Teachers address war with students

Since the outbreak of war in Iraq, administrators and teachers
at the university’s elementary school have taken the time to
react and reflect on the conflict with some of the youngest members
of the UCLA community.

Located on the outskirts of the UCLA campus, Corinne A. Seeds
University Elementary School offers a unique educational experience
as the self-proclaimed “laboratory” of UCLA’s
Graduate School of Education and Information Studies.

The UES philosophy statement emphasizes incorporating real world
experiences and events into the classroom. Ascertaining how to make
this synthesis is harder, however, when the real-world experience
is war.

“We deal with these types of situations on an ad hoc basis
““ if students are expressing concern, then we figure out the
appropriate way to respond,” said UES Principal Donna L.
Elder.

In the classroom, teachers have incorporated current events into
their lesson plans and discussions.

“The day before bombs dropped we spent all morning
discussing the situation with students,” sixth-grade social
studies teacher Judy Perlmutter said of her main discussion with
students.

Perlmutter’s talk included a review of the history and
geography of the Middle East, a topic studied earlier in the year,
as well as an open discussion about students’ feelings toward
war.

According to UES writing teacher and safe school specialist Ava
de la Sota, teachers take care in remaining neutral and stressing
respect for differences during discussions of such hot topics.

“We want our students to be empowered to use their own
words and make their own decisions,” de la Sota said.

Reflecting on her students’ backgrounds Perlmutter
commented, “Because we’re part of UCLA, our parents
tend to be a pretty well-educated, left-thinking group, and our
students seem to be echoing what their parents are
thinking.”

While much student sentiment appears to be a reflection of their
parents’ thinking, they are beginning to see the world
outside themselves, Perlmutter said.

One way students have expressed their personal feelings is
through art and poetry.

“Art and literature provide a good medium through which
teachers, parents and children can examine and make sense of the
war,” said Virginia Walter, associate professor and chair of
the information studies department.

For Perlmutter’s class poetry assignment, several students
chose to write about war and peace. As part of his poem entitled
“Peace,” sixth-grader Joshua wrote, “War rages
around me/ but I think nothing of it.”

In his poem “The Longest Word,” sixth-grader Jake
said, “The longest word in the world is war/ because it lives
on with its action long gone/ in the hearts of the people/ and the
world and beyond.”

Upon return from a two-week spring break coinciding with the
first two weeks of the war, Jacobs sent a letter to parents
explaining factors that could affect their child’s reaction
to the war.

“How children respond will depend on a number of factors,
including the level of exposure they’ve had to the violence,
the responses of others, the nature of what has been seen or heard,
and each child’s temperament and current emotional
state,” UES Director of Psychological Services Dr. Jeffrey
Jacobs said.

“While we have seen a few cases of kids displaying signs
of mild anxiety, the situation in Iraq does not appear to have
caused any kind of serious distress,” Jacobs said. The school
saw more cases and more acute anxiety following the attacks of
Sept. 11, 2001, he said.

Perlmutter agreed that war is not a priority on the minds of
most students, describing her students’ feelings as being
“personally disconnected” from the war.

“At this point, the kids no longer have any immediate
concerns … I think that these issues are just in the back of
their minds,” Perlmutter said.