Talking about the war

What is happening in Europe right now leaves us speechless, disheartened and afraid. Not just young people - old people too. The problem that arises in political education in such situations is speechlessness. In schools, it is the teachers and in extracurricular political youth and adult education, it is the teamers, lecturers and staff. No one really knows what's going on and everyone thinks: "We first need to read more and get better informed, then we can also deal with this topic as part of an educational program". But that's wrong. Even more reading and more information will not prevent the feeling of powerlessness. What is happening right now is a turning point. Like September 11, 2001, like 1989 or, if we still want to accept Chernobyl (which is now smoking again), like 1986. We can't wait until the fog lifts and we feel better. In political education, we need to start right now to help people come to terms with what is happening. Putin is all about disorientation. If we surrender to our own spin, he has won.

We also want to explicitly address all political educators: Nobody expects you to have all the answers in this situation. You are already doing an incredible amount if you open up spaces for shared exchange. If you allow emotions and check facts together. Talk to your students/the participants in your educational programs about the war. You will see that it is worth opening up this space - even if you feel unsure.

We will be working hard in the coming days and weeks to find answers and support options for you. But because many of you can't wait for that, here's just a few words:

If you want to talk to very young children about the war in Ukraine, we already posted some recommendations online yesterday:

If you want to prepare for the arrival of young refugees, we can recommend a very good analysis by the bap so that you don't have to reinvent the wheel:

If you are unsure about how to deal with the emotions that inevitably arise when discussing war, destruction and displacement, we have a good evening school play that we can recommend.

You can find our arts and crafts sheet on the topic of peace in the store

Every day we are currently recommending another opportunity to develop meaningful educational activities in the face of the crisis. The best way to follow this is via our FB channel