Young people and current events

I was eleven years old and in the sixth grade when the Gulf War began in 1990. I vaguely remember hearing about it. Seeing news snippets of it on the TV. My father never really spoke about it; at least not that I can remember. I was too young then to know what was going on.  I was twenty-two when the War in Afghanistan began in 2001. Much older now I knew the cause of the war, but I never read about it and got sick and tired of seeing coverage of it on every news channel for days on end. At thirty-four years old today and on the brink of war with Syria I am much more cognizant. I listen to NPR and watch some media coverage of the events. I have formed my own opinions about the civil war that has been waging in Syria for the past two years and our possible involvement to stop it.  

As I sit and listen to the voices from the radio and the reporters on the TV I know the two teenage girls I live with will have the same memory of this issue in Syria as I did of the Gulf and Afghanistan wars. They go about their business naive to the fact that our President wishes to initiate a targeted strike on Assad in an effort to instill fear and make him stop using chemical weapons. I asked the oldest, fifteen almost sixteen, if any of her teachers were discussing the current events of our Nation at school and she gave me a short "no." Undoubtedly  neither of them will read about this or hear of it unless we go to war with Syria. Then maybe the younger one, twelve going on thirteen, will read about it when she attends High School. 

In time when someone mentions the events of the past months teenagers now may feel compelled to look up what happened in Syria in 2013. I'm sure they will be like me and say  "I don't remember that." The memories will be fuzzy and hazy. 

Isn't it our job as adults to teach our children about the current events? Why don't schools share these breaking news stories with our children? They may not care. They may only be partially interested or not at all. Should we not make the effort to show them even if it does fall on a deaf ear?