Four C's

The video, "Former child soldier Ishmael Beah recounts his past” is about how a 12 year old boy named Ishmael is forced to become a child soldier in Sierra Leone. The video is closely related to the article, "Teaching Kids to Kill", this is because both of them portray child violence and  how children can be influenced to do certain things. Ishmael forgets his identity and is forced to believe that killing is okay and if he does not kill, he will be killed. This tactic scares Ishmael and he is forced to kill people at such a young age. This is also shown in the article, "Teaching Kids to Kill" because Michael i is influenced by games that killing is okay and it is not that bad. In all, the connection that relates to both pieces is that children are influenced by other things, such as adults or media and are forced to do certain acts of violence because they start to think that it is right.


I believe that Ishmael should have not listened to the commanders gave him the option of killing or being killed. I do not believe they would have killed Ishmael and they would have let him go. If Ishmael and all all his fellow colleagues came together and did not kill anyone they probably would have not been killed. Thus, I challenge the fact that Ishmael did not choose the option of being killed because how can one live with the guilt of having killed another soul, I know I would not be able to live. I also challenge that fact that Michael picked up a gun and shot many people. It is not only his fault, it is his neighbours  as well because they left a gun so close. Nobody can say they shot people because that is what happened in a game, a game is not reality. No right child on earth would ever do such a thing.

A concept that really stood out for me is that children can be influenced very easily by anything, like by other human beings or by social media. Ishmael is influenced to kill human beings by other human beings, it is ridiculous. Children  are influenced very easily by others because they have a very small mind and they do not believe that anyone would do anything to harm others but this world is very cruel and they do inhuman things. In the article, Michael is influenced by social media and does impulsive things in a matter of minutes. In all, children are very innocent minded and believe that everyone is nice and everything they see is what they are supposed to do, thus they are influenced very easily and do crazy and dangerous things.

After listening and reading these two things, I have changed my view of children and some human beings. Children are so innocent and can be influenced so easily to do the most dangerous and scary things. The people who influence these children should be ashamed because they intentionally change young children's view of the world and take advantage of their innocence. I got to learn how mean some people can be and to what extent they can go to to achieve their goals.