3rd Graders and war [View all]

[d_r]

Last night after talking to a group of third grade cub scouts about "citizenship" I realized that there has never been a time in their lives that the USA has not been at war.

The things they said were so interesting - it was like they just assumed that there would always be people off fighting in war somewhere, that it was just a part of life that there would be some kids whose parents were at war, that it was a constant.

I was five when the US involvement in Viet Nam ended, and we weren't as saturated with media then, so I don't remember thinking about the world that way when I was in third grade. To me wars were things that had happened that had a beginning and end.