Education in Times of War and Disaster
Introduction
The world is a dangerous place. Every day people all over the world are exposed to natural disasters such as tsunamis and manmade disasters such as war. In spite of this, life goes on. People need to provide for themselves and their dependants and often education is seen as a way to gain access to reliable and satisfying employment. However, normal human reactions to abnormal situations can pose a number of problems to the students who are affected by them and to the teachers who have them in their classrooms. This paper will attempt to present some of the issues raised by post traumatic stress disorder or PTSD for the student and in the classroom environment, especially focusing on the impact of symptoms on the ability to learn second and foreign languages.
PTSD is an incredibly common mental illness that occurs in people during or after a disaster or traumatic experience. Studies of children in Palestine have shown that in some regions during periods of social unrest as many as 98% of children from 6-16 years of age exhibited from mild to severe symptoms of PTSD (Qouta, Punamaki and El Sarraj 2003). At the same time, interviews with three generations of Palestinians living through the subsequent conflicts that have occurred in the region show that education is seen as the only reasonably reliable means for creating a stable life (Alzaroo and Lewando Hunt 2003). In terms of students studying English in unstable countries or disaster prone areas, it may be reasonable to predict that they might see learning English or other languages as a means of escaping the current traumatic environment or as a means of seeking better paying work within their current society. However, the trauma not only impairs the student but also often damages the social structures that are responsible for education
