Why Ukraine does not come to our class

War is cruelty. War is trauma. War is unnecessary. Yet, it is 2022 and war is still foremost on our minds and on our screens. a fast Google Search Russia on-Ukraine War reveals eight or nine articles on its “latest” update. However, there is only one article on war crimes in Ukraine. There lies the problem.

We cannot overstate the fact that innocent and civilian lives on which the war was imposed are being destroyed. Between Vladimir Putin and Volodymyr Zelensky, there are kids living and learning in Ukraine, kids who are registering what, in a perfect world, they shouldn’t have.

But does it really bother us? Had most people even heard of Ukraine before this armed conflict? Have we become so accustomed to violence that it doesn’t distract us as long as it’s not happening in our own backyard? Does it bother us even then?

With reports of incidents of violence, assaults, rapes, deaths, brief executions, and looting of civilian property coming from Ukraine, the wider society and educational system in both India, as well as Ukraine, is well equipped to handle dialogue, trauma, and treatment process? Should it be the responsibility of teachers and educators to talk about the effects and consequences of war?

Between the two of us, we have been teachers for many years, teaching history, political science and maths in Delhi schools, and are always shocked and saddened by the lack of compassion and empathy that is endemic to the way we teach. ,

Not only do we not understand our teens, we also don’t understand exactly what we should be teaching them. Whenever I teach Nazism and the Holocaust, for example, I always find it necessary to put in the extra effort to bring home the unspeakably horrific and dehumanizing aspect of war and fascism.

I limited time offer , Rs 2/day with Express Premium Ad-Lite Please click here to subscribe I

The prescribed textbooks are inadequate and there is no discussion on the human aspects. Once my class is over, the students immediately go back to their games, gabfest, and general nostalgia.

My anger is thus the result of feeling flaws in the way I was taught, as well as the way I am forced to teach. It also makes sense if parents and others close to the students bring these topics to the students and have meaningful discussions with them.

By not doing so, we are deliberately preparing students to be the decision makers of tomorrow. In the unpredictable future, they may not be able to understand their own pain, empathizing with the pain of others at all.

Today’s children of Ukraine will one day become officers, leaders, teachers, sportsmen, international journalists, environmentalists, but we don’t really know how this trauma will affect them, the situation becomes even more complicated if they lose one in the war. Parents.

And the news is grossly insufficient to deal with the issue. It only reports war to provide political insight.

During this war, no treatment is provided to the victims, no discussion of its visceral impact on human rights, and no moral responsibility rests on the shoulders of political warlords.

But we are not political analysts. We are artists and teachers. As teachers, we feel and know that the education system is creating apathy by removing empathy from the curriculum. They are not imparting the sensitivity and knowledge to the students – the need to overcome such a senseless tragedy.

In India, ‘democracy’ and ‘fascism’ are part of the national curriculum, but students are tested only on the facts and meaning of the words. The effect that so-called democracy and fascism are having on human beings around the world is not discussed.

If the traditional education system is failing, I believe that artists – visual and performing – need to shoulder the responsibility and shake the decency of the general public.

However, artists are also a neglected community. More often than not, they also lack the necessary resources to bring about the necessary social change to which they have selflessly devoted their lives.

Hence, there is a need for artists to join hands with philanthropists and take bold initiatives that will attract the immediate attention of decision makers. Art will not only provide a very important distraction from the immediate, but will also recognize the faceless masses oppressed by the inhumanity of life.

Verma teaches history and Ahmed teaches maths at Noida’s Shiv Nadar School