Hope not hate

"When will there be another World War, Mr Townend?" a child asked me yesterday. His question was clearly spurred on from a week of Remembrance activities where there has been much talk of WW1 and WW2. Added to that, we joined in the national minute's silence to remember the victims of the Tunisian beach massacre earlier in the year, and more recently, bowed our heads in silence during assembly to think of the victims of the plane crash in Egypt.

With that in mind, his question was very reasonable. Another child had asked "When will the Germans attack us again?" To an adult, such a question sounds ridiculous, but to a child, it is a perfectly logical thing to enquire about. In their understanding of movies and game sequels, we've had World War 1 and World War 2, so surely the third instalment can't be too far round the corner.

We spent some time watching the Sainsbury's advert from last Christmas - the Christmas Truce, where the British and German soldiers met in No Man's Land on Christmas Day to play football and exchange gifts. I pointed out that the German soldiers were the same as the British - innocent, young boys who didn't have a clue what they were letting themselves in for when they followed the orders of their superiors. I also told them that the story proves that even in the depths of despair, darkness and depravity, hope and love can shine through.

"There will not be another World War." I reassured him. "We live in a very different world now. In this country, we are safe."

This morning I switched on the news to see that 130 people had been killed by terrorists in France -  a country just thirty or forty miles of water away from my own, A country with highly advanced intelligence and security systems, like my own. A  country with similar values to my own. What's more, there wasn't just one attack - there were several co-ordinated acts of terror, and not one of them was thwarted.

"We are safe." I had said. Do I believe that today?

Children in primary schools have a lot of questions to ask. Many parents try to shelter them from the brutalities of the world, with good reason, but there is no escape from the truth in the classroom or in the playground. 

As a teacher, I have always seen my role to educate, not in a purely academic sense, but in a more 'holistic' way (to coin an over-used word in education circles.) That means talking openly about the problems and issues in the world to create a greater understanding and tolerance of all people, colour and creed - a message of hope, not hate.

My own class is 100% white British, which has its challenges. The world's issues may seem quite distant to some children. Others may be heavily influenced by unhelpful opionions of parents. 

I sometimes wonder how different my approach would be if I taught in an inner-city school in Birmingham or Bradford. Those teachers are on the front-line between hope and hate. There are forces at work that are trying to brainwash innocent children into being martyrs for a hopeless cause that incites violence and hatred. Those very same forces are responsible for the massacre in Tunisia, the carnage in Paris, and probably the plane crash in Egypt.

My message as a teacher, to educate those children, would be this:

Your faith is a force for peace in this world. Your religion and its teachings inspire so many people to share love and hope with a world that needs it. Whatever direction your life takes, make sure you choose to love, not hate. We all depend on it.