The Unseen Harvest:Educating for peace

in a culture of war

A presentation on peace education by Susan Gelber Cannon

cannon@ea1785.org

• Peace education aims to change an existing paradigm—acceptance of war as a method of solving international problems—to a new paradigm—one in which human rights, social justice, sustainable development, and creative diplomacy are promoted as effective paths to national and international security.

War wounds soldier and civilian alike.

These pictures of my father sanitize the war he fought in nightmares for 60 years.

The Human Cost of WarArt by J. Kadir Cannon

“War, it must be recognized, even for those who support the conflict…, distorts and damages those sent to fight it. No one walks away from prolonged exposure to such violence unscathed, although not all come back disturbed. Our leaders mask the reality of war with abstract words of honor, duty, glory and the ultimate sacrifice. These words, obscene and empty in the midst of combat, hide the fact that war is venal, brutal, disgusting…”

Chris Hedges (in a newspaper commentary, The Myth and Reality of War)

As a daughter, as a wife, as a mother, and as a teacher, I want to know why we are

allowing this as a society? In my classroom, I refuse to support the

myth of war any more. I want to teach the paradigm of peace.

“Education is, quite simply, peace building by another name. It is the most effective

form of defense spending there is.”—Kofi Annan, Secretary General, U.N.

What are we teaching?• “What struck me as I began to study history was how

nationalist fervor—inculcated from childhood on by pledges of allegiance, national anthems, flags waving and rhetoric blowing—permeated the educational systems of all countries, including our own. I wonder now how the foreign policies of the United States would look if we wiped out the national boundaries of the world, at least in our minds, and thought of all children everywhere as our own. Then we could never drop an atomic bomb on Hiroshima, or napalm on Vietnam, or wage war anywhere, because wars, especially in our time, are always wars against children, indeed our children.” --Historian Howard Zinn

• "We must inoculate our children against militarism, by educating them in the spirit of pacifism... Our schoolbooks glorify war and conceal its horrors. They indoctrinate children with hatred. I would teach peace rather than war, love rather than hate.” --Albert Einstein

Think. Care. Act.

• I have identified three imperatives in my teaching: enhancing critical thinking in my students, helping inculcate in these future leaders a heightened sense of cultural competence (the ability to understand and interact constructively with people whose backgrounds and beliefs differ from their own) and helping students turn moral thinking into moral action.

WHY?• 1. Adolescents, while egocentric and self-absorbed, have more anger

and fear about social injustice, international relations, global security, and issues of war and peace than we think they do, and these fears undermine their academic and social success.

• 2. Media bombardment does not help them evaluate information effectively. They need guidance to become informed and to help them think critically about historical and current events. And, they need the opportunity to express their fears and their hopes in a safe and supportive environment.

• 3. We must teach young adolescents about—and give them opportunities to become—exemplars of nonviolent, courageous action for peace and justice. This means supplementing textbooks that overemphasize military heroes and providing students with heroes of non-violence. It also means giving students the opportunity to ACT for social change.

• 4. Teaching critical thinking, cultural competence, and moral action—teaching children to think, care, and act– is key to the development of future leaders able to peacefully and productively serve their fellow citizens.

Think!

• “The Socratic love of wisdom holds … that to be human and a democratic citizen requires that one muster the courage to think critically for oneself.”

Cornell West, Democracy Matters

Columbus Conundrum

Question the myths!

Utopia Project

Your mission: To design an ideal community in North America from 1600-1700s. Everything you decide to do must be chosen because you believe it will result in the most fair, sustainable, and positive outcomes for all involved.

• “You can’t go back in time and change stuff, but it did make me think in a new way…”

• “I learned how to make a successful community, which we will have in the future…”

• “I learned that you need to think beyond…” --Student evaluations of the Utopia

Project

•“We had to use critical thinking… I would think of something and debate it with myself…”

American History Research Projects

The topics students choose are often lesser known stories of U.S. history. They respond favorably to the challenge: “My favorite topic was the Multimedia Project, because I got to pick a topic, study it for a month, and present the topic to my class. I got to elaborate on something I chose to study…It also made me think.”

Formal and informal DEBATES are another method for enhancing critical thinking.

Care!

• “Citizens who cultivate their humanity need an ability to see themselves as not simply citizens of some local region or group but also, and above all, as human beings bound to all other human beings by ties of recognition and concern.”Martha Nussbaum, speech, Wesleyan University 2002

• “Bullying is people calling names, stealing, occasionally beating people up. It usually happens at school during recess. People bully to get attention. He or she might be going through tough times, such as parents getting divorced. Bullies are just wimps who try and act tough to be cool. You just have to stand up to them. But, don’t be too mean—that means you’re becoming the bully!”

