Some thoughts and resources on conflict and disaster

Children and adults alike, even those of us fortunate enough to be physically remote from these events, may be deeply affected, with such colossal disasters raising existential fears.

But it is the non-“natural” disasters, conflicts between human beings, which are often the most troubling and difficult for us to grapple with, intellectually and emotionally. Terrorism, war and deep cultural schism, add — on top of the basic reality of terrible loss that we encounter in the case of natural disasters — even more profound questions: of moral intent, hatred, violence, political machinery, and human nature. News from the ongoing attempted invasion of Ukraine by Russia, and in the past month the terrible images from Israel and the Gaza Strip, bear down on the consciousness and conscience of the world. And with high levels of media coverage, we know that this includes our children, at home and in our schools.

This is not to even mention the other ongoing conflicts with fatalities on the same order of magnitude over the past two years: in Myanmar, the Maghreb, Mexico, Ethiopia, Sudan; and the very capacity of our media, society and ourselves to largely overlook or diminish some of these other conflicts, itself raising yet more difficult questions, of course.

We express our sympathy to all affected directly or indirectly by all such human suffering.

The above examples of disaster and conflict are all extremely difficult facets of the world in their own right. And while we cannot fathom the losses, nor comment from a political standpoint, SAPERE is a charity the very purpose of which involves facing head-on the profound questions that people, especially young people, may raise about the world.

However difficult it can sometimes be, we operate on the assumption that to seek knowledge and understanding, to attempt to work toward clarity, and to engage honestly with conflicting moral standpoints, must be better than retreating into ourselves, or fearing to broach the most sensitive and seemingly incommensurable topics. To invert the philosophical aphorism of Wittgenstein: that of which we can speak, we must not pass over in silence.

With that in mind – and we should say: fully in the knowledge that this is a humble drop in the ocean against a tide of suffering — we wanted to share just a few links and resources which we hope P4C facilitators may find useful.

• From our friends at DECSY, a compilation of lesson plans and resources for “Processing the Violence in Israel and Gaza”:
decsy.org.uk/news/processing-the-violence-in-israel-and-gaza-lesson-plans-and-teaching-resources/

• Thoughts and advice from SAPERE’s Grace Lockrobin, prompted by the Russian war on Ukraine but also with general application:
sapere.org.uk/2022/03/philosophical-conversations-in-a-crisis/

• This advice from UNICEF on talking to children about conflict and war contains some useful principles, cohering with the approach we take in P4C, including that we should start with what children know and feel, that we should not minimize their concerns; that we can approach even the most vitriolic disagreements with compassion (caring); to remember “that it’s OK to not have the answer to every question”:
unicef.org/parenting/how-talk-your-children-about-conflict-and-war

• Advice from NPR, in particular that you can be proactive (don’t assume, if the topic doesn’t arise, that children aren’t hearing things and thinking about it already); note that “kids can handle tough topics”, and that especially “Older children with access to the internet should be encouraged to be skeptical of videos shared on social media and offered help with evaluating news sources”, as well as “brushing up” on the facts yourself:
npr.org/2023/10/11/1205017249/how-to-talk-to-children-violence-israeli-palestinian-gaza-hamas

• Thoughts from Jason Buckley, including the advice (again written last year, responding in that moment to the war on Ukraine) to be wary of conflating different crises: “though there are some connections between all these things, they are not one continuous mess of awfulness from which we should conclude that human beings are generally rubbish. Each problem is its own thing.” This can help anyone to disentangle different topics and hold back from despair, but it may be especially important when thinking about the hopes that young people will hold – and are forming – for the future:
thephilosophyman.com/blog/talking-and-not-talking-with-children-about-war

• Global Learning London provides resources on “Having difficult conversations with children” and “Teaching about Palestine and Israel through the lens of Human Rights”, which makes the point: “Some teachers have argued that school should be a place free of politics — we argue that the decision not to teach about global injustice is a political stance itself. The ability to discuss Human Rights in school is an essential cornerstone to nurturing well-rounded citizens who step out into the world with an understanding of, and commitment to, social justice.”
globallearninglondon.org/resources/having-difficult-conversations-with-children/
globallearninglondon.org/resources/palestine-israel-human-rights/

• And you may also be interested in this short academic article (published 2021) on an interreligious seminar on Philosophy for/with Children, by Professor Arie Kizel, in which he writes “Throughout the years, the participants of the seminar at the University of Haifa [including Jewish, Muslim, Christian, Druze, and Circassian students] report that the meeting between them allows them to experience and practice a respectful dialogue that allows them to demonstrate ways to live together in an atmosphere of peace and while striving for mutual recognition.”:
philarchive.org/archive/KIZASO

In hopes of peace and understanding,

— the SAPERE team, November 2023