War on the web: Iraq conflict teaching links

3rd April 2003, 1:00am

This is the war on the web. Word about the antiwar protests went round on the web, and the news media are sparing no effort to put background information online so we can all understand exactly which resolutions are being enforced and which bits of international law are being broken.

It makes a lot of sense to use the web to reinforce lessons or discussions about the war, but what sort of thing is out there?

www.rethinkingschools.orgwar
Hands Up for Peace campaign:nbsp;nbsp; www.messengers.org.uk
Massachusetts Teachers Association:nbsp; www.massteacher.org
CBBC Newsround : www.bbc.co.ukcbbcnews
A quick search on Google reveals a number of sites which have produced materials on the war. Perhaps unsurprisingly most of them are American:nbsp;according to Al-Jazeera’s website its English language service is currently being kept off-line by hostile spammers.nbsp;

Rethinking Schools Online has produced a site called Teaching About the War , though Teaching Against the War would be more accurate.nbsp; There are some useful maps, but this is essentially a collection of background briefing articles for teachers rather than teaching material for pupils.nbsp; It’s worthy but I can’t see it winning many converts.nbsp;

Much the same has to be said of Massachusetts Teachers Association site.nbsp; Some of the practical advice it offers will be of use to schools with children with relatives serving in Iraq, and there are some useful thoughts about taking media reports with a pinch of salt.

But the “lesson plans” on offer aren’t lesson plans, and the lesson ideas, like writing a play or holding a UN debate are not particularly original.nbsp; Resources to support the ideas would have been more useful.

Much better are the sites directly aimed at children.nbsp;The Hands Up for Peace campaign produced a massive pupil protest in Parliament Square with hundreds of individually-drawn hands (though one iconoclast sent in a foot) with anti-war messages written on them.

You may or may not like this style of campaigning, but it’s hard to quarrel with HUFP’s description of itself as a challenge to apathy and a call to consciousness.

Much more comprehensive is the excellent site from CBBC Newsround, the children’s news service of the BBC.

This has clear explanations of terms (including some I didn’t know), outlines of the background, sensible answers to some very good questions sent in by children, and some thought-provoking reports from children from around the world, including some Iraqi children in this country who have lost close relatives to Saddam Hussein.

They’re not joining the protest marches. There’s a lot of anti-war opinion on the site, but enough other views to make the children stop and think.nbsp;

Sen Lang teaches history at Long Road Sixth Form College, Cambridge

More Iraq website links here

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