Yes. In a word, yes.
You should talk about serious social issues with your child.
My daughter was sick this week and we were watching The Sound of Music. Until a few months ago, I had never watched this movie. I’d played its music ad infinitum in band classes from grade 6 on, but I’d avoided watching it. However, my daughter loves musicals, so The Sound of Music it has been, over and over for the past few months.
The Sound of Music is a relatively light movie until just over halfway through. It involves a lot of singing and dancing and a few love interests. Yes, there’s a discussion about family values, but it’s all done in the most musical sort of way.
Then there is the part about the Nazis. Granted, for a 6-year-old who does not have a lot of context, this part of the movie is almost as light as the other parts. Again, there is singing. However, the family also has to hide and flee from the Nazi regime in Austria and walk over the mountains to Switzerland to escape, since they do not want to be part of said regime. There are some scary bits in this part of the movie, at least for those who know what the Nazis did.
I remember when I first learned about the impacts of war. In grade four, I went to the war section of our public library and found a book of people who had served in wars and had been affected by wars. There were pictures of how the war had affected them physically. I was amazed and horrified by this book and would sneak off to the corner to read it whenever we went to the library.
I could have glossed over the part about the family fleeing, but I remembered how powerful my own discovery of war had been and how much it shaped the person I became as an adult.
When we watched The Sound of Music, we had a discussion about what was going on. Why did the family have to leave the country and walk over the mountains? Why were they afraid? No, I didn’t talk about all of the details of the world wars, not to a 6-year-old. However, we did talk about the fact that there was a man who wanted to hurt certain people. My daughter knows that you don’t hurt other people because of who they are or what they look like – of course you don’t! So she understood that the people in the movie wanted to leave so that they wouldn’t need to hurt other people.
Yes, of course this is a great simplification of global politics and the intentions behind a conflict. But for children who are just starting to understand the morality behind everyday interactions, it’s enough. Relating those broad social issues back to something that she understands in everyday life will hopefully help her make kinder choices as she grows into an adult.
Image courtesy of rolve at Stock Exchange.