Just War Theory for Teenagers #2 Film Studies

In a previous post I introduced my lesson plans for my fifth year class on Just War theory and I thought it was about time I gave you a progress report. It took a little more time than I envisaged getting through the Principles of Just War that I listed in the previous post with the class-they just don't have a very high reading ability or attention span for anything that they don't understand so I reverted to the more simple Rules of War that are located on page six of the booklet. I printed out the text and we (eventually) read through them all. I had also collected a mish-mash of newspaper articles from the previous week to show them examples of the various rules in action (either being followed or disobeyed). If you have a data projector in class (lucky, lucky you) it's a good idea to use Google news and you can project them for all to read. If any of you have access to this weekend's Sunday Times Magazine, this has fantastic photographs of situations of conflict.

We also spent some time discussing civil war. Dundalk where I teach is a border town and my students would in general have more of an idea of civil unrest than the average Irish student. We talked about what "peace" meant and how it was a fragile term-how can you have a peace process and still have conflict? What does conflict mean to them? How has the "situation" (oh I've been well-trained in my PC terms and I can say that in a lovely Nordie accent too) in the North affected them? I did get a lot of "bovvered?" answers but at least I got them thinking about the fact that they might be oblivious and apathetic to the longest running civil conflict in the world right on their door steps.

I then looked at different approaches to war-more on Just War here and focused on the example of pacifism. One student was very emphatic that "all war is stupid and never works" and reckoned he was a pacifist. After some careful probing about his attitude towards Hitler, Saddam Hussein and various other clichés designed to get the blood of a teenager who likes Call of Duty boiling. And as it so happens, with an attitude like "kill the feckers" he might not be a pacifist! We worked on material from their textbooks (oh who writes these things, and have they never come across my fifth years!) and reached the dizzying heights of writing answers to questions in a copybook-this is achievement indeed for 5P and I made sure to boast in the staffroom.

As a reward for all the hard work we looked at two films to get a comparison and to look at the way the idea of war has changed through the years. We firstly looked at “Everyman’s War” (1999) which is the true story of Don Smith's heroic experience at the Battle of the Bulge while with the 94th Infantry.

As the seasoned infantry and tank units of the German 11th Panzer "Ghost" division move silently into position on the snow covered hills around Nennig Germany ,a battle weary GI and his unit stand ready to defend the small town, a key position in the Allied advance to win the war. Outgunned and outnumbered, S/ Sgt Don Smith struggles to find hope and courage against overwhelming odds in one of the decisive confrontations in the "Battle of the Bulge" during WWII. His squad of GI's of the 94th Infantry Division lay dug in on the ridge-line outside of town. No one in high command believed that German forces would attack in the sub zero temperatures and near blizzard conditions. As the pre-dawn attack comes, with communications down Sgt. Smith is left with no choice but to make his way through enemy fire, unarmed and wounded, into town and warn of the coming attack. Based on actual accounts.

They "kinda" like this and had a few questions-mostly about why people bothered fighting wars and why would people see being a soldier as a job or career? I gave out a handout with questions to fill in as we went along which I'll post soon once I get my feedback on them.

Just War Theory for Teenagers-Musings on my Lesson Plans!

As you might know, I've been teaching senior cycle Religious Education in my hometown, Dundalk since September and as such I've had to move away from my comfort zone of the Bible (no bad thing you might say) and have been dipping my toes in other topics. For the next few weeks, I am working on Just War Theory with my fifth years. The school I teach in is Catholic but does not offer RE as a Leaving Cert subject so my students do not have to sit an exam-just participate. This you may think would be a dream come true for an RE teacher-the freedom to explore and debate without the looming fear of exams. For those who have ever come across a teenager before, you will recognise that for most teenagers, a bit of a looming fear is the only thing to get them to do anything. This coupled with issue of ability and time constraints (I have two 35-minute classes a week) means I have had to juggle a bit. My lovely lesson plans go out the window when I have to spend an entire class either keeping order (if a teenager wants to talk, talk they will) or explaining something I thought would be easy to grasp.

I also went to some lengths to see what the students would like to study (within reason. Moreover, never ask what films they think would be suitable. You will never persuade them why you cannot in loco parentis show a group of 16 year olds an 18s Cert film) and they liked the idea of War and the morality of it so this is where we are going to explore. I spend the first class after the midterm "brainstorming" (oh the glamour of it all) to see where we might take the debate. I seem to have a great even divide of pacifists and war hungry Medal of Honour gamers and all in between in the class so I'm going to try the debate route (again being careful-one class cannot handle debates-the idea of one person talking without interruption is not yet a class rule but we're working on it.) They are also obsessed with the idea of "the Muslims" being at fault for everything and I have one student who readily admits to watching too many conspiracy theory videos on YouTube so this should be fun if nothing else.

While looking for some online resources I found some great starts for teaching the about Just War Theory. Trocaire has two Pdf resources on conflict Give Peace a Chance (This is an educational resource for post-primary educators on the conflict in Gaza. It contains information and activities to help you explore the issue with Junior and Senior Cycle students) and Bread and Bombs (An educational resource on war & Afghanistan for post primary teachers. Produced after the September 11 attacks in New York and Washington, this resource offers educational activities for the classroom as well as suggestions for CSPE action projects.)

Tomorrow I'm planning on working through these edited ideas of Just War principles:

Principles of a Just War


1. A just war can only be fought as a last resort. All non-violent options must be exhausted before the use of force can be justified.

2. A war is just only if it is fought by a valid authority. Even just causes cannot be served by actions taken by individuals or groups who do not constitute an authority sanctioned by whatever the society and outsiders to the society deem legitimate.

3. A just war can only be fought to put right a wrong suffered. For example, self-defence against an armed attack is always considered to be a just cause. Further, a just war can only be fought with "right" intentions: the only allowed aim of a just war is to put right the injury.

4. A war can only be just if it is fought with a reasonable chance of success. Deaths and injury incurred in a hopeless cause are not morally justifiable.

5. The ultimate goal of a just war is to re-establish peace. The peace established after the war must be preferable to the peace that would have prevailed if the war had not been fought.

6. The violence used in the war must be proportional to the injury suffered. Countries are not allowed to use force excessive force.

7. The weapons used in war must discriminate between combatants and non-combatants. Civilians are never permissible targets of war, and every effort must be taken to avoid killing civilians. The deaths of civilians are justified only if they are unavoidable victims of a deliberate attack on a military target.

to work up to the United Nations documents on peacekeeping and the Geneva Conventions. I will let you know how it goes!