The National Crime Prevention Council offers a variety of lesson plans for students based on grade level. I found one that is tailored to teach children in kindergarten and first grade the basic concept of conflict and the benefits of settling them justly and quickly. The full activity can be found here: http://www.ncpc.org/topics/conflict-resolution/activities-and-lesson-plans/conflict-management-grades-k-1. Students are asked to express how they would feel when a conflict is not solved fairly and to brainstorm ways that they can do so in response to a variety of scenarios. The instructor then introduces resolution methods and examples that accommodate the age group, such as chance, taking turns, apologizing, and sharing. The children are asked to brainstorm their own examples of conflict, which they practice solving with the aforementioned methods.

I believe this lesson plan can be used to teach children peace building strategies at any elementary school level. The examples of the resolution methods can be altered according to the age group so they can better relate to the scenario. Some children may remain vulnerable to bullying and violent approaches to conflict after first grade; therefore, reinforcing these essential methods can make a significant difference in a child’s life.

How this resource can be used to teach children conflict resolution

This lesson plan teaches fundamental character and behavior, such as fairness, kindness, and sharing as conflict resolution strategies and can be conducted in a normal classroom setting. Educators may thus find this exercise especially relevant when they are focusing on the Six Pillars of Character in their regular lesson plans. No special materials are needed for this activity and at least 30 minutes should be dedicated to it.

This peace building activity pertains to the skill building and nurturing emotional intelligence pedagogies for conflict analysis and resolution, which are the ultimate goals of this exercise. Skill building is established when students utilize nonviolent approaches to conflict, such as listening, recognizing and accommodating each individual’s needs, and negotiating a resolution based on the identified needs. Strengthening these skills at a young age will help students be effective in conflict prevention and resolution as adults, allowing them to identify a problem as it escalates and applying their skills to develop methods to subdue it.

By asking students to identify how they feel during a conflict that produces an unfair outcome, they become more emotionally intelligent. Children who can express their feelings and understand why they feel upset or content during a conflict may find it easier to be aware of why others are feeling the way they are and how they can better accommodate each aspiration, including their own, during problem solving. Students with a firm emotional intelligence may also be able to better control negative feelings that provoke violence. This serves as a gateway for them to integrate their problem solving skills into the situation.

Through this activity, students will ultimately learn to approach a situation with a positive attitude and with the intention of resolving the conflict non-violently. In addition, children who are introduced to peace learning strategies may be less inclined to engage in bullying and more likely to use peaceful tactics if a conflict should arise. Two stakeholders whom may be able to effectively apply this activity into their lesson plans are kindergarten and first grade teachers at a local elementary school and my former kindergarten teacher who now serves as a guidance counselor. I will reach out to each to raise awareness about the conflict resolution tactics that their students can benefit from in this lesson.

While searching for a topic to write about for this post, I stumbled upon the concept and field of peace journalism. With my interest piqued, I delved more into the subject of peace journalism and came across this video of young woman named Vanessa Bassi at the TEDxLAU (Lebanese American University) conference who gave a compelling talk on the use of peace journalism in Lebanon. Over the course of the talk Bassil discusses the nature of journalism in Lebanon (and the rest of the world) and questions why peaceful events receive less attention in the media than violent events.

Because of the complexity and nature of the subject, this video would be more suited for high school and college students. This video is more of starting point that would get students and teachers asking questions about the portrayal of conflict and peace in the media and how much air time and exposure each one receives. However, the video does not need to be show in its entirety and showing a small clip can be the starting point for a more general discussion in a middle school (12-14 years old) setting. This video could be used as a starting point and a supplementary material for beginning a discussion on the media and how it can affect our perception of others and the world around us.

Ways to Use this Resource

This video and the discussion that would follow would probably be best suited to an informal discussion or debate that would occur in a classroom setting. Because this video is on youtube and therefore available outside of the classroom, it can be watched before class and class time can be spent discussing questions like:

• What information was presented in the video?
• Is it applicable to our lives and how so?
• Can conflict be a good thing?
• What exactly is peace journalism? What do you think it involves?

This sort of a discussion would be part of a transformative learning process that would help students to question the world around them and the current status quo of conflict and peace in the media. It would be a good introduction to discussing what it means to live in a culture of violence versus a culture of peace and whether the media fosters one or the other.

