This unit is anchored in the social studies vision statement of the New Haven Public School curriculum standards and frameworks. These standards and frameworks guide this unit. The principal objective of this unit is to use an interdisciplinary approach to prepare creative, critical thinkers who are able to use problem resolution strategies within their academic and personal lives as they explore the topic of ethnic conflicts and wars. Students will begin to understand that people all around the world, in time and space, share common problems and goals. Thus, students will be able to relate to the fortunes and misfortunes of different peoples and communities other than their own as they participate in this unit.
One of the key underlying concepts of the unit is the importance of cultural diversity, values, and how the world is shaped by these factors. This unit is therefore anchored on a larger thematic unit on multiculturalism and diversity. Additionally, a unit on immigration will have been implemented so that when we explore some of the reasons why some people migrate from a country of origin to another of destiny, we will focus and talk about families having to leave their countries because of armed conflict or violence. This unit is intended to serve as an extension to such a unit and center the discussion on war and peace. Additionally, this unit will help the students begin to make connections between events in the past and the influence that those events have in the present day.
The series of lessons presented includes links to past events and how they relate to the present (long term consequences of wars and conflicts on children); connections of the historical events to global issues (the United Nations and the effects on children human rights); concepts of culture and the different perspectives that emerge from different cultures (children as soldiers, diverse points of view); applying geographic knowledge, skills, and concepts to human behavior in relation to the physical and cultural environment (territorial and boundary conflicts of the Basque struggle towards independence; the Basque diasporas); law and governance (ethnic conflicts); relating science, technology and society to historical events (warfare); and issues relating civics, ideals and practice to historical events, and individual development.
Throughout this unit of study, the teacher is encouraged to create a "word bank" relating to the terms and concepts to discuss with the students as they are introduced and emerge in the context of the unit. With older students, children create a glossary of terms in the areas of peace and related processes (i.e. peace building, peacekeeping, disarmament, reconciliation), other dispute resolution processes (i.e. arbitration, dialogue, social movement, policy-making), conflict types (i.e. ethnic, justice/human rights, territorial), and other (i.e. legitimacy, democracy, socialism, international law). A time line with the main events of the conflict in the Basque country is modeled for the students so it can be replicated with other current conflicts.
Because this unit is geared towards very young students in elementary school and in order for them to better understand the concepts here discussed, I begin the unit exploring questions of what history is, historical events and information, who, what, where, how, when, and why of an event. These lessons are focused and directly related to the students' lives. The timelines they will create relate directly to their personal histories. Therefore, the students will be able to understand that historical events are written by people and about people or places. Differences between primary and secondary or tertiary sources of information will be related as sources of information of "I have this document that tells me so" (primary) or "someone told me so" (secondary).
Once this topic has been explored through the implementation of the first four lessons, it will serve as a framework for the rest of the activities. Therefore, the previous questions will be asked over and over again throughout the curriculum and the completion of the unit. For example, in language arts we will focus on the narrator. Whose voice are we hearing? Who is telling us the story? How do they know? What are the motives or reasons for the narrator to tell the story? Which are the sources they use? Are they credible? In mathematics we ask questions such as how do you know? Can you prove what you say? How? and we make analogies to the first activity in the unit. The students make a timeline of the most important events in their lives to understand about history being the narration of events in a chronological manner and which affect the way we live nowadays.
If there is an author who is very accessible to young readers is that of Dr. Seuss. Although he never wrote any stories directly describing war, this unit explores three of his stories as stepping-stones to talk about war and its alternatives. In
The Zax
, Dr. Seuss explores the conflict between a North-going Zax and a South-going Zax, who meeting with each other in opposite ways, neither wants to move. Because of their intransigence there they stayed not wanting to budge while the whole world went on around them.
In the story
The Sneetches
, the only difference among the inhabitants of the town is that some wear a star while the others have none. The Star-Belly Sneetches have privileges that the Plain-Belly Sneetches envy, such as playing ball, picnics and marshmallow roasts. Then, Sylvester McMonkey McBean makes the Plain-Belly Sneetches happy by fixing their problem when for only 3 dollars each comes out of his peculiar machine just as a star-belly Sneetch. Those Sneetches with the original star are not very agreeable to this so Sylvester takes away the stars for only ten dollars.
The last of the stories, although mainly an environmentalist story, tells us about the exploitation of the natural resources until there is nothing but one seed left from one of the trees.
The Lorax
by Dr. Seuss can be used to explain to the students the way natural resources can be exploited to the benefit of a few and the detriment of many at the same time they become a source of conflicts and wars. The Lorax does not use violence to recover his land, nor do the creatures inhabiting the land revolt against the aggressors. However, many of the characters in this wonderful story can be representative of the players in many of today's world conflicts.
These three stories, although not directly depicting an armed conflict, or show hardly any violence, do demonstrate some of the concepts in which this unit is anchored. The Zax talks about how the intransigence of two makes it impossible to move from where they stand. As a class the students will discuss how could they resolve their conflict so that each can continue on. In today's society examples of similar situations will be offered.
In the Sneetches, Dr. Seuss explores issues of differences among equals and how those differences offer privileges to some, which are denied to the rest. These differences create a conflict where a few benefit and others are made to feel inferior. In the world this can be seen in the way people are treated because of their gender, sexual orientation, beliefs, religious affiliation, ethnicity, or race.
These stories will be used as springboards in contextualizing many of the conflicts. Thus we will look for South and North-going Zaks, Sylvester McMonkey McBean, the Lorax, and all the other characters will be used as points of reference. In the introductory lessons, we will study the conflicts they present us from the framework of who is telling the story and how it is being told. The students will reflect on the struggles and propose ways of solving the problems they present. Next, we will rewrite the story to present different view points. The North-going Zax will retell the story from his point of view. So will the South-going Zax. Following we will use the story to study the Basque conflict and to explain how at times not only does either side wants to budge and violence ensues. This is the case in many of the world conflicts nowadays taking place. Alternatives to war will also be explored, although they are not the central focus of this unit.
Each of the stories will be studied in the same manner; who is telling the story, how, and why. What is the conflict? How is it solved? How does the story change when retold from the point of view of another of the characters? Does this make a difference? These lessons will be followed by a couple of lessons on feelings (anger) and on violence (gangs) so as to focus on how is it that someone can feel so angry, have a group of people who gives them cover, which leads them to harm another human person to the point of taking their lives. For such a purpose I make use of the series of children's books by Williams and Becnel (1996), which in simple language that students may understand, explore gang issues.
The unit ends with real life conflicts and war situations both in the Basque context and in context of other ethnic ongoing conflicts such as the Chechnya fight for independence against Russia. In order for the children to gain the necessary knowledge a couple of lessons on geography and some history have been provided. These lessons will help the students locate and contextualize the lessons on children refugees.
A comparison between the lives of Basque refugee children in 1937-1939 during the Spanish Civil War, and Chechnya refugee children in 2000 are directly made though the use of documents and photographs from humanitarian organizations and civilian sympathizers (see electronic resources). Here the students are able to see first hand sources and accounts of children who are touched by war and open armed conflicts. The students will be able to compare similarities and differences between the consequences and lifestyles of the children. The students will be able to gain some understanding of what it was to have lived in a war situation during the Spanish Civil War based on the experiences of this group of children. At the same time, the students will be able to view pictures of the children and compare the situation to the recent events in Chechnya.