--6th grade boy

• “What is bullying? I think that bullying is a form of putting people down, being secretive to outsiders, making them seem less popular and pushed down. It’s not like it’s described in books. It happens almost everywhere, with almost everyone. In cliques and groups. Sometimes people can tease other people about nothing….Then everyone else will roll their eyes, giggle a little, say something negative, whisper or talk quietly about you…

• What can you do about it? Have a happy atmosphere at home. Make a list of things that make you happy. Talk to a parent who understands and knows all the mean things that people (girls) can do, and who knows all the girls and their parents.

• For teachers: Realize that these things happen, and if they do and you see it, talk it out.”–6th grade girl

Roll of Thunder, Hear my Cry

• How can reading literature help you understand yourself and others?

• Can a novel make you change?

• How do racial issues affect people in the story?

• How do racial issues affect you?

Race relations in AmericaAs a white teacher it is important to me to teach about race and other identity issues.

I invite guest speakers, and use books, movies, and discussion to help all children understand racism in the book, in the past, and in the world– today.

Heritage Interview

• “My father’s ancestors also embraced the ‘old-boy’ network, something of which I am not so proud. The ‘old-boy’ network is a system that let the rich, white, Christian children stick together and exclude people of different faiths and ethnicities… Even though there have been good people and bad in my family, my parents hope that I will take after the good people. They also hope, however, that I will not forget about my more oppressive ancestors so that I never become like them… This project has been truly enjoyable and quite a fun learning experience. I look forward to finding out more about my family.”—6th grade boy

• “Before having the interview with my mom, I hadn’t thought about how important it was to know about my heritage. Now I can understand my behavior, my traditions, why my granddad loves to eat honey and tarts (German tradition), and why some persons in my family have blue eyes (my sister and my great aunts).

• All the persons must know where they come from, it helps them to understand other people and themselves. Even thought we are born in a specific country, we are connected to other countries and different traditions through our heritage.”

-- 6th grade boy

How do racial issues affect you?

A black girl responds:

• “This was the first time I thought my classmates really understand some of the things I have to go through everyday. It made me angry, but after we discussed it, I felt better. I think we should read this book in sixth grade. This is the grade when racial discrimination begins…”

Can a novel make you change?

A white boy responds,

• “Children can’t change the past, but they can surely change the future, and the sorrow and sadness that the kids share will make the children reading the book unite and ban racial cruelty forever. Thank you for having us read it.”

Act!

• “We overwhelm children with all the suffering and evil in the world, but do we enable them to act?” --Sister Joan Magnetti in Thomas Lickona’s Educating for Character.

• “Peace education does not just mean a peaceful classroom. It suggests a learning environment in which students are acting to resolve problems, working with others, and taking on challenging tasks.”

--Ian Harris, How Children Understand War and Peace

Citizenship Action Project: CAP

Students change the world—one step at a time– by helping the environment, animals, and people in social action projects.

• “It was fun working with my friends for a good cause. We could have been sitting at home watching television that Saturday, but instead we were out in the cold having a lot of fun. Picking up trash was disgusting, but we helped the environment around us.” - Kati

• “A problem I am trying to solve is the endangerment of raptors, or birds of prey. This is a national problem because most raptors are endangered. I’m educating people about raptors, specifically a snowy owl I gave money to rehabilitate.”--John

• “I think it is great to turn something I love to do into a commitment for society. I would normally think a project like this is boring, and I did until Will suggested making comics for the homeless shelter children. I think it’s helpful for both us and the children at the shelter that we are working together for the greater good.” -- Graham

• “When I think about the fact that I sent a child to school, I feel amazed. I gave a child an education. I gave that child a part of their future.” – Sophia

• “Who knows, they can be the future leaders of the world. One thing I’d like to change is for more people to have life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.”

– Devi

There is more good in the world…

• “There is a simple way to avoid pessimism about the bad things that tend to pop up daily… When you think about all the little kind acts that people perform almost systematically, the good in the world completely outweighs the bad… Gandhi resisted fighting the British, despite their oppression and violence towards his people. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. used the same methods of holding back from violence, even when his persecutors used violence against him. Both leaders could easily have given in to bombs and guns. They did not because they are good people, and they knew that violence only clouds reason. Good still exists. It’s quiet, often acting in small ways, but its significance is a shout in an empty room. It fills the space, reverberating, never dying. It all comes down to how you perceive the glass—half full or half empty?”—Anna

I’d Rather Teach Peace

• “Over the years other teachers have suggested that I offer what they call ‘balance’ in my courses, that I give students ‘the other side…’ What I have a surety about is that students come into my classes already well educated, often overeducated, in the ethic of violence…I can’t in conscience teach the other side. Students have already been saturated with it. No, I say, my course is the other side.”

