# Should Children Be Taught About the War and Military **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [May 24, 2011, 1:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-children-be-taught-about-the-war-and-military/582967 "2011-05-24T01:21:30Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 5\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![Hermitian](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hermitian/32/470_2.png) [@Hermitian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hermitian)\ **Post date:** [May 26, 2011, 5:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-children-be-taught-about-the-war-and-military/582967/61 "2011-05-26T17:52:59Z")
> [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](#): > > And that’s why, when we’re dealing with the social studies theme of “People who have made the world a better place,” we left out military figures. There are certainly some military figures who made the world a better place, and plenty more for whom such a case can be made–but, compared to figures like Gandhi and and **Curie** , it’s a lot harder to explain their contributions to the world in an honest and simplified fashion. If you aren’t into the war types, I find the selection of Curie a bit strange. You could argue that the first real application of her work was the nuclear bomb. Ya know, the one that blew up hundreds of thousands of Japanese. ---
**Author:** ![Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/left_hand_of_dorkness/32/7156_2.png) [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Left_Hand_of_Dorkness)\ **Post date:** [May 26, 2011, 8:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-children-be-taught-about-the-war-and-military/582967/62 "2011-05-26T20:06:24Z")
> [@Hermitian](#): > > If you aren’t into the war types, I find the selection of Curie a bit strange. You could argue that the first real application of her work was the nuclear bomb. > > Ya know, the one that blew up hundreds of thousands of Japanese. I have more faith in humanity than to believe you thought that argument through before posting it. ---
**Author:** ![Malthus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/85f322/32.png) [@Malthus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Malthus)\ **Post date:** [May 26, 2011, 8:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-children-be-taught-about-the-war-and-military/582967/63 "2011-05-26T20:17:32Z")
> [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](#): > > One person wrote the laws and wrote himself into the laws that way; another person simply works within a pre-existing (admittedly unfair) structure to do good. And I’m unconvinced that a commitment to democracy (eventually) is sufficient; after all, Lenin was committed to a system even better than democracy (eventually). It’s what someone does in the here-and-now that matters. Context is key here. Bolivar was struggling with a chaotic situation (which ultimately defeated him) lacking any traditions of the democracy he wanted to impose, unlike the nacient US - a fact he always regretted. Declaring himself “dictator” didn’t have the same connotations then as it does now - that was added by the “great” 20th century dictators and Bolivar’s South American descendants. Arguably, Bolivar is a less ambiguous figure than George Washington: after all, the colonial evils he was struggling against were much, much worse, and unlike Washington, Bolivar opposed slavery. I’d judge Bolivar’s committment to democracy as several orders of magnitude more sincere that Lenin’s. Certainly, he is mostly viewed by South Americans in a positive light. I’d have no troubles with a 2nd grade class learning of Bolivar as a South American historical military “good guy” - as “El Libertador”. ---
**Author:** ![Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/left_hand_of_dorkness/32/7156_2.png) [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Left_Hand_of_Dorkness)\ **Post date:** [May 26, 2011, 8:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-children-be-taught-about-the-war-and-military/582967/64 "2011-05-26T20:23:27Z")
> [@Malthus](#): > > Arguably, Bolivar is a less ambiguous figure than George Washington: after all, the colonial evils he was struggling against were much, much worse, and unlike Washington, Bolivar opposed slavery. > > I’d judge Bolivar’s committment to democracy as several orders of magnitude more sincere that Lenin’s. Certainly, he is mostly viewed by South Americans in a positive light. I’d have no troubles with a 2nd grade class learning of Bolivar as a South American historical military “good guy” - as “El Libertador”. I won’t argue heavily against him (but I think the comparison to Rania is way off-base). His opposition to democracy in his region, however reluctant, makes him somewhat ambiguous IMO, but I can definitely see the point you’re making, and indeed if we’d discussed Bolivar in depth (I honestly don’t remember anyone bringing him up at all, certainly a mistake on our part), maybe we would’ve gone with him. ---
**Author:** ![Jophiel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jophiel/32/66_2.png) [@Jophiel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jophiel)\ **Post date:** [May 26, 2011, 9:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-children-be-taught-about-the-war-and-military/582967/65 "2011-05-26T21:13:42Z")
> [@msmith537](#): > > I guess I grew up in a different era where kids played with GI Joe and ran around the woods with plastic guns (before they painted them florescent colors) yelling “BANG BANG I KILLED YOU!” > > I mean what do you think is going to happen? Your kid is going to find out about war, get PTSD and wind up living under an overpass? That they might get a taste for it and turn into Ghengis Khan or Hitler or something? > > I always wonder that these “horrible consequences” are that people think will happen. My sister decided when my nephew was born that she wasn’t going to let him have any toy guns, watch war stuff, etc. By age six he was completely into army things and wanted nothing more than an army-themed birthday party and presents. If I had thought anyone else in my family would get the joke, I really wanted to get him a [blue helmet](http://scrapetv.com/News/News%20Pages/Games/images-2/peacekeeper.jpg) for his birthday present. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-children-be-taught-about-the-war-and-military/582967.md?page=3)