Worried about the effect that constant images of war might have on the youngest pupils, teachers and advisers are making efforts to calm their students. And the conflict in Iraq as a moral or political subject is avoided as much as possible.

"We try to minimize talking about the war," said Cheuk Choi, head of Los Angeles' Castelar primary school. "We don't want to give the children fears about the war."

Something similar is happening in secondary schools.

"Unfortunately, many teachers feel the need to suppress their political views," says Frazier Cunningham, 16, a student at Sage Hill School, Newport Coast, in the south of Los Angeles.

"My daughter tells me there is really very little discussion of the war, as most teachers concentrate on their particular subjects," said Denis Meadows, whose 17-year-old daughter studies at Stuyvesant High School, in New York.

Many teachers have noticed that school authorities are trying to hold back a debate on the war, often in response to parents' or teachers' complaints.

In fact, two secondary school in New Mexico were suspended this week from their posts for refusing to take down posters by their students relating to the war.

"It had to do with insubordination for refusing to remove the signs and not complying with the district's policy on controversial issues, that says that any time you have a class discussion it's fine to have signs such as posters diplayed, but once the class discussion is completed you are supposed to remove them," said Rigo Chavez, a spokesman for school authorities in Alburquerque, New Mexico.

At the same time, Irvine Valley College in southeast Los Angeles, warned its teachers not to discuss the war in class after a number of students, including a girl whose boyfriend is in the armed forces, complained to management.

Discussing options on the war in their classrooms would be "professionally inappropriate if it cannot be demonstrated to this office that such discussions are directly related to the approved course materials," a head teacher said in a note to staff.

However, many feel that the subject of the war in Iraq should not come under restriction in schools.

"I wish there was more discussion about it in the classroom, as that's what democracy is all about, and it's a teaching moment while the war's going on," added Meadows. "And talking about difficult subjects is very healthy; the opposite, never being allowed to express yourself, keeping painful things bottled up, that leads to all kinds of problems."

"Principals and other administrators should also support the free but respectful and developmentally appropriate discussion of the war in their schools," said James Garbarino, an expert in child development and violence, and professor at New York's Cornell University.

Talking about the war in Iraq is especially important, according to Garbarino. The conflict, he says, challenges the usual practice employed in US schools of teaching non-violent conflict resolution.

"I do think the war, and particularly this one, can inhibit the progress of conflict resolution and non-violence programs," he says. "This may be the biggest challenge for the more sophisticated kids at any age: adults say resolve conflict non-violently and then (they) support pre-emptive war."

"This contradiction is painfully obvious as students view the US bombing Iraq," Cunningham said.

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