Let me begin by saying that I am a pacifist. I do not believe in war or preparing for war. I grew up in a very military family. My father was in the army and spent 3.5 years in a Japanese prison camp during World War II. My older brother was shot in Viet Nam and still suffers from the injuries he received in 1970 as a marine. My younger brother spent 20 years in Korea serving in the army. It has been so hard for me to teach my son anything about war. I have avoided it as much as possible. Yet I know that he needs to about war and the reasons why we have fought in wars. My son has told me several times, "How can I know why I am against war if I never learn anything about war."

Today I bit the bullet and took my son for a tour to a US Naval Museum. We were blessed with a wonderful tour guy. He told me that he was fascinated with the military but he decided to study war throughout history and not participate in it. He has a PhD in history. I don't think I have ever met anyone who had as much knowledge of his topic as this guy did. And he could relate so well to the kids. He took his time to explain things so even the youngest child in our group could understand.

Pete talked about all the training that it took to work on a submarine. He demonstrated how to get in to the tiny bunks which was pretty hard for him at 6 feet tall. Most of the sailors who slept in those bunks were 5 feet tall or less. He talked about how good the food was for the people who lived and worked on a submarine. A good chef was the most important member of the crew. Pete taught the kids how to escape from a submarine if it was sinking. One of the things my son was impressed with was that it was very easy to explode your lungs if you came up out of the sub too fast. Many people died trying to escape by rising to the surface too quickly.

My son has decided that he definitely does not want to spend any time on a submarine. He still wants to learn more about war. I am signing him up for a series of classes that start next month to learn about the Civil War. We will slowly be learning more and more about war and it's place in our history.

Do you you have a subject that you just can't teach? How do you work with this when you know your children need to learn about him?