With this video and subsequent discussion, students and teachers would touch upon the three of the seven pillars of peace education:

• Reframing history: Students and teachers would discuss why peaceful movements have not received as much coverage in the media and whether this has impacted whether or not people view peaceful movements as being effective. It would also help them question their own perceptions of others and what impact has the media had on their own world views.
• Exploring approaches to peace: Students would begin to realize that working towards peace does not necessarily mean having to work in a formal, government institution and that peace education can be applicable in any sort of work environment.
• Skill building: The discussion in the classroom would hopefully help students improve and work with their critical thinking skills by looking at the information presented in the media and how it can affect our perceptions of the world. It would also encourage the use of intrapersonal skills and prompt students to look inwards and examine how their own views about conflict and peace have been affected by the media.

Students and teachers who use this resource can benefit from the ideas it presents and the subsequent discussion because it encourages everyone to examine the role of media in our lives and its effect on our opinions. Perhaps this resource can also be used by prospective journalism students who, understanding the effect of media on our daily lives, are looking to use their skills and potential careers in a way that has a positive effect on their communities- much like Vanessa Bassil did.

POSTED ON BEHALF OF KATIE KASSOF

“Strange Days on Planet Earth”, a special miniseries produced by National Geographic for PBS, explains the interconnectedness of natural and made-made systems on earth in an easy to understand way.  It’s formatted a bit like a detective show starting with a problem, like an increase in baboon population in Ghana, and traces it backwards to the root cause, like over fishing in our oceans.  Many global problems are explored.  Ultimately the show provides an excellent explanation of the ripple effect, something that happens in one part of the earth can have severe effects somewhere else entirely.  Two episodes are available on Netflix Streaming and the entire series (two seasons with six total episodes) is available for purchase from PBS online.  There are educational resources available for middle school aged students on the PBS website as well.

The way I envision using this film, though, is with a high school environmental science class, documentary film class, or combination thereof.  I think that by focusing on this film with an older group of students, we can delve deeper into the educational content as well as the communication styles employed by the movie.

This film will be watched as inspiration for a one to two month production project.  Since the film explores a problem and works backward to the cause of the problem, then gives viewers a solution to the problem, this is an excellent opportunity for the students to recreate the template.  They will research a local environmental problem of their choice, becoming an expert in the problem, its cause and steps to overcome said problem, and develop relationships with people working on the solution.  Then they will develop a targeted communication plan including determining their target audience, the format of their film, and writing the script.  Finally, they will create a 3-5 minute documentary which will explain the cause and effects of their chosen problem and present at least one solution.  Expanding the project might include creating other materials to go with the film such as a website, call to action event in cooperation with a non-profit in the area, or a screening of the film for the community.

This project will engage multiple intelligences by having the students involved in every aspect of the production process as well as building skills necessary for effective communication of a problem, good research habits, and technical film skills.

POSTED ON BEHALF OF AUDREY VAN GILDER

Thinking back to my own elementary and middle school experiences, I’m becoming more aware of the shortcomings of my school district’s health education approach. While it was no doubt better than some programs found in public schools (health classes were either required electives or part of the curriculum for several middle school years), simply inserting a tsunami of information into a school day filled with many other educational priorities is usually ineffective. Specifically, my health education about drug use and abuse was limited, outdated, often unrealistic and – generally – not part of a peace-promoting curriculum.

The consequences of such programs become clear later in a child’s education, when exposure to drugs and alcohol is more common. Among certain communities, a resurgence of drug abuse has many concerned about the necessity of reforming health education programs to be more holistic, inclusive and – although it’s not always stated explicitly – part of broader peace-based curricula. This UNICEF manual for educators provides an excellent guide to developing such a program:

http://www.unicef.org/lifeskills/files/DrugUsePreventionTrainingManual.pdf

It is general enough that educators can adapt or excerpt it to their needs, but also very thorough and based on self-evaluation, skills development, and reflection. I envision American middle and high schools reworking their health education programs to take into greater account the realities of learners’ communities, pressures put on young people by society, as well as the own self-determination, problem-solving capability and autonomy of students.

