AREA SCHOOLS HELP STUDENTS DEAL WITH UKRAINE CONFLICT
Russia’s invasion of Ukraine continues to hold the attention of the world — and local students — as the escalation of the conflict in eastern Europe shows little sign of slowing down anytime soon.
Not surprisingly, discussions held in Danbury-area classrooms on the unfolding crisis take different forms at different age levels, and in different school districts; but from preschool to the college level, the flood of news reports, images, and videos on all aspects of the conflict makes the opportunity for engagement on the matter hard to avoid all together.
“Even for the most media conscious households, our youngest students may likely be exposed to this news from television and social media platforms,” Brookfield Superintendent John Barile said in a letter to parents last week.
Included in his letter, Barile offered resources to parents to help guide conversations with their children at home and laid out parameters for how the district’s schools would approach discussions in the classroom.
“Naturally, some of our students may desire to further understand, explore and discuss this event at school,” he added. “As is always the case, based on age and developmental level, please know that this event will not be addressed directly.”
In New Fairfield, the invasion has come up in class discussions, even at the elementary level, with the community “sending strength and positive thoughts for the Ukraine people,” Superintendent Pat Cosentino said.
“Different classes go in deeper depending on the age of the students,” she said. “[There’s been] a lot of talk about democracy and the importance of freedom and
how we’re lucky we live in the United States of America.”
Bethel Schools Superintendent Christine Carver noted the conflict has fostered discussions in history classes at the town’s high school.
“It’s been a nice opportunity for teachers to explain the history and why the world has responded in the way they have, NATO, the economic pieces,” Carver said. “Kids have been asking about it.”
Going a step further than classroom discussions, Danbury Superintendent Kevin Walston said his district would welcome refugees from Ukraine.
“It goes without saying, our doors will be open if the opportunity presents itself to provide a safe haven for the Ukraine community,” he said. “Quite frankly, I hope those request come through so we can help this international challenge. Danbury would be privileged to be part of the solution.”
At the college level
The depth and context of school-led discussions naturally increase at the college level, helping in part to explain how the Russian invasion of Ukraine has become such an important topic for students of all ages while offering practical advice on how to get beyond the war’s headlines.
Jessica Schofield is an assistant professor of political science at Western Connecticut State University who holds a Ph.D. in subject. She said last week she has made a point to engage her students on the conflict and is impressed with the level of interest shown by many of her students.
“I have been surprised at how many of my students have been actively following the news, it has been all over social media and sites like Reddit — so they are bringing in a lot of details that they have come across in their own research on it,” Schofield said.
Fueling the interest are the seemingly infinite number of available sources covering all angles of the invasion and its corresponding humanitarian crisis; but, as Schofield noted, other factors drive a heightened interest in Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
“I am teaching a class on African politics this semester so we talked about [the] question of why this conflict is getting so much attention when we could look at wars all over the world that are happening right now,” she said.
Part of the answer comes with Russia taking a more prominent rank in Americans’ awareness of the world, explained Schofield.
“And Russian culture has more similarities with American culture and it’s a war in Europe, and most of us think of Europe as a pretty stable, safe place,” she added. “Ukraine is entirely in Europe, so this is actually an invasion of a European country which is pretty rate in world politics.”
When it comes to informing classroom discussion, the political science professor said she encourages her students to sacrifice the instant nature brought by social media reports in lieu of published news sites from different countries like The New York Times and the BBC.
“It’s tough because using social media and blog sites is that you get so much instantaneous information but obviously it’s going to be better to get it from reliable news sources,” Schofield said. “There is going to be a delay of information, but it is going to be verified before it’s put up.”
Other practical advice goes beyond the intake of daily news reports.
“I keep reminding my students that we are going to hear a lot about [Russian President] Putin and we have been hearing a lot about [Ukrainian President] Zelenskyy, but those are just two people at the top,” Schofield said.
“This affects entire countries, so look into trying to learn just more about Ukraine and Russia if you don’t know about them to just try to get a sense of what is going on.”