Children During World War Ii
Garret Nelson
3/6/2013
A-G US History B
Mrs. Betancourt
Children During WII Reflection Paper
I learned a lot from researching the life of children during World War II. There were some things I presumed, and other things that surprised me. I knew that Jewish children would have been treated unfair during the war; because of this I assumed that they had bad education. I was surprised in the differences between German and American kids education. I thought that American education would be very important and controlled. It ended up being the opposite of what I presumed. Researching children during WWII allowed me to clarify a lot of thoughts and learn. I was very surprised with how the Germans educated the youth. There was an idea that I found fascinating: whoever controls the youth controls the future. After giving it some thought I realized how true and scary the idea was. The Nazis used schools to indoctrinate the young. Biology focused on explaining Nazi racial beliefs (social Darwinism). Religious studies lost time and in 1935 it was dropped as a subject. Education for boys and girls was different. Physics focused on weapon making. History focused on showing how successful the Nazis had been. Geography focused on the harshness of the Treaty of Versailles. Overall, the German education system seemed to be very narrowly constructed; though I did like how physics focused on actual physics and not theoretical physics. I was surprised on how involved American schools were with the war. Kids would pray in school for the servicemen and women in the war. Students also recycled items that were used in the school for the war effort. A lot of the geography focused on war also; students would put pins where the armed forces were. I found it really interesting that they would write letters to soldiers and families who lost their loved ones during the war. Most of the kids ate at school, because rationing stamps did not apply to
3/6/2013
A-G US History B
Mrs. Betancourt
Children During WII Reflection Paper
I learned a lot from researching the life of children during World War II. There were some things I presumed, and other things that surprised me. I knew that Jewish children would have been treated unfair during the war; because of this I assumed that they had bad education. I was surprised in the differences between German and American kids education. I thought that American education would be very important and controlled. It ended up being the opposite of what I presumed. Researching children during WWII allowed me to clarify a lot of thoughts and learn. I was very surprised with how the Germans educated the youth. There was an idea that I found fascinating: whoever controls the youth controls the future. After giving it some thought I realized how true and scary the idea was. The Nazis used schools to indoctrinate the young. Biology focused on explaining Nazi racial beliefs (social Darwinism). Religious studies lost time and in 1935 it was dropped as a subject. Education for boys and girls was different. Physics focused on weapon making. History focused on showing how successful the Nazis had been. Geography focused on the harshness of the Treaty of Versailles. Overall, the German education system seemed to be very narrowly constructed; though I did like how physics focused on actual physics and not theoretical physics. I was surprised on how involved American schools were with the war. Kids would pray in school for the servicemen and women in the war. Students also recycled items that were used in the school for the war effort. A lot of the geography focused on war also; students would put pins where the armed forces were. I found it really interesting that they would write letters to soldiers and families who lost their loved ones during the war. Most of the kids ate at school, because rationing stamps did not apply to