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When I
walked into my morning Education class last September 11th,
2001, I was still in shock from the news. The 150 eighteen year
olds
looked just as numb. I made some general comments about my own
feelings, invited them to respond and then emphasized the
importance of understanding in
this time of angry confusion. In the subsequent weeks,
I helped organize two Teach-Ins on campus and committed myself
to doing more. Certain questions haunted me.
In times
of war and reprisal, how do we teach about peace? How do we
help young people manage their own
anger and aggressiveness when violence
is so prevalent in their lives, at school, in their news and
entertainment? When memories of attacks are raw and calls for
retaliation become shrill, how does an
educator--or anyone in a leadership
role who is committed to the ideals of a sustainable peace--open
a meaningful dialogue about alternatives to violence? How
does democratic decision making suffer when patriotism stifles
dissent? What evolved over this
past year is an effort to define the teaching and
learning that can promote peacemaking at both individual and
organizational levels. I’ve tried to identify how each of us can
develop the skills that promote
creative, nonviolent alternatives to conflict.
With awareness, reflection and a willingness to learn, I am
convinced that we can build a foundation for peacemaking that can
enrich every aspect of our lives and
help defuse the dangers in our worlds
both near and far.
Let me
give you a real example. For me, the killings at Columbine High
School epitomize the dangers when young people lack the skills
they need to manage their hurts and
anger, when teachers are preoccupied with their narrow curricular
goals and when there is no space in the school day for building
the kinds of supportive communities we want and need. Left on
their own, the killers isolated themselves and looked for answers
in the violent film characters they so admired. With a more
focused emphasis on the skills of peacemaking, I believe that
tensions could have been channeled into constructive dialogue long
before they exploded into bloodshed.
In any
school or college curriculum, there ought to be opportunities to
learn about deep listening, acceptance, empathy, consensus
building and teamwork, bedrock skills for navigating an
increasingly complex and diverse world. Every discipline can also
emphasize the critical thinking needed for mastering various
concepts as well as the creativity needed for exploring new
hypotheses. As teachers we can do much to develop this
intellectual and emotional maturity in students, requiring more in
the way of active learning, group projects and thoughtful
presentations and less in the way of passive learning, simple note
taking and factual regurgitation.
Since the
attacks of September 11th, I have worried even more about our
collective abilities to address conflicts in constructive,
nonviolent ways. I can only hope that our president, in
particular, will forego ordering any unilateral, preemptive strike
against Iraq and, instead, do what is necessary to get broad
support from Congress and the United Nations. Meanwhile I continue
to anguish over the bloodshed in the Middle East while
simultaneously hoping for a sustainable peace in Northern Ireland.
Through it all, I have often felt helpless, too far removed to
make a difference. Working with students here, however, gives me
pause for hope as together we explore various issues, noting our
areas of agreement while working through our differences and
developing our abilities to find creative, nonviolent resolutions.
Writ small and into everyday practice, I know that together we can
also build a foundation for respectful engagement of complex
issues on the bigger stages of our worlds.
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