I think there are great opportunities to encourage introspection and creativity within drug education programs. Young students aren’t clueless; even if drug abuse is not of huge concern to them or their particular community, attitudes toward drugs and alcohol definitely change over time, and early drug education programs must take into account this transformation. This video was created by students at my friend’s high school to directly confront drug abuse in the community with honesty and reflection: http://www.neuquaondrugs.org/

A program called CASASTART addresses this by assessing risk, basing its programs on the fact that young people who lack human and social support systems are more likely to continue and intensify substance abuse that may not be as much of a danger to young people with those systems in place. You can read more about CASASTART and many, many other alternatives to health education programs here: http://www2.potsdam.edu/hansondj/Controversies/20070111184521.html.

Two of the pillars of peace education that such an initiative will address are community building and transforming conflict nonviolently. First, a realistic peace-based drug education curriculum can’t exist within a vacuum, as I believe mine did. Honesty and pragmatism is required on the teacher’s part, as is a safe learning space and strong sense of community within the classroom. Second, if drug use and abuse is understood as a likely conflict that young people will face, steps can be taken to transform that potential for conflict – and to avoid all the other conflicts that can follow drug abuse – before it even happens. If students are encouraged to be self-aware and resilient, and have a more holistic, peaceful, and informed idea of how they might react to drugs in real life, the dangers of drug abuse in a community will be lessened.

POSTED ON BEHALF OF MARG BRENNAN

One of my most memorable experiences while I was a Peace Corps Volunteer in Guinea was definitely participating in Girls’ Conference, which brings together teenage girls from each region of Guinea for several days of topics, ranging from women’s rights and roles, to education, to family planning and STDs, to female genital mutilation, to study and organizational skills, to nutrition, etc. A more specific description of girls’ and boys’ conferences can be seen through the Friends of Guinea website, which is mainly run by Returned Peace Corps Volunteers and family members of current volunteers:

http://www.friendsofguinea.org/projects/gender_conferences.shtml

The video link below is from when I was a volunteer in 2009 and highlights some of the activities. Although this was not the regional conference that I participated in, it’s a wonderful view of the types of conversations and learning that went on at all of these conferences, and was put together by one of the volunteers at the conference:

The sensitizations at the end, although only in the video for a short time, were some of the most important trainings, as these girls go back to their communities and lead their own sessions and trainings with community members. The topics that were covered were things that Guinean girls often don’t ever get the chance to talk about, period, let alone educate others on.

This worked best in an educational setting as gender specific (both the boys and girls were much more easy about opening up and being honest about how they felt concerning all the issues that we discussed) and for at least middle school aged girls, although I would say high school aged is better, as they really have the capacity to have an understanding and strong opinion of all that is discussed.

The knowledge, skills and attitudes that I got to watch the girls develop over the course of the conference was amazing. Many of them had very strong opinions on the subjects, but had never been given the opportunity to have their opinions heard. The girls bonded with each other and really worked together to develop the skills necessary to be able to teach what they learned to someone else.

I had a tough time really choosing two pillars of peace that were the most applicable, but reframing history and skill building are definitely very supported by this event. These girls are living in a culture that is extremely male dominated: throughout every year in high school and college, the percent of female students decreases; several of my 9^th and 10^th grade students dropped out of school to be married (often as someone’s third or fourth wife) while I was teaching. There are about ½ as many literate adult females as males. Most girls are circumcised when they are children by absolutely no choice of their own. These girls were incredibly inspiring to me, as they had grown up experiencing what we would call extreme injustices and sincerely wanted to be part of a positive shift in the role they played in their country.  These girls also left the conference in general with an increased sense of confidence in their own ability to lead and teach. I facilitated a girls’ club that the girls I took to the conference were a part of. When they returned from the conference, they organized a series of plays that they performed in our community building for our town. They took what they learned and transformed it into a performance that both children and adults came to watch and understand. Watching how confident they were in their ability to pass along what they had learned was incredible to see.

POSTED ON BEHALF OF MARIA SCHNEIDER

Saturday September 29th of this year, several AU students and a GW student volunteered to work with 70 DC kids on the Chesapeake Bay in Maryland for the day. The day was divided into different workshops: canoeing/kayaking, forestry, marine life, and art with nature. This day-long retreat was the kick-of event for the What’s Good in My Hood? Initiative that will take place at several community centers across the city, those being: Lafayette, Keilworth-Parkside, Harrison, Macomb, Trinidad, Benning Stoddert, Bald Eagle, Ferebee-Hope Recreation Centers, Palisades Community Center and Chevy Chase Playground. Click here for more information!

