How one Somerville teacher is explaining Russia's invasion of Ukraine to her students

As the fighting in Ukraine wears on, parents and teachers are faced with explaining the situation to their kids and to their students. Somerville High School history teacher Beatriz Thomas spoke with GBH’s Judie Yuill on All Things Considered to discuss her approach. This transcript has been edited for clarity.

Judie Yuill: So how old are the kids you're teaching?

Beatriz Thomas: I mainly teach ninth-graders. I do teach some upperclassmen as well, but the majority of my students are ninth-graders.

Yuill: What kinds of questions are you getting from your students?

Thomas: I'm getting a large range of questions. I'm looking at some that I got Tuesday. I mean, I have questions from when or if the United States will get involved to what is the purpose of NATO? How can the Ukrainians stop the Russian forces? So my students are really running the gamut of what they're asking about.

Yuill: So it's an interesting mix of past history and things that have already been established and something that, at least for Ukraine, is unprecedented.

Thomas: Yeah, absolutely. And I mean, kids are coming in with a wide range of background knowledge, some completely unaware and some with a decent amount of at least regional understanding of the Soviet Union and such.

Yuill: I understand you devoted time in class to the war in Ukraine earlier this week. What did that look like?

Thomas: Yeah. I think coming off the February break to this huge change in the world, you have to pause and sort of put down the Industrial Revolution and really move forward and be like, look at what's going on.

So really, what I did for my lesson Monday was just an open conversation. What is it that really happened last Thursday? What questions do you have and how is this information being disseminated? Especially because for so many students, they're just on their phones so often and getting so much information from social media apps that we just also had to have that conversation of what does information look like on social media? We’re getting constant updates as adults through the news. How are we? We interpret it, but they are looking at their phones and getting information from Instagram influencers and TikTok stars. And what does that look like and how can you parse that?

Yuill: So you're teaching them discernment?

Thomas: Yeah, I mean, trying to.

Yuill: One major criticism we've seen of media coverage of this war is how it's been compared to other conflicts in other parts of the world. One reporter referred to Ukraine as a “civilized” country compared to parts of the Middle East that have dealt with war. So have you approached that with your students?

Thomas: Absolutely. We looked at a video showing reporters and the difference in how they're talking about past and current conflicts and wars in the world versus Ukraine, and also looking at the reporting of Black people and people of color attempting to flee Ukraine and how they're being stopped. So we’ve definitely had that conversation with students, and had a couple of students be like, "oh, well, I noticed that when it's been reported about my country or another country that I've learned about, I have noticed the difference in 'illegal immigrants' versus 'refugees.'" So they have already picked up on that as well.

Yuill: Now, another aspect of all this is anxiety over a possible nuclear confrontation. Even if that sort of escalation is extremely unlikely, I imagine it has to be on some students' minds, isn't it?

Thomas: Yes, it is. I have gotten some questions in class already about, well, Russia, how many? I got a question of how many weapons does Russia have specifically, and what would we do if they were to be used? So it is definitely on the minds of students.

Yuill: For the past two years, young people have been learning during the COVID pandemic. Many Americans say they're concerned about democracy in the U.S., and now this. How are they handling all of this? It's really a lot.

Thomas: I think unfortunately, they're digesting and they're processing in real time. I mean, we had online learning last year, last month with the huge wave of omicron, students and teachers being out for various periods of time. We were on vacation last week, and now this has happened. I think they're processing in real time, and some days they're coming in with just a slew of questions and information, and other days, it's me prompting them to say, hey, like, what are you noticing in the news? What questions do you have? And that was really the approach I took Monday with talking about Ukraine and Russia, just because I wasn't sure, right? We were on vacation last week. This is not a small news story. Let me just ask you first before you come and ask me questions just to gauge where are you all at emotionally? How are you doing with this? Because again, as an adult, I am very worried and attentive to the news, but also I can imagine everything that they've gone through now adding this on as well.