Wouldn’t it be great if there was a day when people everywhere stopped fighting wars, and instead gave humanitarian aid? By Tim Wolcott Well, there is a day dedicated each year to the cessation of hostilities and to public awareness of issues related to peace. It’s the International Day of Peace, established by the United Nations […]
International Day of Democracy
September 15th is the International Day of Democracy. A good day to check out how democracy plays out in your own family, community, and school. When I was a child, I attended a “Democracy in Action” elementary school. In every class from kindergarten to sixth grade we voted – every day. We voted on which […]
International Literacy Day
Imagine not being able to read. You would not be able to text a message or send an e-mail. You would not be able to blog. You would not have access to the wonderful world of books. Reading is a human right. September 8th is International Literacy Day a day set aside by the United […]
Remembering Hell
Remembering Hell by Joan Koster What are you planning to do tomorrow? Get up? Eat breakfast? Go to work? Sixty-four years ago on August 6th, 1945 the people living in the city of Hiroshima were getting ready for their day. At 8:15 AM the first atomic bomb was dropped, killing 140,000 people in a man-made […]
CEASE
Does what we teach our children match what is happening in the world? In 1979 peace educator Peggy Schirmer and a friend walked into the preschool on Otis Air Force Base and told the teachers about the mock nuclear explosion to be set off at the Cape Cod base. The preschool teachers, like all teachers, […]
When Violence is the Answer
In light of the recent event in Aurora Colorado, it behooves us to re-examine the violent nature of our society where all too often the solution to one’s personal hurts seems to be go out and hurt someone else. Why? It’s on the TV, on the movie screen, in the video games: According to the […]
I really can’t, I’m no Mahatma Gandhi
by Tim Wolcott Do you really know Gandhi or even Martin Luther King, Jr.? You may think you do, but I believe that in some cases, we need to demystify our heroes so that we can more easily support their actions. Recently TeachPeaceNow.org was given a little book What Gandhi Says About Nonviolence, Resistance And Courage by […]
Summer Reading That Makes You Think
“The more you read, the more things you will know. The more you know, the further you’ll go.” Dr. Seuss Add these books to your child’s summer reading list and expand his or her thinking about fairness and justice. Psst…yours too. Baseball Saved Us by Ken Mochizuki Why do we play sports? A young Japanese American boy in […]
Building Bridges of Support
ONE stick – inconsequential… HUNDREDS of sticks – amazing! Last week we asked you to choose ONE thing you could do to make the world a better place. Did you choose one? Do you think it will make a difference? This Bridge of Support was built by elementary students at my school. After watching the PowerPoint […]
Do One Thing
What ONE thing can you do to make the world a better place? There’s an awful lot going on to be depressed about. Our last two rants addressed issues in education that will take concerted effort on the part of millions of us to effect change. Sometimes it seems so overwhelming, it seems easier to just […]
Occupy Education 102
Public education is under attack. We are told daily that there is a crisis in the classroom: Bad test scores they say. Bad teachers they say. But don’t worry. Corporations are coming to our rescue replacing public service with the free market. BEWARE When corporations get involved in the learning process everything becomes ‘commoditized’ or […]
Occupy Education 101
By Tim Wolcott We are all told that through hard work and applied learning, public education is the elevator to social and financial success. I believe not. There are two education systems in this state. Not public-private. One for the rich and one for the poor and they are both public systems. –Andrew Cuomo, October […]
