The Freedom to Learn and the Path to Peace

My daughter recently overheard a conversation I was having with my husband about Ukraine. You’d be surprised what kids pick up on and what they are curious about. We started talking about it in the car on the way to the store. I remember my parents broaching difficult subjects while stuck in traffic. Likewise, I’d occasionally ask them some difficult questions from the back seat of the car. There you have a captive audience.

Open, honest communication is so important. Our children look to us for answers when the world doesn’t make sense. This is a golden opportunity to foster their natural sense of empathy, which develops around age two and fairness, which develops around age five. We can teach them not what to think, but how to think for themselves and how to separate fact from fiction.

Honestly, it is uncomfortable introducing your child to the concepts of war, racism, and xenophobia. When I look into my daughter’s eyes I see innocence. I don’t want to talk about these ugly things, but it is my responsibility to raise her with a sense of social justice. I am not trying to scare her and I spare her the graphic details, but I give her the facts. If she asks me a question, I always do my best to answer her honestly. I don’t have all the answers and she knows that. Sometimes we even learn about things together.

It can be difficult to get started, and one resource I found is a Vermont Public Radio podcast called “But Why?.” They invite subject matter experts to answer and discuss questions submitted by kids. My daughter and I listened to their episode about the invasion of Ukraine. I thought it was very well done and it helped her understand a complicated situation.

Kids are naturally curious. Occasionally my daughter teaches me something new or shows me a new perspective on an issue I thought I had figured out. I have attended a few protests over the past several years. I have never brought her along, but before I leave I make sure to explain what it is all about. She comes alive, encouraging me and helping me make signs.

Tyranny thrives on misinformation and lack of education. That’s why the recent banning of books in the name of “protecting the children” is so dangerous. Shielding children from stories about racial and LGBTQ+ topics will allow White Nationalism and homophobia to grow now and into the future. Book bans have recently been introduced in Oklahoma, Wyoming, and Tennessee. Texas and even my home state of Virginia have also been challenging many of these same books.

This rabid censorship combined with schools’ obsessive focus on standardized test preparation at the expense of history, social studies, arts, and literature will allow hate groups to fill their ranks. And those that don't succumb to hateful rhetoric will fall into complacency.

In order to have a future led by people who care, we need to let them read about history, warts and all. As the philosopher, George Santayana once wrote: “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.”

Americans say “never forget” about the attack on 9-11. The phrase is plastered everywhere from t-shirts to license plates. Some of these same Americans want to censor information about slavery and the Holocaust. All atrocities should be remembered, including the ones committed by our own ancestors.

Fiction is equally important. When you read a work of fiction, you identify with the characters in that story, you see their humanity. Not every story is going to resonate with every young reader, but they should have the opportunity to see for themselves.

Children are not given enough credit for being able to think critically. If something they read disturbs them or is contradictory to something they thought they knew, this is a conversation starter! My child is seven years old and as she grows, I want her to make her own path, even if it is different from mine. Cutting off their access to information will only make them less equipped to deal with those difficult questions in life.

When I attended public school, I remember reading and discussing Huckleberry Finn, The Scarlet Letter, To Kill a Mockingbird, The Diary of Anne Frank, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, The Catcher in the Rye, 1984, The Bell Jar, and The Handmaid’s Tale. These highly contested books were on the reading lists assigned by my teachers. My education was far from perfect, and I was a pretty average student, but each of these books made an impression on me. They helped me see beyond my own experience.

I think we all know someone who has been lured into a campaign of misinformation. It is sobering to think of how easy it is to manipulate people to hate, convince them to commit violence or to deny what is happening all around them. I think about the Ukrainian civilians being bombed and their Russian relatives not believing them because of the lies and propaganda on Russian state TV.

Americans shocked to see the way Putin has criminalized free speech in order to control the narrative about his actions in Ukraine should examine the kind of censorship going on here at home. And as for the Russians bravely protesting the invasion of Ukraine, they should be an example for us all.