—Coleman McCarthy, I’d Rather Teach Peace

Peacemakers Class:

Nobel to Neighborhood

• “In my teaching I have always felt that it was the lives of individuals that made history real to students, and in researching the biographies of the laureates I was especially interested in their personal stories and why they did what they did. A chief motive for me was to portray the best of the prize winners as examples for the rest of us, especially young people, to try to emulate.”—Irwin Abrams, Nobel Peace Prize biographer

Websites for teachers and students: Teach Peace!China Today!

Life in the U.S. A.! And more…Visit my web page at

www.teachforpeace.org

• On my homepage at the Episcopal Academy, I have also created web pages to promote peace education:

• http://www.ea1785.org/Eax_FacultyPage.aspx?euid=1000

In The Last True Story I’ll Ever Tell, Iraq War veteran John

Crawford’s account of his experience of the war in Iraq, Crawford quotes Nazi Hermann Goering, speaking at the Nuremburg Trials after WWII:

• “Naturally, the common people don’t want war, but after all, it is the leaders of the country who determine the policy, and it is always a simple matter to drag the people along, whether it is a democracy, or a fascist dictatorship, or a parliament, or a communist dictatorship. Voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. This is easy. All you have to do is tell them they are being attacked, and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger. It works the same in every country.” —Hermann Goering

We must prove Goering wrong. Educate thinking, caring, and active citizens.

Enduring understandings about peace education:

• 1. Teachers teach peace in their manner, classroom atmosphere and curriculum. “First you have to love them…” – Avi

• 2. Peace education encompasses various categories including“global peace education, conflict resolution programs, violence prevention programs, [global] development education, and non-violence education.”—Ian Harris

• 3. Children benefit in the short and long term, and in academic and social domains, when actively taught about nonviolent solutions to local and global problems.

• 4. Effective peace education strategies are varied; they may be overt and separate, integrated into the curriculum (especially in the humanities and sciences), as well as part of the daily structure of the school and classroom environment.

• 5. “If we don’t teach our children peace, someone else will teach them violence.” –Coleman McCarthy

Why Teach Peace???• “Knowledge about peace, conflict, and war is acquired

during childhood and applied to the understanding of interpersonal and intergroup relations. This early learning is often the foundation upon which new beliefs and perceptions are formed…Education toward a culture of peace, however, is not an easy undertaking. Peace is considered a ‘second-order’ concept derived from the ‘first-order’ concept of war…, a passive concept which makes it extremely difficult to formulate activities which relate to peace. Whereas children have no problems when asked to ‘play war,’ a total lack of activity and blank stares are observed when children or even adults are asked to ‘play peace.’”

-- Amiram Raviv, Louis Oppenheimer, and Daniel Bar-Tal, How Children Understand War and Peace

The Unseen Harvest

Conversation with Irwin Abrams:

• Me: “How do I answer those who criticize peace education as being too slow to be effective?” (“What do I tell myself?” is what I really wondered.)

• Irwin: “We work for the unseen harvest.”

The fruits of their labor:

Chile’s new president, Michelle Bachelet was held in torture centers in the 1970s by dictator Augusto Pinochet. After years in exile, she was elected president of Chile in 2006.

Nonviolent lunch counter sit-ins led to desegregation of Nashville businesses over a five-month period.

Gandhi’s non-violent salt march in 1930 led to Indian independence… 17 years later. Gandhi’s teachings inspired the nonviolent American Civil Rights Movement.

Archbishop Desmond Tutu and Nelson Mandela of South Africa led the country to reconciliation after nearly 50 years of Apartheid rule.

Lech Walesa led non-violent movement for human rights in Poland over a period of twenty years.

The United Nations declared 2001-2010 The International Decade

for a Culture of Peace and Non-Violence for the Children of the World.

What are we doing to teach peace?

• “If we are to reach real peace in the world, we shall have to begin with the children.” --Mohandas Gandhi

Pictures from Canadian Red Cross: http://www.redcross.ca/main.asp?id=005172

Make a Plan to Teach Peace• 1. What will you keep?

• 2. What will you change?

• 3. What will you try?

• 4. What will you suggest?

• 5. Contact info?

Susan Gelber CannonEpiscopal Academy376 N. Latches LaneMerion, PA 19072 U.S.A.cannon@ea1785.org