Common Core Standards and World War II: A Literary Veteran's Day Observance

by Pat R. Scales

President Dwight D. Eisenhower, a five-star general and commander of the Allied Forces in Europe during World War II, established a committee in 1954 to plan a Veterans Day observance. This day honors all veterans of the United States and is held each year on November 11 with a somber ceremony at Arlington National Cemetery. A wreath is placed on the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier and followed by a parade of colors. In 2015, the United States and the world will mark the 70th anniversary of the end of World War II. Victory in Europe occurred on May 8, 1945, but the official end of the war came when Japan surrendered to the United States on August 15, 1945. Some students may have family members who remember World War II, but most only know the hardships both at home and in foreign war zones through books they read. The novels presented in this guide give them a glimpse of the events on the home front in the United States after the bombing of Pearl Harbor, and what was happening in Europe and Asia before and after the United States entered the war. 

27 pages, Kindle Edition

First published October 28, 2014

About the author

Pat R. Scales is a retired middle and high school librarian whose programs have been featured on the Today Show and in various professional journals. She has also served as an adjunct instructor of children’s and young adult literature at Furman University and has been a guest lecturer at universities across the nation. A First Amendment advocate, she is a former chair of ALA’s Intellectual Freedom Committee and serves on the Board of Advisors of the National Coalition against Censorship. She is a past president of the Association of Library Service for Children, and in 2011 received the Distinguished Service Award. She chaired the 1992 Newbery Award Committee, the 2003 Caldecott Award Committee, and the 2001 Laura Ingalls Wilder Award Committee. She writes for Book Links magazine and a bimonthly column for School Library Journal. Her books include Books under Fire: A Hit List of Banned and Challenged Children's Books, Second Edition; Teaching Banned Books: 32 Guides for Children and Teens, Second Edition; and Protecting Intellectual Freedom in Your School Library.

Reviews

[Charles van Buren · Rating 1 out of 5]

Frightening in its implications for education

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This review is from: Common Core Standards and World War II: A Literary Veteran's Day Observance (Kindle Edition)

This book appeared on a list with other free kindle WW2 books. Vaguely aware of the debate over common core standards, I read the book. If this is a good example of common core standards, I am opposed. It is so bad, I hardly know where to begin. The link to the WW2 timeline at Duckster would be laughable if this subject were not so serious. If you read that timeline and do not immediately see serious problems with it, you don't know much about WW2. How about leaving out the Soviet Union except for one reference to the German attack in 1941? Of course if it were included, someone might wonder why they invaded Finland, Poland and others. Some of the links are almost as bad as the timeline itself but at least some information about the Soviet collaboration with the Nazis is finally revealed. Listed under Classroom Connections in the book itself is a link to the War Resisters Leauge. The instructions are to have the students read about the purpose and work of the league then write a paper drawing a comparison between their WW2 work and today. If you go to this site I hope they still have on display the info. about the 70th anniversary of Hiroshima and Nagasaki asking you to join in acknowledging the catastrophic wrong done to Japan. They also encourage continued opposition to Japan's reliance on the U.S. /Japan military alliance. In another posting trying to enlist help to stop Urban Shield 2015, they refer to the Apartheid State of Israel (their caps).

So far as the books which students are expected to study are concerned, they give a very limited view of the subject. They are: DUST OF EDEN, a novel about U.S. internment of Japanese Americans; SUMMER OF MY GERMAN SOLDIER, another novel, this one about a girl in Arkansas who hides a German POW; MORNING IS A LONG TIME COMING, a sequel of the preceding only peripherally concerned with WW2; SLAP YOUR SIDES, a novel about a Quaker conscientious objector and his family; YOUR EYES IN STARS, a novel, set in 1934, about a family struggling to survive the great depression and returning to Germany; HIS ENEMY, HIS FRIEND, a novel set in France during the occupation; and SILENCE OVER DUNKERQUE, a novel about a British sergeant and his men trying to escape France in 1940. That's it. All novels. The author calls this book a literary Veterans Day observance. Does Scales really believe these books honor veterans or does she just not care? I would go so far as to say that if a person knew no more of WW2 than these books and the information in Pat Scales' book, that person would be illiterate concerning the subject. This kind of nonsense is one of the main reasons I never pursued the opportunity to become a history teacher. Oh yes, the author managed to bring that bugbear, profiling into a study of WW2.

[Faith · Rating 2 out of 5]

If you're teaching a history class and play to read all the books mentioned (inside), then this is for you. If, like me, you thought this was going to be about WWII and how Veterans Day began, find another book.

[Christine · Rating 2 out of 5]

While in part an advertisement for the books mentioned, this does present some good ideas and activities to be used with students.