Eight Steps for Peace Education
As the world struggles with increasing fears of war, terrorism, and other forms of violence and cruelty, the Alliance for Childhood offers the following brief guide for parents and teachers who seek to nurture the values of peace, compassion, and good will in their children's lives. It is easy to teach children about war. It is much more challenging to teach them how to create peace.
1. Make Room for Peace at Home
Outer peace begins with inner peace. Children and adults need special places that give them a sense of privacy and peace, and that can serve as a quiet refuge for times when hurt or angry feelings might lead to violent words or actions. It could be a room or just a corner, decorated simply and lovingly, where any family member can go for quiet reflection or prayer, or to work through turbulent feelings.
2. Find Peace in Nature
Turn off the television and the computer and go outside. Take children for a walk or let them explore nature in their own way. The beauty of nature is a great balm to the soul. Children often seek out their own secret outdoor spaces, even if it's only a corner of the backyard.
3. Make Time for Creative Play
Young children need plenty of time for unstructured, creative play. Research indicates that make-believe social play in particular reduces aggression and increases empathy in children. Children also use make-believe play with others to work through feelings of fear and sadness. Choose children's toys carefully, avoiding those that encourage or glorify violence. Teachers Resisting Unhealthy Children's Entertainment (www.truceteachers.org) prepares an annual guide to help parents choose good toys. The Lion and Lamb Project (www.lionlamb.org) focuses on how to avoid toys of violence.
4. Engage Children's Hands and Hearts
Young children need a direct, hands-on experience of giving. They love to make things, small and large-their own cards, tree ornaments, cookies, or bread-for neighbors, family, or friends. They can learn to enjoy sorting through their own things and even giving away some treasured possessions to others in need, if it is part of a family tradition.
5. Establish a "Family Foundation"
Create a homemade bank for donations -- a miniature family foundation. Parents, children, visitors, and friends can put money in the bank. Children can be introduced to tithing when they receive gifts, earnings, or allowance. Choose a charity together, one that has personal meaning for the children especially to give to. When there is a flood, fire, or other disaster, the family can gather to decide on making a special donation from the family bank. As the children mature, talk to them more about the needs of the world and ways to help.
6. Support Peace Education at School
Urge your early-childhood center or school to establish or strengthen peace education and conflict resolution programs. Contact Educators for Social Responsibility (www.esrnational.org) or the National Peace Foundation (www.nationalpeace.org) for ideas, like how to create "peace places" in schools, where students can go to negotiate and mediate conflicts and resolve disputes nonviolently.
Encourage older students to study a conflict-ridden area of the world, looking at it from two or more perspectives. When students read books and talk to people from each side, they learn that every conflict has many layers and that to build peace one must work respectfully with all sides. Resources for this kind of study can be found through the Karuna Center for Peacebuilding (www.karunacenter.org); Facing History and Ourselves, in which students learn about the dangers of stereotyping, prejudice and hatred (www.facinghistory.org); and the Public Conversations Project, which has resources for creating dialogues on divisive issues (www.publicconversations.org).
7. Face Local Needs
Help children become comfortable with the people in your community who need help -- the elderly, the disabled, the poor. Starting in middle school, students benefit enormously from working in hospitals, soup kitchens, animal shelters, and the like. Make sure there is someone there to mentor the young person when such experiences become emotionally painful or confusing. This can be especially effective for young people who are growing up in socially and economically stressed neighborhoods. The East Capitol Center for Change, for example, is a community-development organization in Washington, D.C., that provides mentoring, social activities, and job referrals as part of a comprehensive effort to prevent violence and gang activity among youth. But it also encourages young people to volunteer for community service themselves -- such as coaching younger children in sports.
8. Make a Difference in the World
Help young people find active ways of working for peace, the preservation of the natural world, the relief of human suffering, or other concerns, through organizations like Jane Goodall's "Roots and Shoots" (www.janegoodall.org), Larry and Jane Levine's "Kids Can Make a Difference" (www.kidscanmakeadifference.org), Craig Kielburger's "Free the Children" (www.freethechildren.org), or Peace Jam, in which students work directly with Nobel Peace Laureates (www.peacejam.org).
For more information, visit www.allianceforchildhood.net.
