Lives of the soldier boys and girls a vital lesson for schools

Published on Tuesday 3 November 2009 20:46

A BULLET is smelted, filled, shipped, loaded into a machine gun and, ultimately, fired towards the forehead of a child.

This is the opening sequence of a film, Lord of War, but the subject of child soldiers is, sadly, far from fiction.

Hundreds of thousands of youngsters in the developing world are forced, sometimes through drugs, to take up arms in conflict zones and civil wars.

English teacher Alison MacDougal, from St Kentigern's Academy in West Lothian, believes the issue is a vital one that Scottish children should be learning about.

Ms MacDougal's interest in the issue was first raised when she discovered the play Little Soldier in a school cupboard but felt when reading it with her S2 pupils that they needed a broader introduction to the subject.

She said: "Citizenship is one of the principles of the new Curriculum for Excellence, and you have to understand what it means to be a citizen, looking at individual rights as well as responsibilities.

"We have things that we take as rights, like the NHS or benefits, but not everyone has those. What rights do all people share and are they always observed?

"You need to start at an individual level with a subject like this. Adults take empathy for granted but teenagers still need to be taught about social responsibility and empathy for other human beings."

According to Unicef, there are an estimated 300,000 boys and girls under the age of 18 involved in more than 30 conflicts around the world.

Ms MacDougal used character Mr Echo from the television drama Lost, and the Black Eyed Peas' song Where Is The Love?, to explore some of the issues with her pupils.

But she openly admits that she "knew nothing" about the issue before discovering the play.

A training course from the British Red Cross gave her some of the tools she needed to address a fortnight working on the issues surrounding the play with her class. And it affirmed her belief that international humanitarian law (IHL) belongs in the Scottish curriculum.

At a conference on IHL in Serbia she attended in August, other delegates were surprised the subject was not a standard part of the Scottish curriculum.

"I think we are very complacent because we are so safe," she says. "It's been 60 years since we have had a war near our soil. Even I am more complacent than I should be. Until we can address these issues in young people, then I don't think we can address citizenship.

"If we can teach IHL it would teach pupils everything about being global citizens and being responsible. They're very up on 'That's my right, that's my right', but not necessarily what their responsibilities are.

"English is a great subject because you almost always deal with social issues. But our timetables are really packed and I wish IHL was addressed."

Harry Blee, head of the department of curriculum studies in the University of Glasgow's education faculty, says the subject fits well with modern studies and could be approached from different directions, such as the reason for military recruitment, personnel selection, or studying the roles of children in different communities, from learning to bringing up families.

"There is certainly in my view some scope for IHL in the Curriculum of Excellence," he says. "As the curriculum rolls out, we would expect pupils to understand the main features of democracy.

"I think there's evidence that young people are more interested in issue politics than electoral systems. Children are interested in issues like this, and possibly less in how party politics works."

However, Sally Dempsey, humanitarian education co-ordinator for the British Red Cross in Scotland, says child soldiers and IHL can be an intimidating subject for teachers. She says entry points for pupils can include looking at individual rights in the UK and which of those are denied to youngsters elsewhere in the world.

"Pupils are exposed to conflict all the time in the media," she says. "What's key for pupils is being able to look at their own lives, the world they live in and that they are connected to that.

"Teachers need to show that these things are happening and give them the skills to think critically about them. And they need an outlet for action so they don't just feel disempowered."

There are two main components to the issue of child soldiers for pupils to consider: international humanitarian law, and human rights. While the British Red Cross uses IHL to examine war zones for clear breaches of law, Amnesty International focuses more on human rights that transcend written legislation.

Graeme McGregor, Scotland campaigner for Amnesty International UK, says the charity tends to frame the debate over rights versus responsibilities, for pupils, by rights taking priority over responsibilities. They use four international agreements, including the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, for the classroom.

"This is not about individual rights," he says. "It's about what it means when everyone has these rights.

"If everyone has the right to free speech, what responsibilities does that put on you?

"Rights mean different things to different people. There are children who have their rights impinged. You may feel the right to be free from violence is not important day to day, but it's important to other people.

"What's noticeable is pupils, and especially secondary pupils, can be particularly impassioned about human rights issues."

Learning and Teaching Scotland (LTS), who are responsible for the incoming new school curriculum said IHL and child soldiers were not part of the formal curriculum, but said the new freedom being offered to teachers allowed for it to be included.

Professor Kay Livingston, director of international, research and innovation at LTS, said while it wasn't a dedicated topic under the Curriculum for Excellence, international humanitarian law could straddle a wide variety of areas – including history, social studies, religious and moral education and literacy.

Prof Livingston said: "Some schools, for example Carnoustie High School in Angus, choose the issue of child soldiers, and work with non-governmental organisations in delivering information and experiences in this particular field."

Ms MacDougal, though, is emphatic that child soldiers and IHL should be part of the curriculum: "Young people are not given enough credit. Children can relate to the problem of child soldiers because they're the same age.

"Adults are better at closing their eyes to things. It's always easier to close your eyes to something on foreign shores.

"But if we let children go through school with those blinkers on, then they will grow into those adults.

"This is the best time to look at how we can include IHL in the curriculum."