Over dinner recently, I learned of my niece’s concern about her high school administrators removing the Kony 2012 posters that had been plastered all over the school. Kony 2012, a global campaign and viral video released by the nonprofit Invisible Children earlier this month, had fired her up and inspired her. My sister was thrilled to see her daughter so taken with a cause and so committed to having impact.
I suggested to my sister that perhaps the posters needed to come down so that teachers, students and families could take more time to learn about a very complicated and horrific situation. The recruitment of children into armed conflict is horrible and is taking place around the world. But at the end of the day, watching a video is not necessarily going to change anything. And learning solely through flashy, viral YouTube videos could be damaging.
A few nights later, I went to see what is now the highest-grossing American film of all time, The Hunger Games. This film tells the story of a post-apocalyptic world where children from different wards fight to the death in an annual televised event.
So what has this month taught our children? What are they learning about the African continent? What are they learning about killing, violence and children who are coerced to commit both?
In 2002, I co-wrote an illustrated book, Africa Is Not A Country, which chronicles 25 stories of children and their families in their daily lives around the African continent. I was motivated to write the book after more than a decade of speaking engagements and organizing workshops in classrooms around the United States. The questions, comments and attitudes about Africa I heard from our classrooms were troubling: “Do Africans wear clothes?” “Why are they all poor?” “What is the capital city of Africa?” “There are cities in Africa?”
We must be mindful about the knowledge and information we share with our children about far-away places. The images and stories children see and hear form their base perceptions of the world around them. The pictures and words in books, movies, games and even on maps help or hinder children in building a foundation of appreciation and respect for humanity in all its diversity. Moreover, what we teach young children about the world can inspire their future curiosity.
Children should be introduced to activism, human rights and the violations of human rights that ignite activists. In fact, participatory activism involving children has been successful. Red Hand Day, an annual event that draws attention to child soldiers issues around the world, is a good example. But if we introduce complicated situations such as the LRA as “stopping the bad Africans,” we set our children up to assume they can save Africa—or worse—that they should be the saviors of Africa.
Countries in Africa, like countries around the world, have human rights problems. Our children should learn about them. But it sells short our children’s intelligence and the good human rights work going on around the world to teach it in flashy, dubious viral movies. Why not teach what people in Uganda think about Kony 2012? Our children, and the world about which we’re trying to teach them, deserve better.
A version of his article was published originally at the Southern Poverty Law Center’s Teaching Tolerance website and appears here courtesy of the author.
A children’s book writer and career educator, Margy Burns Knight has received the National Education Association’s Author-Illustrator Human & Civil Rights Award for the body of her work with Anne Sibley O’Brien (TALKING WALLS and other books) and the 2001 Children’s Africana Book Award for AFRICA IS NOT A COUNTRY. In addition to her work as an author, presenting in hundreds of classrooms around the world, Margy is also a teacher and community volunteer.
Friends:
We invite you to sign up for our new mailing list, and subscribe to The New Civil Rights Movement via email or RSS.
Also, please like us on Facebook, and follow us on Twitter!
{ 2 comments }
Well done. I think this is one of the most important lessons parents and teachers need to take away from this campaign. Many parents as well as educators are afraid to squelch student's enthusiasm. I think it is better to be honest than have the students 15 years later realize their uneducated actions led to further cruelty in the countries they thought they were helping. Unfortunately, some negative effects are already being seen. The LRA responded angrily to Invisible Children for not mentioning Musevini's crimes and they are right, but it doesn't negate the fact that these two horrific sides are gearing up for battle and the ones who will suffer are the people who were supposed to be helped.
I do agree that kids need to be taught the right lessons, morals and facts about a situation. But I did watch the Kony 2012 video, with my parents and we did speak a lot about the situation and the facts. Shame on you for making people feel like they are ignorant and cannot try to make a difference. This problem with Kony has been going on for twenty years without anyone really knowing about it, and this video was made by someone who actually cared and wanted to see change. Yes, it led to negative reactions. Do you think the Kony group would enjoy seeing a video that's attacking their methods? Absolutely not. I believed it was understood that they would not be happy about it. But just because it isn't a walk in the park to get this accomplished doesn't mean we should just shove it under the rug and forget about it. The hunger games is violent. The entire point of the movie is to show how our society at this time could turn into something like this. It is not supporting that type of an environment, it is condemning and warning of it. Maybe parents should be able to see that, and then teach those facts.
Comments on this entry are closed.