The Butter Battle:
Teaching Peace to children in a media saturated world
Anna Yoder
April 2006
“On the last day of summer,
Ten hours before fall
My grandfather took me
Out to the wall
For a while he stood silent.
Then finally he said,
With a very sad shake
Of his very old head,
“As you know, on this side of the wall
We are Yooks.
On the far other side of this wall
Live the Zooks.”
Then my grandfather said,
It’s high time that you knew
Of the terribly horrible thing that Zooks do.
In every Zook house in every Zook town
Every Zook eats his bread
With the butter side down!
“But we Yooks, as you know,
When we breakfast or sup,
Spread our bread with the butter side up”
In this silly spoof of the cold war, The Butter Battle Book by Dr. Seuss has introduced the concept and escalation of war to children for years. However, this book is not alone in teaching children about war and conflict. Violence and bloodshed are plastered all over today’s media, shaping children’s minds in huge ways that many may not realize. Sadly, many parents and teachers do not bring up the topic of war and peace because they believe it is too much for their children to handle. However, thanks to today’s media, children are more exposed to it and have a deeper understanding of war and conflict then what we may think. The major problem though is that while the media is teaching children violence, there is no one teaching peace.
I cannot begin to account all the times I’ve seen children “playing around,” shooting each other with finger guns, or by lashing out by hitting one another. The problem is that children are constantly exposed to violence through the media, which causes children to respond in a more violent manner to conflict simply because peace teachings are not a main factor in their lives. The solution to this messy situation is to simply teach children that there is an alternative, peaceful way.
Turn on the TV today and I will guarantee that you will find some program that involves some sort of violence. Most of these shows are not geared towards children, but nevertheless, children are just as much accustomed to viewing these programs as you and I. Today, the connection between violence and the media with violence in society is actually stronger than the data that links cancer with tobacco. According to Author Anne Meyer Byler, “Ninety-nine percent of more than 3,500 studies on the effects of media violence have shown a correlation between watching violence on TV and committing acts of real-life violence.” This occurs because the media knows how to grab hold of our attention, emotions and knows how to affect our behavior. This is a problem, especially with violent programming because children often imitate what they see. This becomes easy to do when many violent toys made for children are “spin-offs” from violent programs. Using these toys, children are quick to act out violent scenes that they’ve seen in the media.
As children continue to take in more violence, they learn to respond in real life conflict situations with a similar response. Part of the reason why this occurs is because peace teachings are not out weighing children’s daily dose of violence. In fact, war and peace are not common subjects taught to children. One of the reasons for avoidance of war topics in the classroom and at home is that educators and parents believe that such conversation would frighten the kids, despite their seemly harmless war games. However, Author Miriam Bat-Ami found that once children enter kindergarten they have some concept of what war is. They also have real anxieties about violence, especially of being hurt, nuclear war, and having a loved one die. Even though children may not have the correct verbal understanding, they typically have some sort of understanding of what people can and do to each other. What is really frightening is that some children even have some sort of idea what it is to make war. Children are flooded with violent imagery and are daily invited to engage in some sort of war-like activity. There is little out there exposing what it means to be a peacemaker. According to researchers, Myers-Wall and Fry-Miller, “Children have many more concrete ideas about war… than they do about peacemaking as an active process.” Author Miriam Bat-Ami agreed as she stated, “what is missing in our children’s lives is the active, real, and meaningful engagement in peace negotiations.” As society equips the children for war, we are not equipping them with tools for peace and our silence in the matter is not helping. Journalist Colman McCarthy once stated, “If we don’t each them peace, someone else will teach them violence.”
The world is calling for violence and war, but to those who understand the peaceful teachings of Jesus and believe there is an alternative way have a much higher calling: to teach peace to children. Gandhi once said, “If we are to reach real peace in this world, and if we are to carry on a real war against war, we shall have to begin with the children.”
But where is one to begin in this seemingly uphill battle? Well, for starters we can be an example. Director Louise Matthews of the Lion and Lamb Peace Art center here at Bluffton University offered 3 aspects of how children learn peace from adults. First of all it is important that we model peace to children. Children are very observant of what we say and do and can quickly pick up on our attitudes. Secondly, we must teach the children the peaceful ways of Jesus and how to handle conflict. Adults must intentionally teach children kind and positive behaviors. And finally, we must live peace and provide children with opportunity to experience various peaceful aspects. Matthews stated, “If we want our children to appreciate all people, regardless of ethnic, social, spiritual or physical background, our habits need to show respect. We can tell our children and reinforce that concept when we are driving through poor areas of town, when we see things on the news, when we have opportunity to introduce them to various people, when we read to them and sing songs that show love and respect for all people.”
Children need to learn alternative ways to conflict in order for peace to become a real part of their lives. This can be done at home, but it can also be done in the classroom, which brings us back to The Butter Battle Book Author Miriam Bat-Ami told of story of how a teacher once used the Dr. Seuss tale in order to help her class learn how to deal with difficult issues. This teacher spilt the class up between Yooks and Zooks and told them to come to a solution of how everyone should butter their bread. At first they argued, but eventually the fighting faded away and changed to a nonviolence compromise. Their solution? let everyone butter their bread on the top for one day, and on the bottom the next day. The class then had the opportunity to practice their solution during snack time and then discussed how well it worked. Although the children in this case were not directly discussing nuclear war, the kids were leaning how to engage in dialogue and actively arrive at a peaceful solution. Bat-Ami stated, “Even learning how to compromise when it comes to bread and butter is important – learning why another side feels as it does breeds empathy and understanding and leads one closer to peace.”
Not only can we teach children by example at home, and in the classroom, but also we as a church have a special obligation to teach peace. 2 Corinthians 5:17-20a says, “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come! All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself though Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting men’s sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation. We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal though us…” What an awesome thing this is that we as the Church have the special obligation to minister reconciliation to the world. Peace and reconciliation are a real part of the Church’s mission and should be a daily part of what we teach our children.
So, finally, if we want to counteract the violence of our media saturated world, we must take Jesus’ command to “love our enemies” seriously and to be peacemakers. Not only that, but we must encourage children to do the same. So teach the children to turn off the violent TV shows, to turn their “finger guns” into open palms that encourage new friendships, and more importantly teach them the love and peace of Jesus Christ. Authors Jean Steiner and Mary Steiner-Whelan once stated, “Those who have known only violence, have only violence to give. When you teach kids gentleness, you give a legacy of love to their world."
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