One Good Thing

Story of the World Volume Four covers the modern world. So we "get" to discuss things like the Civil War, World Wars I and II, and the Holocaust. (I know there's more to come, I just haven't gotten to it yet.) Harry has been interested in war history for a while--the planes and troop movements and even the weaponry interest him. But I haven't taught him any of the wars in depth because, hey, he's 10.

Today we read the chapter in SOTW about Hitler and the Holocaust. I let him read the first section by himself. It covered the attacks on different countries and things like that, but nothing emotional. I read the section on the Holocaust out loud to him after sending the other kids outside. I have to admit I cried. I've known about the Holocaust since middle or high school and I still cried while reading about what people will do to other people. I had to stop a few times to catch my breath or answer questions, so it took a while.

Harry wanted to know why people didn't do anything, why the US didn't swoop in and save everyone. He asked why the German people were okay with this happening and what happened afterward. I talked to him a bit about the people actually being worked to death. He is having a hard time with the fact that no one did anything. Except the Danes. Way to go Denmark. (I'm not being facetious.) We also talked about the fact that if we see something happening that isn't right, we have to take a stand. Whether it's something happening here at home or far away, we have to make our opinions known. I need to be better about that.

We listen to NPR in the car all of the time so he's no stranger to some of the awful things happening in the world. (I don't turn it off as much as I should, but I'm getting better about it.) It's just really hard to end a history lesson with the fact that some people are evil.

Oh, the One Good Thing I referenced in the title isn't that we talked about the Holocaust. It's that I got to be the one to talk to him about the Holocaust. I got to sit with him and read and he got to see how I reacted while reading to him. I think it does a great disservice to kids to study things like this academically while not allowing emotion to show. I'm thankful that I got to let my emotions show and that we could talk through them and talk about horrible things and what they mean for the world. Just knowing that horrible things happen isn't enough. If history is going to be important we have to allow our kids to see the that things affect the world and it's people years and years later. Even if it makes us cry.