The Hamas Israeli War

Thinking about this conflict and how to approach it with students, I've leaned on two OER resources -- The Danger of a Single Story and Benedict Anderson's concept of the nation being an "imagined community" -- as a way of understanding the conflict. I'm wondering if other teachers had success using these concepts as a way to frame the discussion and develop student thinking of a complex issue.

 Curtis Greeley Anne Koschmider Bryan Dibble Todd Nussen Adam Esrig 

Hi John Vidoli  I'm certainly not touching it the war in my classroom. If anything I try to subtly discuss this in the context of the human story - in BHP and WHP that we're all homo sapiens made up of the same genetic and biological material - and that the differences between us are conceived by humans making choices to construct national identities. I hope in some small ways this brings more students together rather than driving us apart. It sounds like with the Danger of the Single Story and Imagined Communities you  are taking a similar angle and I  think that's the right one. 

There have been some assertions in my school community that the conflict is "not that complicated" and that we should be "teaching Palestine by just presenting the facts. " I couldn't disagree more. For me, there are too many competing narratives at play here, and they're all fraught with emotion and speak to our very identities. This is not just the case for my students - many of whom are Palestinian and come from other Arab countries - but also for me as I have a lot of family in Israel. For that reason I am very much continuing on with Origins Era 4. I hope that by simply sticking to great social studies instruction that my students will aquire the skills they need to accurately and thoughtfully analyze world events like this for themselves. 

Hi John Vidoli  I'm certainly not touching it the war in my classroom. If anything I try to subtly discuss this in the context of the human story - in BHP and WHP that we're all homo sapiens made up of the same genetic and biological material - and that the differences between us are conceived by humans making choices to construct national identities. I hope in some small ways this brings more students together rather than driving us apart. It sounds like with the Danger of the Single Story and Imagined Communities you  are taking a similar angle and I  think that's the right one. 

There have been some assertions in my school community that the conflict is "not that complicated" and that we should be "teaching Palestine by just presenting the facts. " I couldn't disagree more. For me, there are too many competing narratives at play here, and they're all fraught with emotion and speak to our very identities. This is not just the case for my students - many of whom are Palestinian and come from other Arab countries - but also for me as I have a lot of family in Israel. For that reason I am very much continuing on with Origins Era 4. I hope that by simply sticking to great social studies instruction that my students will aquire the skills they need to accurately and thoughtfully analyze world events like this for themselves. 

Adam Esrig , I am fortunate, in a way, that discussions around this conflict is a lot less fraught at my school. This gives me some more latitude in having discussions. I agree with the approach you are taking. Helping students see the humanity of those on the other side would seem to be a prime responsibility. Maybe it's a way for students to examine those many competing narratives without planting a flag, as it were, on a position. 

That sounds about right, John Vidoli  Sometimes working in a community where there is less at stake (in all kinds of ways - politically, economically, spiritually, emotionally) allows you to take a step back and really maybe try to unravel this thing. In my school community I think we're working more on just trying to preach holding humanity as the task of the day - not letting our emotions and anger get the best of us.