I was first introduced to the What’s Good in My Hood? program at the beginning of September when I was put in contact with Sean Miller, an American University adjunct faculty who teaches a course titles DC Healthy Schools in the School of Teaching and Health. Sean along with several staff at the Department of Parks and Recreation staff in DC have started this program in the District of Columbia through various recreation centers across the city to increase environmental awareness, love of the outdoors, and to empower elementary and middle school youth to be active within their own communities.

This DC program is similar to the New York Restoration Project’s What’s Good in My Hood? program that DC native Akiima Price talks about in this short introductory video.

The What’s Good… program is one that can be implemented with students of various ages ranging from young elementary school through high school. Though the current program is aimed at kids ages 9-13, it could be altered easily to accommodate older or younger youth with slightly different projects, and/or more complex themes and discussions. The New York Restoration Project’s What’s Good in My Hood? Workbook can be found here and downloaded for free to bring the innovative program to any urban community through a Peace Education initiative, school program, or community organized one as well!

Through the program students would gain valuable knowledge about the unique aspects of their own communities, natural and not-so-natural resources, living versus non-living parts of where they live, where they get their food and water, and most importantly how to stay involved, voice concerns, and take action for change within their own neighborhoods through community advocacy and writing to local, state, and national legislators.

The What’s Good in My Hood? program most fully supports the Community Building and the Exploring Approaches to Peace pillars of Peace Education. Community Building is key, because not only are program participants getting to know one another throughout the process, but they are exploring their own community spaces, and working together to create more accountable and responsible community members. Students explore approaches to peace in the way that they take action collectively through advocacy and various student-led initiatives towards the end of the program process in step five that Akiima Price describes in the video—Don’t Shout, Speak Out.

During our class on 09-19-12 we explored Ian Harris’ strategies for peace.  The class broke up into groups based on which strategy for peace they felt most aligned with their worldview.  Each groups was then tasked with creating a visual representation of that strategy.  Here is what we created.  The discussions of the artistic creations were quite enlightening.

Peace Through Sustainability

Peace through Politics (Institutions)

Peace through Justice

Peace through Transformation

As we have learned in class, peace education is possible in many different venues, areas, as well as ways. But, one area that we may not even consider are places close to home. By this I mean our own campus at Mason! On the Prince William Campus there is a great tool that can be used for peace education called The EDGE. It is defined as an hands-on experiential learning, team building, and organizational training in the Northern Virginia/DC area.

The EDGE is a tool that could be used for any subject, age level or community, and it can also be used in a formal or informal setting. The staff at The EDGE is able to customize the experience based on the audience, and due to this dynamic feature it is able to be applied to a wide variety of educational settings. There are four main categories that groups are described as for their training: Professional, University, School, and Community.

• For the Professional groups, the focus is on developing as individual professionals, growing as high functioning teams, and excelling as innovative organizations through the use of team building programs, professional development workshops, and consulting relationships.
• For the University groups, the focus is on applying what is learned to everyday activities. This is done through experiences that will evolve into clear and effective communication, trust and relationship building, self-awareness, and a powerful shared experience.
• For the School groups, the focus is on experiential learning done in small groups with facilitators who help students with the learning process through challenge course activities and the development of their thought processes as well.

• For the Community groups, the focus is to “challenge members of the global community to better understand themselves, those around them, and their world by using innovative approaches that educate, inspire and empower.” This is done through various activities based on the Community Education program.

The overall goal of The EDGE is within their Mission Statement:

The EDGE challenges the members of the global community to better understand themselves, those around them, and their world by using innovative approaches that educate, inspire and empower.

The EDGE provides programs that will:

• Energize your team with active and engaging programs
• Develop skills for effective communication, collaboration and problem solving
• Grow individual and group leadership functions through practical experience
• Excel at identifying and capitalizing on your strengths for profound transformation

From personal experience, I have seen the effectiveness of The EDGE when I went there one Sunday afternoon with the National Pan-Hellenic Council members from Mason. We worked on building trust and an overall sense of community through out the afternoon in small groups. Even though all of our internal issues of the NPHC were not fixed in that one afternoon, it was definitely a foundation for what we have become today.

For more information, please be sure to visit the website: http://www.edgeatmason.com/