten all the triggers For the others to fire Then you sit back and watch When the death […]
Teaching about Ukraine
Dear Rethinking Schools friends, Like you, we are angry and fearful about the Russian invasion of Ukraine. This is already causing immense suffering — which will only increase. These are […]
Still Teaching Against the War(s)
Fifty years ago — on April 30, 1970 — the U.S. military invaded Cambodia in an expansion of the Vietnam War. In response, students across the country staged massive demonstrations. […]
As Tensions with Iran Escalate, It Is Time to Challenge Empire in the Classroom
Three Iranian educators, scholars, and parents write about how we need to refuse narratives that normalize empire and dehumanize whole populations.
“But You Guys Wanted Us Here”
A film tackles the U.S. occupation of Japan.
We Don’t Need Another Soldier
A former student returns from the Marines
War Is Fun as Hell
Years of writing about public relations and propaganda has probably made me a bit jaded, but I was amazed nevertheless when I visited America’s Army, an online video game website […]
Childhood Is Dying
Iraq’s children have been more gravely affected by the U.S. occupation than any other segment of the population.”
TV Selfishness and Violence Explode During ‘War On Terror
Six years into the ‘War on Terror
NCLB and the Military
California teachers take a stand against the NCLB-aided military blitz on in-school recruiting.
Exit Strategies
Getting us out of the war in Iraq and NCLB requires challenging the premises that got us into these messes in the first place.
Test Prep and the War
Preparing high schoolers for the Regents exam while studying the War in Iraq.
The War in Iraq and Daily Classroom Life
Suggestions from a 5th-grade teacher on bringing the War in Iraq into the curriculum.
The Shame of the Nation
I entered the fourth grade of Mr. Endicott, a man in his mid-30s who had arrived here without training as a teacher, one of about 15 teachers in the building […]
The Recruitment Minefield
Emiliano Santiago. Not many of our students know his name. But they should. Santiago joined the Oregon Army National Guard on June 28, 1996, shortly after his high school graduation […]
Stealth Recruiting
NCLB’s provisions give military recruiters access to student contact information
Nurturing Student Activists in the Time of Trump
How we seed and support student activism will vary from community to community, school to school, and grade level to grade level. But this is a crucial moment in history, and what we do as educators matters. When we help students explore and analyze exploitation, injustice, and danger in the world, we can also help them develop the knowledge and skills to change it.
It’s Imperialism.
A high school teacher critiques the textbook treatment of the Cold War and U.S. imperialism. She describes her approach to the “curricular conundrum” that the Cold War presents because it lasted so long, and was so far-flung. “”If we are ever to create a different world, one in which the United States does not cast an outsized and militarized shadow across the globe, we need our students to understand how and why that shadow was created in the first place.”
Love for Syria
A teacher wrestles with explaining refugee crises, dictators, and the trauma of war to her 1st- and 2nd- grade classroom.
From Many Sides Now
A teacher uses poetry and the creation of found poems as a way to get her students to think beyond the simple “two sides to every story” narrative of the Vietnam War.
EDITORIAL: Little Kids, Big Ideas
Recently, a Rethinking Schools editor was a chaperone on a field trip when he overheard a 2nd-grade student talking about how he wanted to “nuke the world.” Taken aback, he […]